he
high-crowned things of Henry III. of France, and James I. of England,
to the graceful beavers of Louis XIII., Philip III., and Charles I. of
England; the change was all in favour of the beaver; and certainly the
hat reached its culminating point of excellence during the reign of
our martyr king. Who has studied the splendid portraits of Vandyke, or
the heads of Rubens, and has not perceived the uncommon grace given to
them by the well-proportioned and not excessive hat? Who does not
remember the fine portrait of Rubens himself, with his black Spanish
hat turned up in front, the very perfection of that style of
head-dress? Put a modern hat by the side of this hat of Rubens, and
say which bears off the palm; there can hardly be two opinions upon
the subject. The great change of this hat took place, as is well
known, in Louis XIV.'s court, where first of all feathers were laid
all round upon the flat of the brim, and next the brim was edged with
lace, and pinched or cocked up, for greater use in military service.
It might have been useful for a military man, especially one who had
to handle a bayoneted musket; but it was a fatal invasion of the
principle of beauty to adopt a permanent cock. There is no doubt that
the flat cocked hat, the small three-cornered pinched hat of the days
of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., gave much smartness to the soldier, and
much neatness to the civilian; the change, too, corresponded with
other alterations of dress, from the loose and flowing, to the tight
and succinct principle; but picturesque effect was entirely lost; all
the sentimentality, all the romance of the hat, evaporated in the
formal cock. But this small flat hat of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, was perfection and beauty itself, compared with the
outrageous and elevated cocked hat which came into fashion sometime
before 1750, and which is the immediate prototype of the present
military cocked hat. Here the principle of utility was entirely
abandoned; it was sacrificed to the display of an unnatural brim. The
hat was no longer formed by the pinching up of a circular brim of
moderate dimensions; but three enormous flaps were made to rear their
unwieldy height in the air, and were strengthened, stiffened, and
supported, against the envious winds, to the torment of the wearer,
and to the disfigurement of his person. All through the first half of
the tasteless reign of good old George III., did this horrible
covering disguis