hance the boys saw a man with a
moustache, with one accord they commenced calling after him, "Jew, Jew,
Jew," or "Frenchy, Frenchy, Frenchy," and, if that did not make any
impression, they commenced stoning the offender against the unwritten
laws of the land. In later years our barber at Wakefield was somewhat of
a dandy, and would, perhaps, have preferred being called a tonsorial
artist. He was the first to cultivate a moustache in that West Riding
town, and he told the writer with pride that in those distant days he
was one of the sights of the place, but his vanity had many checks from
the rough lads, and even men, of Wakefield. Before his death he saw many
follow his lead.

A teacher of music was the first to wear a moustache in Nottingham. He
attracted the attention of young and old, and was deemed a great
curiosity. The younger generation made matters lively for the music
master. Speaking on this theme to an old Nottinghamshire friend, with
whom we often discuss olden days and ways, he stated to us how he won
his wife because he had not a moustache. It appears another eligible
young man was anxious to win the young lady, but his character was
regarded as doubtful because he cultivated a moustache. After a short
engagement our friend was married in the year 1855. At this period the
moustache movement was making slow progress in Nottingham.

Mr W.P. Frith, R.A., published in 1887 an amusing "Autobiography," and
devotes not the least attractive chapter of his work to "The Bearded
Model." He relates how difficult it was to find a bearded model, and how
at last he discovered one. He says that in crossing Soho Square one day
his attention was drawn to a crowd of little boys, who seemed to be
teasing an old man in the manner of the London street boy. "Why don't
you get your 'air cut?" said one. "Yah! where's your bundle of old
clothes? Yer ain't got 'em in that 'ere basket, 'ave you?" said another,
"Let's 'ave a look. You're a Jew, you know; now, ain't you?" and so on.
All this, observes the artist, because the old man wore a long grey
beard, then such a rarity. The young gentlemen had mistaken their man.
He soundly punished two elder boys, and Mr Frith found he was not a Jew.
How he became a model does not come within the scope of our present
studies.

Mr Frith says that the head of a well-known firm of drapers in Regent
Street refused to employ shopmen who wore moustaches, or men who parted
their hair down the middl