AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 50T 



were compellecl, iinclcr the penalty of a heavy fine, to wear knit woollen 

 caps. This act remained in force three years, -when great complaint waa 

 made, and it was repealed, after which felt hats were worn by all classes. 



King Charles, in the year 1638, prohibited, by nn act of Parliament, the 

 importation of hata made of beaver fur, and from that time to this they 

 have been considered more valuable than any other description of hat. 



During the Commonwealth, and a long time after it, hats were made 

 with very broad brims, and the hats now worn by that worthy class of 

 people known as Quakers, are a remnant of those times. After a time they 

 were turned up at the sides, and were finally converted, in the reign of 

 Ann, into three-cocked hats. In 1749 the lower orders adopted the round 

 hat, being cheaper, and the gentlemen wore the cocked hat by way of dis- 

 tinction. In 1789 they, likewise, finding the cocked hat heavy and incon- 

 venient, abandoned its use, and assumed the round hat, which has been 

 universally worn since in x\merica and all European countries, and is only 

 varied by the hatter, from high to low, v>ith a brim v/ido, narrow, or turned 

 up at the sides. 



In China, feathers placed in the hat are worn by the mandarins as a 

 mark of dignity and station. They are generally plucked from the tail 

 of the dunghill fowl. The Welsh wear leeks, the Irish the shamrock, the 

 Scotch the thistle, in several of their public festivals, in their hats ; and the 

 English oak leaves, in metnory of Charles II., who once hid himself in an 

 oak. The Bourbons and the Stuarts wore white cockades, and the Elector 

 of Hanover black. These are now called favors, and are only used by 

 servants on state occasions, marriages, funerals, etc. It then became 

 fashionable atnong the wealthy, to substitute magnificent jewels for cock- 

 ades, and at the same time they had their hats bound with silver and gold 

 lace, all of which have given way to the black band now universally worn. 

 Hats of felt are made of wool and hair, which form the foundation, the 

 outside of which is finer than the inside ; and when the fur of the beaver 

 is worked in, it is called a beaver hat; and the qualities of the hat are 

 governed by the varieties of hair made use of in the manufacture. 



The first process of making felt for a hat, is to separate the fibres, and 

 lay them in every possible direction with regard to one another. For this 

 purpose a bow and string were formerly made use cf, which scatter the 

 material far and wide, and cause it to full in layers; these arc brought into 

 the proper form by hand, and wrapped in a wet cloth; it is then placed 

 upon a warm iron plate, and pros ed by hand, and sprinkled with water, 

 until the mass becomes consistent from the entangling of the material 

 together. Before the felting is fimilly finished, the required fur is placed 

 on the outside with the hairs all pointing in one direction, which are made 

 to cover the felt completely ; and upon the evenness with which this opera- 

 tion is performed depends the value of the hat. The hats are then shaped 

 into a sugar-loaf form, and boiled in an alkali, and again felted with warm 

 water, then placed upon a block and worked into shape, after which the 

 rim is trimmed, and the hat dried; a wire-brush is then applied to take off 



