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  Captain John Staple took up residence in a toll-house and acted as

  gatekeeper for a time in The Toll-Gate.

  TURNPIKES, TOLL-GATES AND TICKETS

  Turnpikes were first established on the Great North Road in 1663 during the reign of Charles II as a means of charging road users a toll to supplement the cost of building and maintaining the highway. By the time of the Regency the poles or pikes originally used to bar the road had been replaced with wide wooden toll-gates, with small toll-houses built on the adjacent roadside as permanent residences for the toll-keepers or pikemen. It was in one of these toll-houses that Captain John Staple resided after he found himself unable to resist the promise of adventure and took over the role of gatekeeper in The Toll-Gate. The two main tasks of the trusts were to ensure the maintenance of the roads and the collection of the tolls, a long and often complex set of charges which depended on such things as who was travelling and whether they were on horseback, in a coach, driving a wagon or herd of animals, or transporting particular kinds of goods. Mail coaches travelled all toll-roads free of charge but in 1815 it cost a single-horse carriage sixpence, a coach and four a shilling and a wagon and six two shillings to pass the toll-gate and, as Captain Staple soon learned, it was not uncommon for travellers to tell any tale which might see them exempted from paying the toll. Once the toll was paid a ticket was issued which usually opened several more toll-gates along the highway.

  A turnpike ticket could be used to open several gates along a highway.

  9

  What to Wear

  MEN’S FASHION FROM HEAD TO TOE

  A man of fashion was meticulous in both the choice and wearing of his clothes. From his elegant beaver hat and elaborately tied neckcloth to his gleaming hessian or top-boots, the cut of his clothes, the polish on his boots, the fit of his pantaloons all combined to designate him a Tulip of the ton. As one of the great leaders of London society, Mr Beaumaris in Arabella was known as the Nonpareil—the Arbiter of Fashion who had taken Beau Brummell’s place and whose taste and style in dress was copied everywhere by younger men. Not all gentlemen aspired to inclusion among the dandy set or even to turn out in fine trim but it would be a rare upper-class man who did not adhere to the established dress code of hat (when outdoors), shirt and collar, neckcloth, waistcoat, well-cut tail-coat, breeches and top-boots, or pantaloons and hessians—ensuring that his coat was dark-coloured and his trousers light. Gloves were essential outdoors or for formal occasions and a gentleman might also carry accessories such as a cane, quizzing glass or, in inclement weather, one of the new umbrellas. To guard against the cold, or while travelling, he could wear a top-coat or a driving-coat with any number of capes.

  What a gentleman wore was dictated by the day’s or evening’s activities: whether he was in the town or the country; whether he was on the strut, visiting or driving; whether he was travelling, hunting or shooting; whether he was going to a ball, or to his club, or out for a night among the fleshpots, each activity had the appropriate dress. His choice of costume was also determined by his self-designated role as either a dandy, a Corinthian, a top-sawyer or a quiet man about town. But every gentleman wore black for mourning, buckskins and top-boots for riding, full dress on formal occasions, and a nightshirt—or nothing—to bed.

  Hats were de rigueur for the Regency man and the most popular was the beaver hat. Made from felted beaver fur, it was similar to the modern top hat in shape with tall vertical sides (sometimes widening towards the top), a flat or slightly curved crown, and a slender brim which gently turned up at the sides. Men’s shirts were mostly home-made with replaceable cuffs (and even fronts) to extend the life of the garment. They were designed to go over the head with an opening halfway down the chest which could be tied at the neck or buttoned. Made of cotton, linen or the finest cambric, shirts were white and generally plain-fronted for day wear and ruffled for the evening. Collars were attached separately and were raised to accommodate the cravat. During the Regency it became fashionable to leave the collar standing with the points touching the cheeks and some men, such as the aspiring young dandy Matthew Ware in The Foundling, wore their collars so high and the points so stiff that they could not turn their heads. Worn over the shirt, waistcoats were either single- or double-breasted and were often a testament to the wearer’s taste and the tailor’s art. While coats were of plain, usually dark-coloured cloth, waistcoats could be of a wide variety of colours and fabrics. White or black were the essential colours for evening dress but during the day spotted, striped, patterned—even flowered—waistcoats in colour combinations of green, yellow, blue, grey, black, cream and lilac could be seen. Striking designs such as the blue and yellow striped kerseymere waistcoat of the Four-Horse Club could set the wearer apart as a sportsman or leader of fashion, while the wearer of a waistcoat that was too florid or ornate (such as those worn by Nathaniel Coate in The Toll-Gate) would be censured. Waistcoats were longer in the front than the coat, with the lower edge—either cut straight or to one or two points—emerging from beneath the coat. The fronts were made with fine fabrics, such as satin, kerseymere, marcella or Valencia, while the backs were of either cotton or silk; the waistcoat was pulled in from the back with tapes.

  Men of fashion often wore breeches, top-boots and a well-cut coat during the day.

  Until 1816, when the frock-coat was introduced, the skirt of a gentleman’s coat was cut at the back into two long tails reaching to the back of the knee—and sometimes longer for those aspiring to join the dandy set. Coats were either single- or double-breasted with a turn-over collar that was high at the back and lapels with a single or M-shaped notch at the point where they joined the collar. The coat waist was short and cut square with double-breasted coat fronts always shorter than single-breasted. Padding was sometimes added to the shoulders or breast of the coat and well-built gentlemen often had them made so close-fitting they needed assistance to get them on or off. Preferred fabrics were superfine and kerseymere, which both sat well and had an elegant finish, and colours were generally dark. Claret, bottle green, olive green, brown, corbeau, black and blue were the most popular colours for day wear, with blue the first choice for evening attire. The cut of a coat could indicate a man’s social status and in Cotillion Freddy’s concerns about the Chevalier d’Evron were somewhat allayed by the fellow’s appearance in a bottle-green, long-tailed coat that had clearly come from the hands of a master tailor.

  Below their coats men wore either breeches, pantaloons or trousers. Breeches were made of soft leather, wool or nankeen, or of satin or velvet for formal occasions. They had a high waist, were full at the hips and ended just below the knee where they were buttoned, tied or buckled and had a front opening or narrow flap, known as a ‘fall’, which buttoned at the waist and could be dropped down. They had a deep waistband which gave extra support with a fob pocket in the right-hand side. For riding or day wear, breeches were worn with top-boots, but for evening wear or attendance at Court they were worn with plain or clocked stockings and shoes. Buckskins were men’s suede leather breeches made from the skin of the male deer which were naturally greyish yellow in colour. Soft and comfortable, each leg was made from a single piece of leather to avoid having an inner seam, making them especially comfortable for riding. Although they were worn as riding breeches they were perfectly acceptable for ordinary day wear. Pantaloons were an alternative to breeches and were, as Mr Beaumaris told his grandmother in Arabella, knitted. A close-fitting trouser, also known as ‘inexpressibles’, they were shaped to the leg and eventually replaced knee-breeches for day wear. The fashion was for light-coloured trousers, and pantaloons were often yellow, cream, biscuit, buff or fawn; they were worn with hessian boots or half-boots—never with top-boots. Trousers were long like pantaloons but cut wide at the ankle and could be worn with shoes, half-boots or boots. They were generally light-coloured and made of nankeen or jean.

  A fashionable male always wore gleaming hessians with his skintight pantaloons.