I said to my wife, "I need to call the doctor today."
"Which doctor?" she asked.
"No, the regular kind."
Top hatIn 1797, the top hat was first worn in England by James Heatherington, a Strand haberdasher in London. An issue of the Times of that period records that when he left his shop with his extraordinary headwear, a crowd of onlookers assembled, which degenerated into a shoving match. Consequently, Heatherington was summoned to appear in court before the Lord Mayor and fined £50 for going about in a manner "calculated to frighten timid people." Within a month, he was overwhelmed with orders for the new top hats. In France, a painting by Charles Vernet (1758-1836) titled Un Incroyable de 1796 depicts a dandy of his time wearing a stovepipe hat, which might be interpreted as an earlier appearance of the top hat.* [p.159, with name revised from John Etherington based on email of 5 Feb 2005 from descendant Other internet sources state date of 5 Jan 1797.] |
