4 3 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Boots. One of the most perfect rudiments is presented by top- 

 boots. These boots were originally meant to come above the knee; 

 and, as may be observed in old pictures, it became customary to turn 

 the upper part down, so that the lining was visible all round the top. 

 The lining being of unblacked leather, formed the brown top which is 

 now worn. The original boot-tag may be observed in the form of a 

 mere wisp of leather sewn fast to the top, while the real acting tag 

 is sewn to the inside of the boot. The back of the top is also fastened 

 up, so that it could not by any ingenuity be turned up again into its 

 original position. 



Again, why do we black and polish our boots? The key is found in 

 the French czrage, or blacking. We black our boots because brown 

 leather would, with wet and use, naturally get discolored with dark 

 patches, and thus boots to look well should be colored black. Now, 

 shooting-boots are usually greased, and that it was formerly custom- 

 ary to treat ordinary boots in the same manner is shown by the follow- 

 ing verse in the ballad of " Argentile and Curan : " 



"He borrowed on the working daies 

 His holy russets oft, 

 And of the bacon's fat to make 

 His startops black and soft." 



Start ops were a kind of rustic high shoes. Fairholt in his work 

 states that "the oldest kind of blacking for boots and shoes appears 

 to have been a thick, viscid, oily substance." But for neat boots a 

 cleaner substance than grease would be required, and thus wax would 

 be thought of; and that this was the case is shown by the French word 

 cirer, which means indifferently to " wax " or to " polish boots. " 

 Boots are of cour-e polished because wax takes so good a polish. 

 Lastly, patent-leather is an imitation of common blacking. 



I have now gone through the principal articles of men's clothing, 

 and have shown how numerous and curious are the rudiments or " sur- 

 vivals," as Mr. Tylor calls them ; a more thorough search proves the 

 existence of many more. For instance, the various gowns worn at the 

 universities and elsewhere, afford examples. These gowns were, as 

 late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, simply upper garments, 1 but 

 have survived into this age as mere badges. Their chief peculiarities 

 consist in the sleeves, and it is curious that nearly all of such pecul- 

 iarities point to various devices by which the wearing of the sleeves 

 has been eluded or rendered less burdensome. Thus the plaits and 

 buttons in a barrister's gown, and the slit in front of the sleeve of the 

 B. A.'s gown, are for this purpose. In an M. A.'s gown the sleeves ex- 

 tend below the knees, but there is a hole in the side through which the 

 arm is passed ; the end of the sleeve is sewed up, but there is a kind 

 of scallop at the lower part, which represents the narrowing for the 



1 See figures, pp. 254, 311, Fairholt. 



