A Note on Dress.—Dress is mutable, who denies it? but still old fashions are retained to a far greater extent than one would at first imagine. The Thames watermen rejoice in the dress of Elizabeth: while the royal beefeaters (buffetiers) wear that of private soldiers of the time of Henry VII.; the blue-coat boy, the costume of a London citizen of the reign of Edward VI.; the London charity-school girls, the plain mob cap and long gloves of the time of Queen Anne. In the brass badge of the cabmen, we see a retention of the dress of Elizabethan retainers: while the shoulder-knots that once decked an officer now adorn a footman. The attire of the sailor of William III.'s era is now seen amongst our fishermen. The university dress is as old as the age of the Smithfield martyrs. The linen bands of the pulpit and the bar are abridgments of the falling collar.

Other costumes are found lurking in provinces, and amongst some trades. The butchers' blue is the uniform of a guild. The quaint little head-dress of the market women of Kingswood, Gloucestershire, is in fact the gipsy hat of George II. Scarlet has been the colour of soldiers' uniform from the time of the Lacedemonians. The blue of the army we derived from the Puritans; of the navy from the colours of a mistress of George I.

Torro.

Curious Omen at Marriage.—In Miss Benger's Memoirs of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, it is mentioned that,—

"It is by several writers observed that, towards the close of the ceremony, certain coruscations of joy appeared in Elizabeth's face, which were afterwards supposed to be sinister presages of her misfortunes."

In a note, Echard is alluded to as the authority for this singular circumstance.

Can any of your readers explain why such a coruscation of joy upon a wedding day should forebode evil? or whether any other instances are on record of its so doing?

H. A. B.

Ventriloquist Hoax (Vol. ii., p. 101.).—The following is extracted from Admirable Curiosities, Rarities, and Wonders in England, Scotland, and Ireland, by R.B., Author of the History of the Wars of England, &c., Remarks of London, &c., 12mo., 1684, p. 137. It may serve as a pendant to the ventriloquist hoax mentioned by C.H., Vol. ii., p. 101.:—

"I have a letter by me, saith Mr. Clark, dated July 7, 1606, written by one Mr. Bovy to a minister in London, where he thus writes: 'Touching news, you shall understand that Mr. Sherwood hath received a letter from Mr. Arthur Hildersham, which containeth this following narrative: that at Brampton, in the parish of Torksey, near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, an ash-tree shaketh both in the body and boughs thereof, and there proceed from thence sighs and groans, like those of a man troubled in his sleep, as if it felt some sensible torment. Many have climbed to the top thereof, where they heard the groans more plainly than they could below. One among the rest being a-top, spoke to the tree; but presently came down much astonished, and lay grovelling on the earth speechless for three hours, and then reviving said, Brampton, Brampton, thou art much bound to pray.' The author of this news is one Mr. Vaughan, a minister who was there present and heard and saw these passages, and told Mr. Hildersham of it. The Earl of Lincoln caused one of the arms of the ash to be lopped off, and a hole to be bored into the body, and then was the sound or hollow voice heard more audibly than before; but in a kind of speech which they could not comprehend nor understand."

K. P. D. E.

Barker, the original Panorama Painter.—Mr. Cunningham, at p. 376. of his admirable Handbook of London, says that Robert Barker, who originated the Panorama in Leicester Square, died in 1806. Now, Barker, who preceded Burford, and eventually, I think, entered into partnership with him, married a friend of my family, a daughter of the Admiral Bligh against whom had been the mutiny in the Bounty. I remember Mr. Barker, and his house in Surrey Square, or some small square on the Surrey side of London Bridge; also its wooden rotunda for painting in; and this, too, at the time when the picture of Spitzbergen was in progress and you felt almost a chill as the transparent icebergs were splashed on.

If there have not been two Messrs. Barker connected with the Panorama, Mr. Cunningham must be incorrect in his date, for I was not in existence in 1806.

A. G.

Ecclesfield.