Note 234 — Chapter XIV · WOMEN'S DRESS.
Reading edition
The tall broad-brimmed hat (which still exists in Wales, only made in beaver) of James the First's reign was still used by country women, and the poorer class in towns. Ward, talking of an 'Assembly of Fat Motherly Flat Caps' at Billingsgate, says: 'Their Chief clamour was against High Heads and Patches; and said it would have been a very good Law, if Q. Mary had effected her design, and brought the proud Minks's of the Town, to have worn High Crownd Hats instead of Top Knots.'[234] And in 'Tunbridge Walks': 'Oh! the joys of a Country life, to mind one's Poultry, and one's Dairy, and the pretty business of milking a Cow, then, the soft diversions of riding on Horseback, or going to a Bull baiting, and the Charming Conversation of High Crown'd Hats, who can talk of nothing but their Hogs and their Husbands.'