It is supposed, and not without a good show of reason, that the Saxons used coloured hair-powder, or perhaps they dyed their hair. In Saxon pictures the beard and hair are often painted blue. Strutt supplies interesting notes on the subject. "In some instances," he says, "which, indeed, are not so common, the hair is represented of a bright red colour, and in others it is of a green and orange hue. I have no doubt existing in my own mind, that arts of some kind were practised at this period to colour the hair; but whether it was done by tingeing or dyeing it with liquids prepared for that purpose according to the ancient Eastern custom, or by powders of different hues cast into it, agreeably to the modern practice, I shall not presume to determine." It was customary among the Gauls to wash the hair with a lixivium made of chalk in order to increase its redness. The same custom was maintained in England for a long period, and was not given up until after the reign of Elizabeth. The sandy-coloured hair of the queen greatly increased the popularity of the practice. The satirists have many allusions to this subject, more especially those of the reigns of James and Charles I. In a series of epigrams entitled "Wit's Recreations," 1640, the following appears under the heading of "Our Monsieur Powder-wig":-- "Oh, doe but marke yon crisped sir, you meet! How like a pageant he doth walk the street! See how his perfumed head is powdered ore; 'Twou'd stink else, for it wanted salt before." In "Musarum Deliciæ," 1655, we read:-- "At the devill's shopps you buy A dresse of powdered hayre, On which your feathers flaunt and fly; But i'de wish you have a care, Lest Lucifer's selfe, who is not prouder, Do one day dresse up your haire with a powder." From the pen of R. Younge, in 1656, appeared, "The Impartial Monitor." The author closes with a tirade against female follies in these words:--"It were a good deed to tell men also of mealing their heads and shoulders, of wearing fardingales about their legs, etc.; for these likewise deserve the rod, since all that are discreet do but hate and scorn them for it." A "Loyal Litany" against the Oliverians runs thus:-- "From a king-killing saint, Patch, powder, and paint, Libera nos, Domine." Massinger, in the "City Madam," printed in 1679, describing the dress of a rich merchant's wife, mentions powder thus:-- "Since your husband was knighted, as I said, The reverend hood cast off, your borrowed hair Powdered and curled, was by your dresser's art, Formed like a coronet, hanged with diamonds And richest orient pearls." John Gay, in his poem, "Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of London," published in 1716, advises in passing a coxcomb,-- "Him like the Miller, pass with caution by, Lest from his shoulder clouds of powder fly."