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. There are noblemen yet in existence," she says, when writing her history, "who can remember, at six years old, joining the juvenile parties given by George III. and Queen Charlotte, dressed after the models of their fathers' court costumes, with powdered side-curls, single-breasted coat, knee-buckles, and shoe-buckles." It will not be without interest to give a picture of a full-bottomed wig, and we select as an example the one worn by the great Lord Mansfield. It was made by Mr Williams, a noted barber in his day, who had among his patrons many famous men, including Dr Samuel Johnson, but he prided himself most on making the full state wig for Lord Mansfield, and the one which is represented on his imposing monument in Westminster Abbey. After the famous lawyer had been laid to rest, the wig which is represented on his monument was the subject of a very odd litigation, which was fully reported in the _Times_ for 1823. An action, it is stated, was brought by Mr Williams, a barber, against Mr Lawrence, to recover Lord Mansfield's full state wig, which had again come into the possession of the perruquier after the death of his lordship. The wig had been graciously lent by the barber to one Lawrence, belonging to the legal profession, but also an amateur actor. In this wig, we are told, he proposed to disport himself in the character of Shylock. The plaintiff could not get it back again, and brought the action for its recovery. The wig had been accidentally burnt, and the judge awarded the plaintiff the sum of L2 as a compensation for the loss of the relic. [Illustration: Lord Mansfield.] STEALING WIGS [Illustration: Stealing a Wig.] In the palmy days of wigs the price of a full-wig of an English gentleman was from thirty to forty guineas. Street quarrels in the olden time were by no means uncommon; care had to be exercised that wigs were not lost. Swift says:-- "Triumphing Tories and desponding Whigs, Forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs."