But I hae seen the day,
Monkbarns, when the town council of Fairport wad hae as soon wanted
their town-clerk, or their gill of brandy owerhead after the haddies, as
they wad hae wanted ilk ane a weel-favoured, sonsy, decent periwig on
his pow. Hegh, sirs! nae wonder the commons will be discontent, and rise
against the law, when they see magistrates, and bailies, and deacons,
and the provost himsel', wi' heads as bald an' as bare as one o' my
blocks.'" It was not in Scotland alone that the barber was peripatetic.
"In the eighteenth century," says Mrs G. Linnaeus Banks, author of the
"Manchester Man" and other popular novels, "he waited on his chief
customers or patrons at their own homes, not merely to shave, but to
powder the hair or the wig, and he had to start on his round betimes.
Where the patron was the owner of a spare periwig it might be dressed in
advance, and sent home in a box or mounted on a stand, such as a
barrister keeps handy at the present day. But when ladies had powdered
top-knots, the hairdresser made his harvest, especially when a ball or a
rout made the calls for his services many and imperative.
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