By an order of 5 Maii, 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, the gentlemen of the
Inner Temple were forbidden to wear long beards, no member of the
society being permitted to wear a beard of more than three weeks'
growth. Every breach of this law was punished by the heavy fine of
twenty shillings. In 4 and 5 of Philip and Mary it was ordered that no
member of the Middle Temple "should thenceforth wear any great bryches
in their hoses, made after the Dutch, Spanish, or Almon fashion; or
lawnde upon their capps; or cut doublets, upon pain of iiis iiiid
forfaiture for the first default, and the second time to be expelled the
house." At Lincoln's Inn, "in 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, one Mr Wyde, of
this house, was (by special order made upon Ascension day) fined at five
groats, for going in his study gown in Cheapside, on a Sunday, about ten
o'clock before noon; and in Westminister Hall, in the Term time, in the
forenoon." Mr. Wyde's offence was one of remissness rather than of
excessive care for his personal appearance. With regard to beards in the
same reign Lincoln's Inn exacted that such members "as had beards should
pay 12_d._ for every meal they continued them; and every man" was
required "to be shaven upon pain of putting out of commons."
The orders made under Elizabeth with regard to the same or similar
matters are even more humorous and diverse. At the Inner Temple "it was
ordered in 36 Elizabeth (16 Junii), that if any fellow in commons, or
lying in the Louse, did wear either hat or cloak in the Temple Church,
hall, buttry, kitchen, or at the buttry-barr, dresser, or in the garden,
he should forfeit for every such offence vis viiid. And in 42 Eliz. (8
Febr.) that they go not in cloaks, hatts, bootes, and spurs into the
city, but when they ride out of the town." This order was most
displeasing to the young men of the legal academies, who were given to
swaggering amongst the brave gallants of city ordinaries, and delighted
in showing their rich attire at Paul's. The Templar of the Inner Temple
who ventured to wear arms (except his dagger) in hall committed a grave
offence, and was fined five pounds. "No fellow of this house should come
into the hall" it was enacted at the Inner Temple, 38 Eliz. (20 Dec.)
"with any weapons, except his dagger, or his knife, upon pain of
forfeiting the sum of five pounds." In old time the lawyers often
quarrelled and drew swords in hall; and the object of this regulation
doubtless was to diminish the number of scandalous affrays. The Middle
Temple, in 26 Eliz., made six prohibitory rules with regard to apparel,
enacting, "1. That no ruff should be worn. 2. Nor any White color in
doublets or hoses. 3. Nor any facing of velvet in gownes, but by such as
were of the bench. 4. That no gentleman should walk in the streets in
their cloaks, but in gownes. 5. That no hat, or long, or curled hair be
worn. 6. Nor any gown, but such as were of a sad color." Of similar
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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