The men? Well, they wore mutton chop whiskers, or, if Nature was
bountiful, affected the Dundreary style, which gave a man great
distinction, and, if allied to good looks, made him perfectly
irresistible. They wore "Champagne Charley" coats, fancy waistcoats,
frilled-fronted shirts, relic of the lace and ruffles of Elizabeth's
days; velvet smoking caps, embroidered slippers, elastic-side boots and
chimney pot hats.
At eighteen years of age I had my first frock coat and tall hat. Some of
my companions, happy youths! enjoyed this distinction at sixteen or
seventeen. These adornments were of course for Sunday wear; no weekday
clothes were worn on Sundays then. My frock coat was of West of England
broadcloth, shiny and smooth. Sunday attire was incomplete without light
kid gloves, lavender or lemon being the favourite shade for a young man
with any pretension to style.
Next in importance to my first frock coat ranked my first portmanteau; it
was a present, and supplanted the carpet bag which, up to then, to my
profound disgust, I had to use on visits to my relatives. The
portmanteau was the sign of youth and progress; old-fashioned people
stuck to the carpet bag.
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