![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/hjacket.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThis illustration is taken from the book English Costume for Sports and\nOutdoor Recreation from the 16th to the 19th Centuries by Phillis Cunnington\nand Alan Mansfield. Its shows a gentleman wearing a shooting jacket, which\nevolved from the “frock”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From 1730, gentlemen who shot wore the frock, which had a small turn down\ncollar, which was often made in a contrasting colour to the main garment, and\nof course had full skirts. Popular colours for the frock were brown, grey, red\nand blue.
\nThe frock might be made of cloth, fustian, serge, etc. and breeches made of\nsimilar material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Page 192, as above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shooting in England, until the very late 18th century did not involve the\n“battue”, that is driven birds. The now familiar sight of a line of\nmen, waiting for birds to be driven towards them by a posse of beaters, was a\npractice introduced from France by Thomas Coke of Norfolk in 1796 ( See\npage172, The Poacher and The Squire : A History of Poaching and Game\nPreservation in England by Charles Chenevix Trench).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to this innovation men shot mounted on horses, or on foot walking the\nground, accompanied by pointer dogs who would seek out the birds to be shot.\nThe change in the manner of the organization of “shoots” coincided\nwith a change in the clothes worn by gentlemen who shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frocks continued to be worn for shooting, but, from the mid-18th century,\nthey were double breasted. Then, finally, from around the time of Coke’s\ntransformation of the sport, shooting jackets began to be worn: they originated\nas garments worn by ordinary “country people” but<\/p>\n\n\n\n
they gained favour with the sportsman by the end of the century<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cunningham and Mansfield, as above, page 191.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you can see from the illustration the frock, evolving into the jacket,\nbecame skimpier and the full skirts were cut away into “tails”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fashionable sportsman also wore “Spatterdashes”: these were\nlong gaiters, and they were usually made of canvas or leather and were fastened\non the outside of the leg with laces, buttons or buckles. They were of course,\nadded protection from the wet and cold for the, now mostly stationary, gentleman’s\nfeet and legs. You can see these clearly in the illustration above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Beau Monde, magazine published, (in 1807) this description of how\nfashionable this type of dress was becoming, even for town wear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many gentlemen in their morning walks have attempted to introduce a sort\nof shooting dress, parading in a short coat of any light colour , and with drab\ncoloured cloth or Kerseymere gaiters coming up to the knees.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cunnington and Mansfield found a record of the cost of these jackets, circa\n1798, in a set of tailors accounts found in the Kent Record office:<\/p>\n\n\n\n To a shooting jacket: \u00a31 10 shillings The date the Cunnington\/Mansfield book gives for the illustration is circa\n1800.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here’s a bit on wardrobe and more on shooting. This illustration is taken from the book English Costume for Sports and Outdoor Recreation from the 16th to the 19th Centuries by Phillis Cunnington and Alan Mansfield. Its shows a gentleman … Continue reading
\nPage 191 as above<\/p>\n\n\n\n