The steeple-crowned hat of both men and women was in vogue in the second half of the seventeenth century in both England and America, at the time when the witchcraft tragedies came to a culmination. The long scarlet cloak was worn at the same date. It is evident that the conventional witch of to-day, an old woman in scarlet cloak and steeple-crowned hat, is a relic of that day. Through the striking circumstances and the striking dress was struck off a figurative type which is for all time. William Kempe of “Duxburrow” in 1641 left hats, hat-boxes, rich hatbands, bone laces, leather hat-cases; also ten “capps.” Hats were also made of cloth. In the tailor’s bill of work done for Jonathan Corwin of Salem, in 1679, we read “To making a Broadcloth Hatt 14s. To making 2 hatts &; 2 jackets for your two sonnes 19s.” In 1672 an association of Massachusetts hatters asked privileges and protection from the colonial government to aid and encourage American manufacture, but they were refused until they made better hats. Shortly after, however, the exportation of raccoon fur to England was forbidden, or taxed, as it was found to be useful in the home manufacture of hats. The eighteenth century saw many and varied forms of the cocked hat; the nineteenth returned to a straight crown and brim. The description of these will be given in the due course of the narrative of this book. CHAPTER VIII THE VENERABLE HOOD _“Paul saith, that a woman ought to have a Power on her head. This Power that some of them have is disguised gear and strange fashions. They must wear French Hoods—and I cannot tell you—I—what to call it. And when they make them ready and come to the Covering of their Head they will say, ‘Give me my French Hood, and Give me my Bonnet or my Cap.’ Now here is a Vengeance-Devil; we must have our Power from Turkey of Velvet, and gay it must be; far-fetched and dear-bought; and when it cometh it is a False Sign.”_ —Sermon, ARCHBISHOP LATIMER, 1549. _“Hoods are the most ancient covering for the head and far more elegant and useful than the more modern fashion of hats, which present a useless elevation, and leave the neck and ears completely exposed.”_ —“Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume,” PUGIN, 1868. CHAPTER VIII THE VENERABLE HOOD W