Professional men did not neglect to add to their dignity by the use of the muff. In addition to the gold-headed cane, the doctor carried a muff. An old book called "The Mother-in-law," includes a character who is advised by his friends to become a physician. Says one to him: "'Tis but putting on the doctor's gown and cap, and you'll have more knowledge in an instant than you'll know what to do withal." Observes another friend: "Besides, sir, if you had no other qualification than that muff of yours, twould go a great way. A muff is more than half in the making of a doctor." Cibble tells Nightshade in Cumberland's "Cholerick Man," 1775, to "Tuck your hands in your _muff_ and never open your lips for the rest of the afternoon; 'twill gain you respect in every house you enter." Alexander Wedderburn, before being called to the English Bar in 1757, had practised as an advocate in his native city, Edinburgh. In his references to his early days, there is an allusion to the muff, showing that its use must have been by no means uncommon in Scotland in the middle of the eighteenth century. "Knowing my countrymen at that time," he tells us, "I was at great pains to study and assume a very grave, solemn deportment for a young man, which my marked features, notwithstanding my small stature, would render more imposing. Men then wore in winter _small muffs_, and I flatter myself that, as I paced to the Parliament House, no man of fifty could look more thoughtful or steady. My first client was a citizen whom I did not know. He called upon me in the course of a cause, and becoming familiar with him, I asked him 'how he came to employ me?' The answer was: 'Why, I had noticed you in the High Street, going to the court, the most punctual of any, as the clock struck nine, and you looked so grave and business-like, that I resolved from your appearance to have you for my advocate.'" More instances of the muff amongst professional men might be cited, but the foregoing are sufficient to indicate the value set upon it by this class. Towards the end of the seventeenth century it was customary to carry in the muff small dogs known as "muff dogs," and Hollar made a picture of one of these little animals. A tale is told of the eccentric head of one of the colleges at Oxford, who had a great aversion to the undergraduates wearing long hair, that on one occasion he reduced the length of a young man's hair by means of a bread-knife. It is stated that he carried concealed in his muff a pair of scissors, and with these he slyly cut off offending locks.