British regimental uniform prints by military artist P. H. Smitherson published by Cranston Fine Arts, the military print company. Depicting the ....

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(published during the 1960's)

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(published during the 1960's)

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(published during the 1960's)

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(published during the 1960's)

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The dress shown here is an undress uniform, similar in use, perhaps, to the blue frock coat commonly worn by officers before 1914 and still worn by officers of the Brigade of Guards.  The details are taken from a picture showing a guard mounted by the regiment in the Horse Guards, Whitehall, in which the officers are shown, rather to ones surprise, in this order of dress rather than in ceremonial full dress.  the brown coat, in fact, is very little different from the simple brown coats - shown in the same picture - being worn by King Charles II and the members of his court..  Indeed the whole picture is one of delightful informality, with the King and his friends walking along a path, the guard turned out in his honour, cows grazing peacefully on the grass, and the country people  going about their business within a few yards of the Monarch.  In a setting of this sort a brown undress coat was probably more appropriate than the full dress coat worn today.  The crimson sash, which has been worn by the British infantry officer on duty from about this time, is here shown almost in the form in which it is worn today..  The main weapon carried by the officers, only part of which is shown, is the sixteen foot pike, the same as that carried by the pikemen of the regiment.  It was more usual for officers to carry the half pike, or spontoon, but evidently, for guard duties, the full pike was ordered.  The regiment was raised by Cromwell during the Commonwealth, and their first colonel was Monck, who led them from Coldstream, where they were stationed at the time, to join King Charles II at his Restoration.  They acquired the name Coldstream Guards then, and have retained it ever since.  They were thus the first infantry regiment to join the establishment of the regular army, although they were made junior in precedence to the First guards, who had been with Charles in exile as Wentworths Regiment.

In 1677 the hand grenade was introduced into the army as one of its weapons, and a grenadier company was added to each infantry regiment.  This company was composed of picked men, of good physique; it took the place of honour on the right of the line, and assumed a dress different from that of the rest of the regiment.  In particular the grenadiers wore a characteristic cap.  The usual broad-rimmed hat no doubt interfered with the slinging of the flintlock and the throwing of the grenades, and so a brimless hat was worn which soon became very ornamented.  The hat shown here is a very early one and is very decorative, its shape being different from that of the more familiar mitre illustrated elsewhere.  Grenadiers coats were also laced differently from those of the rest of the regiment in many cases.  The song The British Grenadiers, refers to their looped clothes, alluding no doubt to the extra loops of lace, or tassels, with which they were adorned.  The coat worn by this officer is quite different from that worn elsewhere in the regiment at this time.  Note its claret colour - a colour worn by the grenadiers of the regiment many years afterwards.  It will be noticed that he carries a firelock but no sword.  Usually the sword has been the weapon of an officer, and a musket or rifle that of a private soldier.  At this time, however, the musket was a new weapon, and musketeers were rapidly ousting pikemen from the ranks.  The musket was therefore regarded as a weapon of honour, and was carried by all officers of grenadier companies, instead of the pike, or half pike, carried by officers of battalion companies.  Grenadier officers usually carried a sword as well, but this officer carries a plug bayonet instead.  The whole uniform, with its embroidery and gold lace, gives one the impression of a ceremonial dress rather than one intended for use on active service, for which he would possibly have worn something a little less expensive.

(published during the 1960's)

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(published during the 1960's)

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This image, based on a figure in the Blenheim Tapestries, shows a sergeant, possibly of the Royal Scots.  The dress is typical of that worn in infantry battalions during the wars of Marlborough, and is smart and workmanlike.  The brim of the hat was sometimes pinched up into the familiar three cocks at this time, and soon after this was universally so worn.  It is easy to understand that the brim worn as shown could easily interfere with the handling of weapons.  The sergeant is identified as such by his halberd, obsolete as a weapon, of course, but carried by sergeants, even in battle, as a badge of rank.  The sergeants and corporals were clothed exactly as the men of the regiment but wore, in the words of the Ordnance Board, everything better of its kind.  The coats of men of other infantry regiments at this date would have been similar, scarlet in all cases but with differently coloured lapels and cuffs, the colour of the lapels being shown as the facing colour of the regiment.  Uniforms were made by contract for the colonel but the clothes produced by the contractor were compared by the Ordnance Board with the sealed pattern in the possession of the Board, to ensure that the quality was satisfactory.  This was one of many arrangements made by Marlborough to ensure that the soldier did not receive shoddy clothing, as he had often done in days past.  Belts and side-arms were bought by the colonel at his discretion, out of an allowance given to him for the purpose.  The white gaiters, or spatterdashes, shown here were introduced during Marlboroughs wars because the shoes and stockings worn previously were unsuitable for the mud of the Low Countries.  A modified form of these spatterdashes is still worn in Highland Regiments with the kilt.  At the time of the Restoration the Royal Scots were serving in France under the French King and did not come home until 1678 to be placed on the British establishment as the First Foot.  the dress of the regiment, except for the pipers, was the same as that of the rest of the infantry, until 1881, when they assumed the doublet and tartan trews. 

The details for this image come from two contemporary wooden figures, painted in colour, and made for some purpose at which we can now only guess.  The hat is of the familiar grenadier shape with a stiff front and the bag behind standing up with its tuft showing.  As is usual, the bag in this case was red, and the tuft white.  The stiff front was usually of the regimental facing colour, in this case blue, but here the front is red, with an elaborately embroidered design incorporating the Prince of Wales feathers.  This badge was displayed because on the accession of King George I in 1692 the regiment became the Prince of Wales Own Regiment of Foot, a title which it retained until the Princess of Wales became Queen, and the regiment became the Queens Own Regiment of Foot.  The lamb displayed on the little flap was the family crest of the House of Braganza, to which Charles IIs queen belonged.  As part of her dowry she brought the colony of Tangier, to garrison which the 2nd Foot was raised in 1661 as the Tangier Regiment.  The lamb and the motto, Pristimae virtutis memor, also on the little flap, are still displayed by the regiment.  The elaborate lace on the coat, particularly that  on the sleeve, should be noted.  The grenadier is wearing long woollen socks pulled up over his knees, instead of the spatterdashes shown previously.  The wooden figure from which these detail come was possibly displayed at the gates of the barracks in which the regiment was stationed, and so might well show the dress worn by the sentry on duty nearby, which would probably include stockings rather than spatterdashes.  He is shown with a plug bayonet.  This has a wooden handle which was wedged in the end of the barrel of the flintlock.  At about this time this was superseded by the ring bayonet, similar to that in use today, which allowed the weapon to be fired with it in position.

(published during the 1960's)

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(published during the 1960's)

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There are several points of interest about the dress of this officer, details of which have come from a portrait.  His regiment we do not know, except that it must have been one of those with green facings.  From his fusil - a light form of flintlock - we would expect him to belong to a fusilier regiment, but the green facings preclude this.  He may belong to a grenadier company, in which case we would expect him to be wearing a grenadiers pouch.  As we have seen, a fusil was a weapon of honour, and it may simply be that he possessed a good one - and a good fusil was a very expensive article - and wished therefore to be shown with it in his portrait.  His cuffs, it will be seen, are slashed, and are kept in place by a gold chain hooked round one of the buttons on his sleeve.  This is very unusual, although many coats have some means or other of keeping the large turned-up cuffs in position.  It is also unusual to find officers cuffs of the facing colour of the regiment.  In fact, in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries officers coats rarely bore much resemblance to those of the men, and were more like civilian clothes, and it was often with difficulty that officers could be introduced to wear uniform.  After this date, however, officers dress became more uniform and after about 1750 closely resembled that of the men.  The black feathers which appear in the brim of the hat are frequently referred to, but they are not often seen in pictures, except in the hats of general officers.  He is wearing his sash and gorget, showing that he is on duty.  The sash, it will be noticed, is worn over his shoulder.  The position of the sash has varied throughout the years; by the end of the eighteenth century it was back round the waist again; by 1900 it was over the shoulder - the left shoulder this time - and now it is back round the waist.  Another unusual feature of this uniform is the waistcoat, which is far more ornate than the coat, which is rather plain.

The armorial bearings of the colonel of the regiment, displayed in Westminster Abbey, provide the details for this image.  Here the grenadier cap displays the crest of the colonel himself, which is unusual, and was expressly forbidden later on.  However, as it was forbidden no doubt other colonels had done the same.  The coat is only single breasted, with no lapels to turn back, the large cuffs being kept up by being buttoned through to the sleeves.  This grenadier is armed with a flintlock and has the basket-hilted sword commonly carried at this time.  His bayonet cannot be seen, but would be a ring bayonet mounted in a frog over the sword.  In 1742 the design to be worn on grenadiers caps was laid down as the royal cipher under a crown, on a cap of the facing colour.  An exception was made in the case of the Six Old Corps, which were allowed to retain their old badgess, and among these were the 3rd who retained the dragon, their ancient badge.  This dragon is not illustrated on this cap, however, and is more likely the Tudor dragon dating back to the time of the London Train Bands, from which the 3rd Foot were originally raised for service in Holland.  They returned home in 1665 to be placed on the regular establishment, exchanging their buff coats for scarlet, but retaining buff as their facing colour.  They were known from the beginning as The Buffs, a name which survives until the present day, and their connection with East Kent remains unvroken since 1782. 

(published during the 1960's)

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Order code  HS9

(published during the 1960's)

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This image, taken from a contemporary portrait, shows an officer of the 6th Foot.  He is wearing neither gorget nor sash, and so is not on duty.  His very elegant coat bears little resemblance in design and lacing to those worn by the men of the regiment. This officer is wearing an aiguillette on his right shoulder.  This was commonly worn as the mark of a commissioned officer, or non-commissioned officer in the infantry, and was worn by all ranks in some cavalry regiments.  The origin of these shoulder knots is obscure and has been the subject of much speculation.  they have been said to have been originally, among other things, picketing ropes for horses, no doubt on account of the pegs at their ends, similar to the pegs used today on picketing ropes, and ropes for tying up hay for horses used  by foraging parties.  Such explanations are hardly satisfactory because it is difficult to see why an infantry officer or N.C.O. should want such things, and in the cavalry one might have expected them to be worn by troopers, but not by officers or N.C.O.s.  They were at this time worn by servants in private houses - they still appear in some of the royal liveries - and we have records of opinion from those who had to wear these adornments, more fit for flunkeys.  They could obviously not have originated for the servants in either picketing or foraging ropes, and it is possible that they were merely decorative additions to the dress, added during a time when such decoration was not considered unmanly.  They disappeared during the Napoleonic wars, but were revived in the dress of some cavalry regiments afterwards and are now worn by officers and N.C.O.s of the Household Cavalry and by some staff officers.  The 6th Foot were another of the Six Old Corps and retained their ancient badge of an antelope on their grenadier caps.  They won this badge at Saragossa in 1710 where they won a resounding victory over French and Spanish cavalry, capturing, among other things, a Moorish flag bearing the device of an antelope and, as the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, they have retained the badge to this day.

This officer, details of whose dress are taken from a contemporary painting, is shown dressed for duty.  On active service he would be armed with a spontoon or a fusil, the latter if he were an officer in a grenadier company.  His coat is similar to that worn by private soldiers in the regiment, but theirs had laced button-holes on the lapels and ornamental slashes on the sleeves.  His pockets are rather unusual; they were usually cut horizontally, and not vertically as these are, but the pockets of officers coats displayed a very remarkable variety.  The three-cornered flaps which remained on the tails of the full dress tunics of most regiments until 1914 were a survival of a pocket such as this.  The full-bottomed wig worn hitherto has now been abandoned for a much neater affair, in fact the officers own hair specially treated and powdered.  This surprising fashion persisted until about 1808.  The hair on top of the head was first cut off, and then made to grow backwards instead of forwards by being plastered down with grease.  The hair at the sides was curled with curling tongs and the rest tied in a queue at the back, being kept in place by a string or ribbon.  Officers used to do one anothers hair, and the ability to set hair was well considered a social accomplishment.  The professional barber would dress it about once a fortnight.  Those whose hair was not long enough to make a good queue had to order a false one.  Before a big parade hair might well be dressed the day before, and the unfortunate officer would then have to sleep on his face to avoid disturbing his coiffure.  the hair so treated must have been usually filthy, and we have a vivid description from an officer of the smell of the soldiers heads in church on Sunday on a hot day.  The 4th Foot were raised in 1680 as the 2nd tangier Regiment, but were renamed the Kings Own Royal Regiment by King George I in 1715, a title which they have retained, with minor variations, throughout their history. 

(published during the 1960's)

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Order code HS11

(published during the 1960's)

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This image, in which the details are taken from a portrait, shows an officer of the regiment in undress uniform, such as he might have worn in barracks not on duty or on social occasions.  As the eighteenth century progressed the wearing of uniform became more popular with officers, and in the many conversation pieces of family groups then painted we often see one or more members of a family wearing uniform, indicating that it was worn at home and away from the regiment - rather a contrast to the custom of previous years.  Moreover, probably for this reason the cut and design of the officers coats became more elegant during the second half of the century.  The 21st Foot, later the Royal Scots Fusiliers, were raised in 1678, the first fusilier regiment in the army.  As firearms gradually replaced the pike as the main infantry weapon it was an obvious development to raise regiments equipped completely with firearms, and several fusilier regiments were raised at this time.  They were equipped with fusils, a light, more efficient and more expensive form of the flintlock used by musketeers of other regiments.  They were regarded as picked regiments and had the same privileges of dress as grenadiers, that is to say they wore mitre caps and their coats were more elaborately laced than the rest.  Moreover, with one exception, they shared the privilege of the Six Old Corps in wearing their own regimental badge on their mitre caps instead of the royal cipher.  This officer, therefore, on duty would wear a mitre cap and carry a fusil, would doubtless have the skirts of his coat turned back, would carry a cartouche box, and would have a ring bayonet in a frog above his sword.  We have pictorial evidence, however, that grenadier officers, and possibly therefore fusilier officers, did sometimes go into battle dressed much as this officer is, always, of course, armed with his fusil.  On their mitre caps the regiment displayed a device incorporating the cross of Saint Andrew and the thistle, indicating their Scottish origin.  They did not assume Scottish dress until 1881.

In 1751 David Morier, a Swiss artist, produced a series of paintings showing a grenadier of each infantry regiment for the Duke of Cumberland, and this series, together with the Clothing Warrant of 1751, gives us a very clear picture of the dress of the army then.  The details of this image are taken from one of these paintings, showing a grenadier typical of that time.  The elaborate lace is very striking, and the wings on the shoulders are peculiar to grenadiers, as is the one shoulder strap on the the left shoulder to accommodate the strap of the pouch.  Wings were also worn by bandsmen - and they have retained them to the present day - as were mitre caps similar in cut to those of the grenadiers but ornamented with devices of drums and flags instead of the royal cipher or ancient badge of the regiment.  The end of this mans ring bayonet is seen under the coat, mounted on a frog with his basket-hilted sword.  Swords were retained by the grenadiers after they had been given up by the other privates of the regiment, but had ceased to be worn by about 1790.  It will be noted that the cut of the coat is loose.  It is sometimes said that the Duke of Cumberland made the clothing of the British soldier tight in imitation of Frederick the Greats Prussians.  In fact he did not do so, and it is doubtful whether even Frederick made his men wear tight clothes on campaigns, although he certainly, at the end of his reign, made them wear tight clothes on parade.  In the British army it was laid down that all red cloth had to be washed and shrunk before it was made up into coats.  This did rather spoil the appearance of the new coats, and colonels did sometimes induce contractors to make up coats without shrinking the cloth.  If they became wet they could shrink and become very tight.  The personal unpopularity of the Duke of Cumberland led to considerable denigration of his work for the organisation and administration of the army, which was badly needed and well carried out.  The 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot was raised in 1689, and was one of the regiments permitted, with the Six Old Corps, to display its ancient badge, on its grenadier caps.  The regiment is better known as the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and it still displays the castle an name on its appointments.

(published during the 1960's)

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Order code  HS13

(published during the 1960's)

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Order code  HS14

This image shows a mounted officer of the regiment, perhaps the commanding officer or the adjutant, on duty, wearing his crimson sash.  The cut of the coat is similar to the others we have seen, but the cuffs in this case are slashed.  The slash, the ornamental panel on the cuff, was originally an opening, similar to that on the cuffs of mens coats today, with two or three buttons which could be undone to allow the cuff to be turned back.  Cuffs then became larger, and could be turned back without unbuttoning, but often needed some device to hold them up.  Often button became part of an elaborate panel, as here.  This sort of panel, once worn almost universally, survives today in the full dress tunic of the Foot Guards and could be seen, up to 1939, in the tunic of the Royal Marines.  The border here is double, the laced panel with the buttons fitting on to a similar panel on the sleeve.  The turned-back cuff of the facing colour is in fact stitched down.  This arrangement of two fitting panels appeared in various orders of dress in the Royal Navy about 1770 until 1827, but was not usual in the army.  It will be seen that the pockets of the coat have a similar arrangement.  The V-shaped cut in the middle of the slash was normally straight at this time, or cut to a point in the middle as are those on the cuffs of the Foot Guards today.  The 24th Foot, better known subsequently as the South Wales Borderers, were raised in 1689, and still wear the grass green facings shown here.

Most of the pictures and portraits upon which we rely for information depict officers or privates, sometimes sergeants, but very rarely sergeant-majors.  The details of this print come from a contemporary water-colour of several members of the regiment, of whom one is the sergeant-major.  his uniform, with its silver lace and smart cut, resembles that of an officer, as it would today.  The arrangement of the brim of the hat is worthy of notice.  We have seen it develop from earlier pictures to the tricorne shape.  Now the front cock has almost disappeared and it is beginning to resemble the modern version of the cocked hat, worn, for instance, by the quartermasters of the Foot Guards.  A turned-down collar rather similar to this is shown on the coats of several privates of the Foot Guards depicted in the Blenheim Tapestries, but it was a fashion which must have been very short lived then, because there is no sign of it subsequently until about this date when it was worn almost universally for a few years.  The turned-back skirts of the coat have become stylised and less clumsy, and the cuff ahs a slash with four buttons.  Oddly enough, in the picture on which this image is based, only the sergeant-major and drummers are shown with slashes, the rest of the regiment having plain buttoned cuffs.  This is explained by the fact that the uniform of the sergeant-major, as that of the drummers, was decided by the commanding officer, and possibly bought by him too, so that it would conform more to his wishes than to regulations.  The familiar sergeant-majors stick calls for no comment.  The 25th Regiment, now the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, was raised in Edinburgh in 1688.

(published during the 1960's)

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Order code  HS15

(published during the 1960's)

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This image is based on a coat in the National Army Museum at Sandhurst.  It will be seen that the trends noted earlier have been continued, and the garment shown here is very neat and elegant.  The turned-down collar is buttoned on to the lapels, which was the usual practice at this time.  The shoulder cords noted in some previous images have now become a fringed strap and have begun to denote rank and function.  Officers of grenadier companies, and field officers of all companies, wore an epaulette on each shoulder; officers of battalion companies wore one on the right shoulder only, as this officer is doing.  The patterns of epaulettes varied with each regiment, and possibly even varied slightly within the regiment.  A portrait exists of an officer of this regiment with a coat exactly like this, but with an epaulette of the same general shape but with its embroidery differing in some respects.  The coat and the portrait must be contemporary, so it may be that officers were still allowed a small amount of latitude in their dress.  The hat is shown still cocked in the old fashion, which was rapidly disappearing.  The manner in which hats were cocked followed the civilian fashion, and we know that it was usual for officers to cock their hats as was fashionable, and that regulations eventually caught up with the fashion.  The officer is in undress uniform, and so is wearing silk stockings and shoes.  On duty he would have worn boots and black gaiters, a crimson sash round his waist once more but under the coat and over the waistcoat, and a shoulder belt to carry his sword over his right shoulder.  He should also have worn a gilt gorget, according to the regulations, but this particular regulation was often ignored.  The 48th were raised in 1743 and subsequently became the Royal Berkshire Regiment.  Their green facings were changed to white in 1881 and afterwards to blue.

This image, based on the Clothing Warrant of 1768 and on actual items of clothing still in existence, shows a typical grenadier of this period.  The most striking change in dress is the replacement of the grenadiers mitre by a fur cap.  The grenadier cap began originally as a fur-trimmed cap, and the fur trimming was replaced by the stiff front, which we have seen in several prints, but in the 1768 warrant the fur cap was brought back.  In fact it must have made its return before that date.  Indeed, some regiments had never worn the mitre.  The grenadiers of the Black Watch, for instance, always wore a fur cap closely resembling the one shown here.  It was this fur cap that gradually developed into the bearskin that is worn by the Foot Guards today.  It is often said that the bearskin cap was introduced into the army by the Prince Regent in imitation of the bearskin caps of Napoleons Guard.  This is not so.  The fur cap had its own respectable ancestry on this side of the Channel, as we can see from this image, but it was, of course, worn by grenadiers in many other armies at that time.  Another notable feature of the uniform here is the arrangement of buttons in pairs.  The arrangement was adopted by many regiments when the 1768 warrant was introduced, but all gave it up in 1857 when the tunic replaced the coatee, except the Coldstream Guards, who retain it to this day.  The white spatterdashes in the army had been generally changed for black, in fact the Clothing Warrant specified black.  However, the Foot Guards retained their white ones and used them until some date after 1821for ceremonial dress, long after both white and black spatterdashes had vanished from the rest of the army.  With the war in America at this time and the formation of light companies, the use of grenadier companies as such ceased, and the Grenadiers became more ornamental than anything else.  Their fur caps were rarely worn on service, and were kept for ceremonial occasions.  It will be seen that this grenadier has his hair tied up in a plait at the back and not in a queue.  This was generally a distinction of the grenadiers.

(published during the 1960's)

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Order code  HS17

(published during the 1960's)

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Order code  HS18

This image, based on actual uniforms, shown an officer of the 1st Guards in ceremonial dress.On parade he would be armed with a spontoon as well as his sword.  The officers of the other Guards regiments would have been dressed very similarly.  A notable feature are the bastion loops of gold lace on the lapels.  These became very popular and were adopted by many regiments.  All of these bars and loops of lace, of course, developed from the button-holes originally on the coats.  Hitherto the skirts of the coat had been lined with the facing colour, blue in the Foot Guards, but here they are white, and it was now almost universal for skirts to be lined like this.  These white turn-backs, fastened with an ornamental device, survived in vestigial form on the tails of the coatee until the Crimean war, after which the whole coatee was replaced by a tunic, cut in modern fashion.  The braiding on the mess dress of captains and above in the Royal Navy still shows the outline of the pockets worn on coats of this period.  

The image, from a contemporary portrait, shows a further tendency to simplicity, which we have noted before.  The coat is devoid of lace, and the turn-down collar has developed into something very modern.  The front cock of the hat has almost disappeared, and in a few years after this the hat was to begin to disappear from the dress of the army, finally to be seen only on the heads of certain staff officers.  This officer is wearing one epaulette, so is of below field rank, and is mounted, and therefore may be either an adjutant or a company commander.  It will be noted that he is wearing a black stock with his white cravat, an article of dress which became very unpopular but nevertheless had a long life.  It became symbolic of the tight, uncomfortable uniform which soldiers were forced to wear in the first half of the nineteenth century.  The 65th were originally raised in 1756 as the second battalion of the 12th, but became a separate regiment on their own two years later.  In 1881 they received the better known title of the York and Lancaster Regiment.  

(published during the 1960's)

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Order code  HS19

(published during the 1960's)

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Order code  HS20

Contemporary pictures and existing items of clothing have provided the basis for this image, which shows further development of the fusiliers uniform.  fusilier caps were to be like the grenadier caps only smaller.  The plate with the royal arms in front of the cap has gone, and has been replaced by a badge, and there is an arrangement of gold cords at the back, invisible in the picture, ending in two large tassels.  The collar of the coat has now been turned up again and has begun to assume the form which it has since retained.  The elaboration of the gold lace on the cuffs and lapels is in sharp contrast with the simplicity noted in the previous image.  Being a fusilier, and armed on service with a fusil, he wears a shoulder belt with a pouch as well as a sword belt.  Black gaiters have replaced white spatterdashes, except in the Foot guards.  The white ones were first replaced by brown - a more suitable colour, obviously, for service - but they were not considered very smart, and so were blacked and finally replaced with black gaiters.  As the 23rd were allowed to wear a badge, the Prince of Wales feathers, it appears on the gorget instead of the royal arms.  The plate on the shoulder-belt, carrying a regimental device, was an innovation at about this time, and was worn by all ranks.  Thus the soldier now carried an easily recognisable sign of his regiment, similar to the cap badge today.  Previously, in most cases, unless a man belonged to one of the few regiments permitted to display a badge, he could be identified only by such details as his buttons, or the pattern of his lace.  The 23rd, or Royal Welsh Fusiliers, were raised in 1689.  The notable feature of their dress today is the bunch of black ribbons worn on the collar at the back, a survival of the ribbons worn before 1805 to protect the collar from the grease of the pigtail.