a daughter. To his fecond wife, who furvived him many years, and who, by her mother, was defcended from the Percys of Worcester, the Bishop of Dromore, to whom he was thus related, allowed a penfion to her death.

The following CATALOGUE of Mr. ROLT's publications, is fubjoined to his propofals in 1769. But many of them were published without his name, and in weekly numbers. Folio.

A Dictionary of Trade and Commerce; dedicated, by Permiffion, to George Lord Anfon. To this Johnfon wrote the Preface.

Lives of the Reformers; dedicated to the Princess Dowager of Wales. Quarto.

Life of John Earl of Craufurd; dedicated to his Grace James Duke of Hamilton.

rick.

The Ancient Rofciad, published in 1753.

At the time of his deceafe, he had projected the following:

Hiftory of the Isle of Man, in 1 vol. †, and

History of the British Empire in North America, in 6 vols.

After his death were published, for the benefit of his widow,

Select Pieces of the late R. Rolt (dedicated, by Permiffion, to the Right Hon. Lady Sondes, by Mary Rolt), 1772, small 8vo.

This Lady Sondes, who was daughter of the Right Hon. Henry Pelham, was one of the most charitable perfons of quality in her time. She had a little French woman, who was her Almoner, and whofe whole life was spent in finding out proper objects for her Lady's bounty, which the diftributed with a zeal for their welfare, and a delicacy for their feelings, which makes it the fubject of regret, that the name of this excellent creature is not recollected. They, unfolicited, difcovered and applied to Mrs. Rolt the protection of Lady Sondes, on the death of her hufband.

THE FIRST CHAPTER OF HATS.

Hippocrate dit que nous nous couvrions tous

H

words, that the faculty ought to be covered. This is a pofition which is denied by the learned Boerhaave ‡, and which my regard for the Conftitution induces me once more to deny. But as the circumftance of being covered,

C 2

; and a fig for the

found of a human voice fhould make him ftart, and confequently spoil his understanding, and whofe tutors amufed him with Greek, deeming Latin too vulgar a language; who has frequently promifed his readers one thing, and given them another; for hats will, as has been obferved, certainly form a principal part, though it is fubordinately intended to glance at every covering for the head, with refpect to which, in an elaborate and extenfive enquiry, I have been able to collect materials: therefore, as it will be neceffary to clear the ground of the rubbish of remote periods before a modern fuperstructure can with propriety be erected on it, I fhall begin with confidering the antiquity of covering the head, and then proceed to its

ufe.

It has, in a former number of these Veftiges, been stated, upon the authority of Herodotus, that the Egyptians (to go no further back) were accuf tomed to appear bare-headed; but this affertion must be confidered as fubject to limitation. In fact, the idea of an Egyptian fcalp exposed to the fun muft be confined to those whofe owners could not afford even a ftraw bonnet, and can, at moft, only comprife thofe perfons whofe heads, in other countries, are generally the maft fhaded; namely, their husbandmen, artificers, and foldiers. But to put this matter beyond difpute, and at once to overturn the dictum of the philofopher with respect to the nakedness of Egyptian craniunis, we need only confider the state of that country, which, although then much more cultivated than at prefent, certainly abounded with burning fands fufficient to have blinded any army upon its march, or carried over the fields, or into the towns, by frequent hurricanes, any bufbandmen, or artificers, at their feveral employments, except they had taken the method hinted above, to have guarded their eyes with a kind of bonnet or cap in the form of the front of a

helmet. Some of the Sphynxes, the guardians of their temples, and of the Mercuries that filled Egypt with wonderful inventions, have upon their beads teguments of this kind. Others have the direct Petafus, which they believed to poffefs virtues fimilar to thofe which the conjuring-cap of Fauftus, or the withing-cap of Fortunatus, are endued by the vulgar therefore, is it to be credited that a people fo wife would in the torrid zone, under a vertical fun, fuffer the heads of their ftatues, which they knew to be impenetrable, to be covered, and their own, which they could fhade with a whifp of straw, to remain bare? The thing is impoffible; and the philofopher, though it is difficult to guess how this could happen to a philofopher, must have either been misinformed or mistaken.

To afcend from the lower to the highest order of the State: That the Kings of Egypt wore crowns appears. in inftances fo innumerable, both in hiftory, and upon coin, medals, &c. that it is as impoffible as unnecessary to quote them." Ofymandyas, who, in his "Office," or Treasury for Diseases of the Soul," feems to have given the first hint of that bencial inftitution, a circulating library, it is well known, had feveral, various in their forms, colours, and fubftances. This Monarch, who appears to have had a particular regard for his own head, had also many helmets + equal in beauty and brilliancy.

Sefoftris, who was famous for his aquatic inventions, and is reported to have undertaken greater designs, and to have made more by his canals than any modern fpeculator, has been reprefented with a tegument upon his head, which, like the Phrygian Mortier, looks as if it ferved him both for crown and night-cap.

Of the fame nature, but encircled with a radiated diadem, was the Cap of Liberty, which covered the pate of Bufiris, a Monarch from whole treatment

of

of foreigners who had flown into his country for protection, it is believed an idea was taken by an illuftrious Modern, who it appears has a great affection for that country, that may, at fome future period, in all probability, adorn the hiflory of a polished

nation.

The turbans of the Perfians, and other nations inhabiting the Indian peninfula, were a kind of covering for the head, which, like the thick laid thatch of a lowly cottage, feemed calculated to diveft the whole building of all proportion. It is curious enough to trace, in the different forms of these teguments, the different fituations and circumstances of the wearers. The Imperial turban, which was compofed of almost a whole bale of mufin, was moulded and twifted into fomewhat of an oval shape, furmounted by a woollen cap encircled with a radiated Crown: the Minifterial turban, fmaller in its dimenfions, was yet of fuperior altitude. Whether there was any political reafon for its affuming this conic form; whether it was meant to typify that the Vizier's head was exalted above his master's, it is impoffible now to fay: but it has been fuggefted, that the var us evolvements of this covering, have, upon fome occafions, been developed, unrolled, and have frequently, without any additional stuff, affumed a royal appearance.

The turban of the Chief Magi, as he was deemed greater, was confequently higher than thofe of the Monarch and Minister placed upon each other: and a kind of regular gradation was preferved among thofe of the inferior Magi, according to their circumftances, or, as we should fay, their livings; fo that the most ignorant perfon in Afia could, from the mode in which their heads were furnished, properly eltimate their fituation and dignity.

Referring to ancient medals, to pictures, &c. it appears, with respect to the latter, that, if the painters have not used a greater licence than ordinary, the Jews wore a variety of coverings for their heads, fimilar to thofe of

the nations with whom they were con nected. From the Perfians they borrowed thofe large turbans which adorned their Elders, Doctors, Scribes, &c. The mitre of their Priests, and their phylacteries, were their own; and it is fingular enough that they should place the commandments on the outfide of their fkulls, which the Priests of other nations are fuppofed to have within. From the Romans they had the caps commonly given to their flaves upon their manumiffion †, but which feveral of the tribes adopted, and which bore a great fimilitude to fome worn by the polished Jews to this day. It appears from St. Paul that this people had a custom of wearing their turbans, caps, &c. in the Temple, and in their fynagogues, for he forbids them to pray or prophefy with their heads covered. In their military drefs they wore helmets; and with them, as with the furrounding nations, the crown was the fymbol of regal authority.

It is difficult to difcover the idea of a crown, from that of its concomitant a fceptre, although "this rod of temporal power" is faid to be of far greater antiquity. Of this I think that there is fome reafon to doubt, as, according to Pliny, Bacchus was the first that used the former; if fo, the Thyrfus was unquestionably his fceptre. Tertullian, De Corona, affigns the priority of wearing this ornament to Saturn, and Dio. dorus gives it to Jupiter; which three inftances feem to carry the date of it far enough back to fatisfy any reasonable antiquarian. With regard to the connection of thefe royal inftruments, it feems to have been fo obvious, that when the fceptre departed from Judah, notwithstanding all the waste of learning upon the subject, no polemic has yet been abfurd enough to argue that the crown did not, in a fpiritual fenfe, depart alfo, although both were reftored at the coming of the Messiah.

Refpecting this kind of covering for the head, which we term a crown, it must be obferved, that it has formerly been compofed of almost every fubitance, from the first simple bandage

of

ef vine, oak, and other leaves, or of ribband, or cloth, fuch as we fee upon the medals of the Ptolomies and the Kings of Syria, to the gold, jewels, velvet, and ermine, which, in more modern times, have been employed in their compofition.

The ufe that has been made of the crowns, Celestial, Eaftern, Imperial, and Papal, is already well known, except in one inftance, that the latter feems to have given a hint that has, with confiderable fagacity, been feized and acted upon, of uniting under one head the offices of Supreme Judge, fole Legislator, and univerfal Dictator of Europe, to the great and manifeft eafe and advantage of other States and Potentates.

The crown of Charlemagne did not convey an idea of half the extent of domination which feems annexed to that we are contemplating as likely to drop upon a skull at prefent only covered with a bat: but then it must be obferved, that the crown of the Imperial extender of the French monarchy was actually but half-a-crown. Probably becaufe he had but half completed the great designs he had in contemplation, he meant ingeniously to typify to his fucceffors that he had left them room to add to its bows croffes, and other ornaments, ad libitum.

The man who beat down the wall of a city was formerly entitled to a mural crown. This has been deemed an abfurdity; and it has been contended, that the perfon who built or repaired tue faid wall or walls was a much more ufeful member of fociety. The mode of obtaining the Civic crowns might be adduced in fupport of this argument. Thefe, every one knows, were decreed to thofe that faved the lives of Citizens; and, of course, the ancient phyficians had fuch a plenty of them, and thefe donations were attended with fuch immenfe advantages to the State, that one almost regrets they are not made the honourable meed of profeffional merit in modern times.

When vegetable crowns were in ufe, Timoleon, who was a little headstrong, was very near caufing a mutiny in his army, because he took it into his pate to cover the outside of it with leaves of fmaliage, his foldiers having a pre

deliction for those of the pine or pitch tree: either of thefe was as cheap a fubftitute for a bat as the laurel crown, which Swift, in his parallel betwixt ancient extravagance and modern parlimony values at three halfpence.

Whether the Dean, who was an able calculator, has properly appreciated this tegument, it is not neceffary to determine, as it is an ornament of which the intrinfic estimation fluctu ates, according to the circumstances of different countries and different periods, more than that of any other commodity.

Having, for the prefent, nearly done with thefe coverings for the head, many of which, though light in them. felves, have, according to Shakspeare, fat heavy upon the wearers, of which, if neceflary, inftances might be adduced from the laurel crowns of conquerors, from the radiated crowns of the Peruan Monarch, and many others, to the apparently comfortable night cap of the Doge of Venice, I fhall juft observe, that from fome of these parent stocks have fprung another species of ornaments that have obtained the appellation of coronets. Thefe, as they are compofed of pearls which denote riches, for which fome of the wearers have dived into the law, or into the fea, or have fathomed the depths and thoals of politics, and alfo of Itrawberryleaves fprouting up, probably from botbeds which denote

one

is happy to obferve, by their plenty, the improvements that have been lately made in horticulture, and, confequently, little furprised at the rapidity of their vegetation.

The next fubftitute for hats which it is neceflary to take into confideration are the ancient helmets: and here one obfervation very naturally arifes, namely, that thofe men who first deemed it prudent to fecure their fkulls, by cafing them in teel, brass, or fometimes more coltly metals, must either have thought them very valuable, or have depended very little upon their thickness. Their variety, or their fears, muit have rifen fuperior to their confidence; and therefore, in the latter instance, they feem to have guarded with tenfold caution vejels which they must have confidered as

A fpecies of parsley.