At this period the
moustache movement was making slow progress in Nottingham.
Mr W.P. Frith, R.A., published in 1887 an amusing "Autobiography," and
devotes not the least attractive chapter of his work to "The Bearded
Model." He relates how difficult it was to find a bearded model, and how
at last he discovered one. He says that in crossing Soho Square one day
his attention was drawn to a crowd of little boys, who seemed to be
teasing an old man in the manner of the London street boy. "Why don't
you get your 'air cut?" said one. "Yah! where's your bundle of old
clothes? Yer ain't got 'em in that 'ere basket, 'ave you?" said another,
"Let's 'ave a look. You're a Jew, you know; now, ain't you?" and so on.
All this, observes the artist, because the old man wore a long grey
beard, then such a rarity. The young gentlemen had mistaken their man.
He soundly punished two elder boys, and Mr Frith found he was not a Jew.
How he became a model does not come within the scope of our present
studies.
Mr Frith says that the head of a well-known firm of drapers in Regent
Street refused to employ shopmen who wore moustaches, or men who parted
their hair down the middle.
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