Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/244

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224
WIGS

men and women succumbed to the prevailing mode. At once arose a great demand for hair to make wigs, and we get a despairing letter from the North of England, to which fashions penetrated slowly: "Peg can hear of no hair at any barber's."

Women now began to use paint for their faces and to wear little black patches, so popular in the reign of Queen Anne. Paris still dictated English fashions. While powder and patches were among ordinary toilet necessaries, tooth-brushes were yet costly luxuries, and only obtainable in France. These little "brushes for making cleane of the teeth" were for the most part covered with gold and silver. Not only were friends commissioned to buy these rarities abroad, but others travelling to London were given lists of commissions which were drawn up in the greatest detail: "If you would please to employ somebody to choose me out a lace that hath but very little silver in it and not above a spangle or two in a peak," writes a lady of high degree; "I would not have it too heavy a lace; about the breadth of a threepenny ribbon, very little border, will be enough, and I pray you to choose me out some ribbon to make strings; six yards will be enough; some shaded satin ribbon will be