The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-20 00:00:00

STATISTICS OF WIGGERY.

During a most minute investigation of a regular series of
English portraits, which I was led into by a friend, I was
induced to look for the origin of wigs in England, and their
various sorts and successions, by commencing at the time of
William the Conqueror. In this search I was not able to
find any representation of wigs earlier than those worn by
King Charles the Second upon his restoration, in proof of
which I refer to Faithorne's numerous portraits of that
Monarch, and he will find that that sort of wig
confined to be worn, with very little deviation, by
succeeding kings till George the Second's time, with
whom it ended. King George the Third commenced
his reign with wearing his own hair dressed and pow-
dered, in the style of Woollett's beautiful engraving of
his Majesty, after a picture painted by Ramsey. It is
worthy of observation, than in the reign of King Charles
the Second, the Lord Mayors of London followed his Ma-
jesty's example by wearing wigs precisely of the same make,
and equal to those worn by the royal family, the highest
courtier, and persons of the first eminence in official
capacities. Nay, indeed, Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, a wood
and coal-monger, wore wigs of this shape, perhaps because
he was a justice of the peace within the King's Court. The
same kind of wig, equally deep, but with curls rather looser
and more tastefully flowing, was also worn by the following
high literary characters in the reigns of Charles the Second,
James the Second, William the Third, and Queen Anne—
Waller, Dryden, Addison, Steele, Congreve, Vanbreugb, But-
ler, Rowe, Prior, Wycherly, &c. Of these, perhaps the two
last mentioned were the most foppish in their wigs, particu-
larly Wycherly, from whom the rets of large and beautifully
engraven combs of the finest tortoiseshell are named. With
these combs (which were carried in cases in their pockets)
the wearers of wigs adjusted their curls, ruffled and entangled
by the wind. I have somewhere read that Wycherly, who
was esteemed one of the handsomest men of his day,
was frequently seen standing in the pit of the theatre
combing and adjusting the curls of his wig whilst
in lolling conversations with the first ladies of fashion
in the boxes. Most of Sir Godfrey Kneller's portraits were
painted in this flowing wig, particularly- that celebrated
series entitled '° Queen Anne's Admirals." The actors of this
tune wore immense wigs, particularly Bullock, Pinkethman,
&c. ; Cibber's was in moderation. It must here be observed
that I now allude to their private wigs—their stage wigs
were, as they are now, purposely caricatured to please the
galleries. I believe that the first wig worn by an English
divine was that of John Wallis, engraved by Burgers, and
published at Oxford in the year 1699 ; it was profuselycurled.
but not so deep over the shoulders as those of statesmen.
There were many singular, and indeed learned characters,
whose wigs were peculiarly shaped—such, for instance,
as that of Bubb Doddington, Lord Chesterfield, and the
Duke of Newcastle. MacArdell's print of Lord Anson, after
a picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was, I have every
reason to think, the first of the shape erroneously called
the brushy. This sort Dr. Samuel Johnson, Armstrong,
Hunter, the Rev. George Whitfield, Lord Monboddo, &c.,
wore in their latter years. The earliest engraved portraits
of Dr. Johnson exhibit a wig with five rows of curls, com-
monly called a story wig.' Among the old dandies of this
description of wig we may class Mr. Saunders Welch, Mr.
Nolleken's father-in-law—he bad nine stories. So was that
worn by Mr. Nathaniel Hillier, an extensive print collector,
as is represented in an engraved portrait of that gentleman.
Dr. Goldsmith's wig was small and remarkably slovenly, as
may be seen by Brotherton's etching. Sir Joshua's portrait
of him is without a wig. Mr. Garrick's wigs (I mean his
private ones) were three in number : the first is engraved by
Wood, published in the year 1745; the second is by Sherwin,
engraved for Tom Davis ; the last is from a private plate by
Mrs. Solly, after a drawing by Dance. I will leave off here
with the wig, and give a few instances of the tails. These,
perhaps, originated with the Chinese; but the first specimen
of a tail, which I have hitherto been able to procure, to which
a date can be given, is in Sherwin's print of Frederick, King
of Prussia. "—Smith's Book for a Rainy Day.

ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAYS IN FRANCE.—(FROM
CORRESPONDENT.)—It is most probable that the French at-
mospheric lines will be constructed after the system of M.
Hallette, of Arras. According to the report of M. Seguier,
read at one of the last meetings of the Institute, it is, besides
some other advantages, the method of closing the tube pro-
posed by M. Hallette which deserves commendation. The
closing of the tube, whence the air has been extracted, is not
done (as chiefly proposed in England) by greased valves, but
by smaller tubes of caoutchouc, adequately inflated. These
lie on both sides of the fissure of the main tube, and their
inner segments close towards each other, which is effected by
the air (both the outward and that contained in them) press-
ing on the vacuum of the main tube. M. Seguier says, that
to become convinced of that, he had water thrown on the
India-rubber tubes, whuli, however, remained on them,
without the least penetrating into the main tube. As, how-
ever, the content of air in the smaller tubes is to be a con-
stant one, every guard is to be provided with a small hand-
pump, by which he can introduce the necessary quantity of
air into the elastic tubes, which is indicated by a manometer
placed in the inside.—[We may add that M. Hallette's
English friends, who some time since formed a company (the
offices of which are at Winchester-house, Broad-street, Lon-
don) for introducing his system into this country, have taken
a plot of ground at the Rosemary Branch, Peckham, on
which they are constructing a sufficient length of railway, to
enable those interested in the advancement of the railway
system, to form an opinion of the merits of his improvements;
and, we understand, this experimental line will be opened on
the 22d of the present month.] —Mining Journal.
COMMITTAL OF A YOUNG BURGLAR.—A boy, about
thirteen years of age, named John Kearns, was brought be-
fore Mr. Maude, at the Manchester Borough Court, on Seta-
day, charged with the following burglary :—The prosecutrix,
an aged widow, named Winifred Carrol, residing in
Watkins-sours,s
-Pinning-field, stated that herself, and a
young woman who lodged with her, went to bed about half-
past eleven o'clock on Thursday night, having previously
secured the door and window-shutters before they retired
to rest. On rising next morning, about half past four
o'clock, she heard a knock at the door, and on going
to see who it was, a man gave her two pockets, which
he had found outside, and asked her if they belonged to
her. She at once recognised them as the pockets of her-
self and lodger, and found that the contents had been
abstracted, somewhere about eight shillings having been
taken from her own pocket, and a quantity of ribbon
and other articles from the pocket of her lodger. She dis-
covered, on examination, that the shutter had been forced
open, and access gained to the house through the windows.
She informed the police of the robbery, and told them that
she suspected the prisoner, who had lodged with her about a
fortnight ago, but had been turned out in consequence of
having stolen two handkerchiefs. The prisoner was appre-
hended the following day (Good Friday), at a low lodging-
house, and several small articles were found upon him, which
had been stolen from the house of the prosecutrix. The
keeper of the lodging-house stated that the prisoner was
out all night on the evening of the robbery, and did not
make his appearance until between four and five o'clock in
the morning, when he was in possession of money, and paid
for his previous night's lodging. He was committed. for
trial at the assizes.- - - Alanchester Courier.
MINtATURE NEWSPAPER.—We have seen a copy of
what we believe to be the smallest newspaper in the country.
It is named the Pittenwcens Register, and consists of a single
slip about thirteen inches long, and of the breadth of a news-
paper colum, containing ten small paragraphs connected with
the locality in which it is printed. The object of the pub-
lication is to furnish the inhabitants of Pittenweem and its
vicinity with a brief account of the various incidents that
occur in the district, for the purpose of transmitting these to
friends or natives of the town who may be residing at a dis-
tance, without the labour of writing them in detail in a letter.
It is published weekly, and has now been in existence for
more than a year.—Scotsman.
ST. CLEMENT DANES.—At three o'clock on Friday a
meeting of rate-payers was held in the vestry-room of St.
Clement Danes, the Rev. W. W. Ellis, rector, in the chair.
to elect churchwardens, pass the churchwardens' accounts,
and to make a rate for the quarter ensuing. Messrs. Judkins
and Woodward were elected churchwardens. The church-
wardens' receipts were 1,269/. .ss. 3d., and their disburse-
ments figured 1,149/. 15s. sd. A sevenpenny rate for the
quarter was carried. Mr. Jacques observed, that the coin-
plaints regarding the state of the parish churchyards, and
the numbers buried in them, were groundless, and made by
parties who knew nothing about them.
TRADE OF DUNDEE.—We have only to confirm our
steady, with only limited transactions in all our descriptions.
trht of the
last report of the state of our trade. The flax market is
Tows and codillas continue saleable at full rates. East India
jute meets with buyers at fernier rates, ranging from 161. to
19/. per ton, according to the quality of the parcel. Yarns
and linens are still of dull sale, and stocks of some sorts are
accumulating. The arrivals consist of one vessel from Altona
and one from Rotterdam, with flax andsatyows:,_an„dyceosdtiel
rl ad.
a-3
?ne'aFistrate, upon this, had
Dundee paper.
A Hod' What
-In:
Alarseillaise' should be
fe,N;reTntehi
evening,
EaterhesueeriGndraeai
sne.d, Lyonr h
'Theatre,
there, a Ip4ay
AatNaDll SthßeEEmPwa.rakseThe
audience called The commissary of police • me
atscctohridsinygealyr
diately girt himself with his scarf. and said, Whatr
prices
the
lheeemdgiesonto,edlys s the
sense
denemypromise
ma
house.isoeu that
hTga gat teet shi
sung at the end of the performance, Which
done."
ohFaveCbArToToLghet
IGH
far exceeds the average of many preceding
which i ifarm rRs
occEk
deed, as regards fat sheep, the rates are wyheoalrls; and, in-
dented. No doubt, to some extent, the higherywunprece-
s for
labour now current will account for so much of theag rise as
has been caused from the increased demand ; but we under
stand that other causes have occurred in producing the -
sent state of the market. The chief want in cattle inptre-
and three year olds, which are those usually bought for fawto-
ten.ng for the market ; and there is a great dificiency in the
supply of these, owing to the panic caused by the tariff three
years ago, which had the effect of checking the operations of
many stock growers. As regards sheep, the high price is
generally attributed to the great demand for England, con-
sequent upon the excessive losses film foot rot in many dis-
tricts lust year. At late markets the supply, has uniformly
been under that of the previous year, owing to the large sales
of the six quarters and two year olds last autumn ; and to make
up stocks adequate to the demand is attributed the rise in
rents of pastures of all kinds this year.—perrhshire courier.
THE MAN WHO WOULD HAVE TAKEN NELSON. 11l
the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday, during the debate on
the naval estimates, M. Lemercier announced the following
startling fact, which will probably be as new to the British
public as it was to the French Chamber. The orator said,
" May I be allowed to relate a fact which is not sufficientl
well known? When Captain Lucas was boarded by thYe
Victory, and taken by it, the tri-coloured flag would have
floated over Nelson's ship, if a three-decker, called the
Bretaene, had net come to aqsist the Victory." To have
made the matter complete, Captain Lucas ought to hays
'fervid the &AAP 111 latmacicd W lave &btu