The surprise of the spectators may
be better imagined than described. On the Czar returning the wig, his
attendants explained that his Majesty was in the habit of borrowing the
wig of any nobleman within reach on similar occasions. His Majesty, it
may be added, was short of hair.
Wigs were not confined to men. At the commencement of the eighteenth
century little boys attended school in wigs and cocked hats. "Had I
lived in the reign of good Queen Anne," wrote Lord Lyttelton, "my baby
face must have been adorned with a full-bottomed periwig as large as
that which bedecks the head and shoulders of Mr Justice Blackstone when
he scowls at the unhappy culprit who is arraigned before him." We learn
from Miss Agnes Strickland that "Marie Antoinette was the first person
who broke the absurd fashion of dressing infant boys as droll miniatures
of their fathers. She attired the unfortunate Dauphin in a simple blue
jacket and trousers, for which she was reviled, as if little bag-wigs
and tiny cocked-hats, and all the paraphernalia of full dress, had been
points of moral obligation.
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