Chapter XXIII: Legal Dress

VESTIGES OF THE COIF--HOODS AND GOWNS--SIGNS OF MOURNING

It would be strange if the majesty of the law did not depend to some extent upon dress, and there is no doubt but that an impressiveness which would otherwise be absent from our courts is given by wigs and gowns. The wigs themselves are an interesting survival, and presumably are not more uncomfortable to the few who now wear them than they were to many in times gone by. We will describe here a few interesting vestiges among those which are to be met with in legal costume.

Any one who has an opportunity of looking on to the top of a judge's wig will notice a small circular depression about three inches across. (See Figure 139.) This has a very interesting history, and in order to trace it we shall have to look at the long wigs of the serjeants-at-law, from whose ranks in the past most of the judges used to come. On the serjeant's wig we shall find that there is a similar depression, and that it is filled with a circular white patch, having a black centre, and reminding one of two large pieces of court plaster, one stuck over the other. (See Figure 140.)

The white piece represents the coif, or close-fitting cap of white lawn or silk which resembles that of a nun, and with which the serjeants-at-law on their creation were decked. From this cap, the body to which the serjeants-at-law belonged was called the Order of the Coif. It seems that the origin of this head-dress cannot definitely be settled. Mr. Druitt[32] and Mr. Paley Baildon are content to consider it as part of the insignia of the serjeants-at-law, in the same way that the round cap indicates the possessor of a doctor's degree, and they are not inclined to give credence to the suggestion that the coif was to hide the tonsure or to prevent its absence from being noticed. The black patch represents a black skull-cap that was worn over the coif.

After having been in existence for many hundreds of years, the order of serjeants-at-law was abolished by Mr. Gladstone. Lord Lindley, we believe, is the last member who survives. A black skull-cap is also worn by a judge, but it is not to be confounded with the cap of dignity which is used by him when pronouncing sentence, and which was ordered to be worn in church when on circuit. Ordinarily, the judge does not wear his scarlet gown, but a black one, the girdle of which has grown to a very great width.

The drab colour of the trimmings, which does not harmonize well with the rest of the gown, has recently begun to give way to primrose, and the change is due to the initiative of the late Lord Coleridge.

It is said that black gowns which are worn by the King's Counsel and other barristers superseded the coloured ones on the death of Queen Mary II, and in reality were intended as mourning which has never been discarded. Legal gowns have come down with very little change from the Middle Ages, and are doubtless derived from ecclesiastical through academical costume. The original robes of the serjeants-at-law were somewhat striking in colour, for taking a line down the centre of the black, one half was of a mustard colour and the other red, while the latter was further ornamented with green stripes. The robe of the Barons of the Exchequer was of a beautiful heliotrope tint.

The material of the gown of the King's Counsel is indicated by the phrase "taking silk." One peculiarity of the garment is that it has a large collar resembling that of court-ushers and of vergers in churches. The ordinary dress of the King's Counsel which he wears in court is interesting on account of the ornamental cuffs and the escalloped flaps of the pockets of the coat and waistcoat, which resemble those of Court dress.

On the barrister's gown there is a tiny hood on the left shoulder resembling that from which the chaperon was developed, and from the vestige runs a streamer which comes over the left shoulder and hangs down in front of the gown. (See Figure 141.) There is also a series of buttons as well as pieces of braid on the sleeves which are survivals, and we have not the hanging sleeves of the King's Counsel, which are comparable to those seen in many academic gowns. Small falling bands are of course generally worn by members of the legal profession, and barristers and King's Counsel when in mourning have a little pleat down the middle of each band. Perhaps the most curious additions to legal costume used in order to indicate mourning are the little white lawn or muslin cuffs, like those of widows, which the King's Counsel wear on their sleeves when the Court is in mourning, or when they themselves have suffered bereavement.