Chapter XVI: Cockades

THE COCKADE A DEGENERATED CHAPERON--THE VARIETIES OF THE COCKADE--COCKADE WEARERS

The cockade as we know it (see Figure 116) is now commonly worn by servants, but, like their clothes generally, it was once used by their masters. The books of an old-established firm of hat manufacturers show that as late as 1789 cockades were worn by gentlemen themselves. Apparently in the beginning, the sporting of a black cockade meant allegiance to the House of Hanover. Now the use of the ornaments is supposed to be confined to the servants of Royalty and of those in the Royal service, though this does not seem to be actually the case. In a letter to the _Morning Post_[18] Messrs. André and Co. say that "the practice has long been regarded as a convenient and fitting sign of social distinction, and that only such persons should assume the cockade as enjoy hereditary rank or else some position of importance in the State, including all officers, military and civil." Yet they can find no trace of the question even having been dealt with by any authority, nor have the classes of persons privileged to display the cockade been at any time accurately defined.

Sir Alfred Scott Gatty, Garter King-at-Arms, points out that the matter is really outside the College of Arms, and it does not come under the jurisdiction of the Lord Chamberlain's department, which usually arranges all matters connected with official dress.

Before, however, we touch on the various kinds of cockades, and mention those by whom the different types are at present worn, it will be well to deal with the construction and evolution of the cockade, and we shall be able to show that it has considerable claims to be considered something more than a mere conventional rosette. As regards actual material, the basis of the cockade consists of leather, which is japanned, while a certain amount of ribbon may also be used. In the case of mourning, we find that the cockade should properly be covered with black cloth (see Figure 117), but nowadays a piece of crape is often twisted round the one generally worn. The ribbon is usually merely a small bow tied in the middle of the rosette (see Figure 116), but the centre of the latter may be covered with ribbon and the bow replaced by a button.

The cockades worn by the Royal servants on the front of their three-cornered hats on state occasions (see Figure 120) are large. The rosette has points, while the upper part, or fan, shows them in profusion, and there is no silk bow. The Royal cockade for semi-state has a simple fan, while that worn on the silk hat at ordinary times (see Figure 121) has no fan, but the edges are cut into points and there is a bow of ribbon in the centre.

The ordinary fan cockade is used in various sizes, and is shown in Figure 116. This is called the "treble," and has a bow of ribbon as a rule. A curious variety worn by the Chelsea Pensioners has no ribbon, while a segment is cut from the lower part of the rosette (see Figure 118). The only other variety with regard to shape that we have now to mention is the "regent" cockade, which is exactly like the treble, but without the fan. (See Figure 119.)

FIG. 122.--Combined hood and cape.

FIG. 123.--Enlargement of the peak of the hood to form the liripipe.

(After Calthrop, by kind permission of Messrs. A. and C. Black.)]

It appears that the cockade can lay claim to have been descended from a very ancient and curious form of head-dress, and Mr. Calthrop[19] has traced in a very interesting way the development of this, as well as of the cockade which is a survival of it in miniature. The head-dress in question was called a chaperon, and came into favour in the time of Richard II. It was itself derived from a hood and a cape which were originally worn separately, but afterwards the two were joined together for convenience, so that they could both be donned at the same time. Fashion lengthened out the peak of the hood extravagantly until it reached nearly to the ground, and then the prolongation was called a liripipe. Next it was ordained that the whole arrangement should be twisted up round the head, so that what was in the beginning a cape with jagged edges stuck out on one side like a cock's comb.

FIG. 124.--Cape and liripipe made into a head-dress that can be altered at will.

FIG. 125.--A chaperon ready made up, in order to save trouble.

(After Calthrop, by kind permission of Messrs. A. and C. Black.)]

It will be noticed that the modern cockade shows the jagged edges sticking up, and it would appear that the rosette represents a coiled-up liripipe. Even to-day cockades are of various colours, and, as Mr. Calthrop points out, the servant's chaperon from which it was derived used to bear the colours of the master's livery. The chaperon is also to be seen on the robes of the Knights of the Garter at the present day, where it is fixed on the right shoulder as a kind of cape. (See Figure 144.) Mr. Calthrop also points out that the present head-dress of the French lawyer is another descendant of the chaperon, and that the buttons worn by the members of the Legion of Honour and other foreign Orders are connected with the same idea.

A writer in the _Sketch_[20] sees in the rosette and fan of the treble cockade the remnants of the crown and star which we see on military uniforms. He says that the earlier forms seem to have been made of metal, which must surely be a mistake, though the cock of the hat was, as we know, sometimes fastened up with a brooch. The example which he figures, however, and uses in support of his theory, is evidently a helmet plate which displays the star, garter, and St. George's Cross, the whole being surmounted by a crown, and in the cockade he claims to see all these elements in a modified condition. If this derivation of the cockade were correct, it would be in keeping with the quotation which the same writer gives from Cussan's "Handbook of Heraldry," that the privilege of wearing a cockade is confined to the servants of officers in the King's service, or those who by courtesy may be regarded as such. The theory is that the servant is a private soldier who when not wearing his uniform retains this badge as a mark of his profession. We cannot help thinking that Mr. Calthrop's derivation of the cockade is more feasible, though it is not easy to see the remains of the coiled-up liripipe of the chaperon in the way which Mr. Calthrop represents it in his sketch.[21] In the majority of the cockades there is no trace of a spiral such as he indicates in his figure, though in the mourning cockade, concentric rings are very clearly shown. A word may now be said as to those whose coachmen and footmen wear cockades.

The Royal cockade is used by the servants of the King, and by those belonging to members of the Royal Household. It is large and circular, as we have seen, and half the disk projects above the top of the hat. The regent cockade, which has no fan, is worn by the servants of naval officers, and no part of it is allowed to project above the hat. The servants of the officers in the Army, Yeomanry, Militia, and Volunteers wear the treble cockade with the fan, as do also the Lords Lieutenant and their deputies, as well as the servants of the members of the Diplomatic Corps. Besides this, it appears that the same kind of cockade is worn by the servants of the following: All peers and their sons and daughters, baronets, knights, and sheriffs, judges, justices, and magistrates; members and high officers of Parliament and of the Civil Service; dignitaries of the Church, King's Counsel, and law officers of the Crown.

English ambassadors have the fan painted with three stripes of red, white, and blue, and while the edge of the rosette is red, the next part is white, and the centre blue. In this case also the ribbon in the centre shows the same three colours. The cockade of the Danish ambassador is of ordinary black leather, but the centre is covered with a rosette of ribbon, red at the edge, with a circle of white next to it, and green in the centre, while the whole is finished off with an ornamental black button or knob. Other foreign ambassadors have their cockades coloured upon the same principle as the English; but in some the colours are shown on the fan in bands instead of in stripes, and the centre of the rosette may have segments of different colours instead of rings. In the case of the French ambassador the colours on the fan are in stripes, while those of the rosette are in segments.

Of recent years cockades have been reduced in size until they have become mere pigmies in connection with the uniform of "chauffeurs," or motorcar drivers. The latter customarily wear a military kind of hat with a mushroom top, and as a cockade fastened on the side of one of these would not look elegant, a very small cockade is now made and fixed in the front of the cap just above the peak. Would not one of the wearers of the old cock's-comb turbans be amazed if he could see the most recent outcome of his head-dress in its modern surroundings?

There seems to be little doubt but that the "cockade" forms part of the livery of many who have no recognized right to it. Perhaps the ease with which it can be assumed is shown by the price lists of jobmasters, in which we find, after the charge for the hire of broughams and victorias, a footnote to the effect that cockades are "6d. extra if required."