It is certain that many men wore hoods; and they wore occasionally a garment which was really woman’s wear, namely, a “riding hood”; which was also called a Dutch hood, and was like Elinor Rummin’s hake. This riding-hood was really more of a cloak than a head-covering, as it often had arm-holes. It might well be classed with cloaks. I may say here that it is not possible, either by years or by topics, to isolate completely each chapter of this book from the other. Its very arrangement, being both by chronology and subject, gives me considerable liberty, which I now take in this chapter, by retaining the riding-hood among hoods, simply because of its name. Pink Silk Hood. Pink Silk Hood. Pug Hood. Pug Hood. On May 6, 1717, the _Boston News Letter_ gave a description of a gayly attired Indian runaway; she wore off a “red Camblet Ryding Hood fac’d with blue.” Another servant absconded with an orange-colored riding-hood with arm-holes. I have an ancient pattern of a riding-hood; it was found in the bottom of an old hair-covered trunk. It was marked “London Ryding Hood.” With it were rolled several packages of bits of woollen stuff, one of scarlet broadcloth, one of blue camlet, plainly labelled “Cuttings from Apphia’s ryding hood” and “Pieces from Mary’s ryding hood,” showing that they had been placed there with the pattern when the hood was cut. It is a cape, cut in a deep point in front and back; the extreme length of the points from the collar being about twenty-six inches. The hood is precisely like the one on Judge Curwen’s cloak, like the hoods of Shaker cloaks. As bits of silk are rolled with the wool pieces, I infer that these riding-hoods were silk lined. A most romantic name was given to the riding-hood after the battle of Preston in 1715. The Earl of Nithsdale, after the defeat of the Jacobites, was imprisoned in the Tower of London under sentence of death. From thence he made his escape through his wife’s coolness and ingenuity. She visited him dressed in a large riding-hood which could be drawn closely over her face. He escaped in her dress and hood, fled to the continent, and lived thirty years in safety in France. After that dashing rescue, these hoods were known as Nithsdales. The head-covering portion still resembled the French hood, but the shoulder-covering portion was circular and ruffled—according to Hogarth. In Durfey’s _Wit and Mirth_, 1719, is a spirited song commemorating this “sacred wife,” who— “by her Wits immortal pains With her quick head has saved his brains.” One verse runs thus:— “Let Traitors against Kings conspire Let secret spies great Statesmen hire, Nought shall be by detection got If Woman may have leave to plot. There’s nothing clos’d with Bars or Locks Can hinder Night-rayls, Pinners, Smocks; For they will everywhere make good As now they’ve done the Riding-hood.”