230 ARMY UNIFORMS PAST AND PRESENT 



among the nations of Europe has the British officer 

 hitherto treated his uniform as if it were something to 

 be ashamed of in private life. It is an unseemly, even 

 an unhandsome practice, seeing that non-commissioned 

 officers and privates are not allowed to disport them- 

 selves in ' private clothes.' Nor was it the custom 

 among officers in the eighteenth century, when mili- 

 tary uniform was as easy and becoming as any other 

 dress. The usual attire of an officer, even when on 

 leave, was his undress uniform, just as it is used in 

 Continental armies. The change in British practice 

 was the direct outcome of the Prince Regent's tyranny 

 in buttoning soldiers up to the chin in clothes that it 

 was a torment to wear. 



It must be owned that the Duke of Wellington was 

 in large measure responsible as an example of an officer 

 of the highest rank preferring easy clothes to tight 

 ones. A plain blue frock opening at the throat to 

 show a white cravat was his invariable field dress 

 throughout his campaigns. He had for his own wear a 

 cocked hat one-third the size of the huge one pre- 

 scribed for general officers. There was a famous 

 occasion, after the restoration of Louis xvm. in 1814, 

 when the King and the royal princes, with a brilliant 

 suite, attended a state performance at the Odeon 

 Theatre. The house was ablaze with uniforms, mili- 

 tary and civil, of many nations and the gay dresses of 

 ladies of the court. In a box immediately opposite to 

 the royal one sat the Duke in plain evening dress ! 

 The pride that apes humility ? Not at all. Le 

 vainqueur des vainqueurs could scarcely be suspected 



