Charles set a court tradition of men wearing a scarf tied around
the neck. Ladies often wore their hair in masses of ringlets with
little corkscrew curls on each side of their heads, and later
piled their hair up elaborately on their heads. They wore satin or
silk dresses fitted at the waist with a pointed bodice, and full
skirt. The shoulder line was low and the sleeves full and open at
the front with fastenings of jeweled clasps. The only fast colors
were reds, blues, purple, and yellow, but not green. They kept
their hands warm in muffs. Women wore perfume, rouge, and face
patches. Some women put on a lot of make-up. Many men dressed
effeminately with rouge, face patches, heavily scented clothing,
muffs, and many ribbons of many colors. The facial beauty patches
were in shapes such as stars, crescent moons, and hearts; they
diverted attention from the common smallpox scars. There were
Oxford shoes, which laced up the front through eyelets. The
members of the House of Commons dressed like the gentry and
assumed their manners. There was exaggeration in all complimentary
and ceremonial language.
The gentry were beginning to be thought of as a "squirearchy".
They owned about half the land of the country.
The population according to class was as follows:
Number of Social Ranks, Household Household
Households Degrees, Titles size yearly
income
in pounds
160 Temporal lords 40 3,200
26 Spiritual lords 20 1,300
800 Baronets 16 880
600 Knights 13 650
3,000 Esquires 10 450
12,000 Gentlemen 8 280
5,000 Persons in greater offices and places 8 240
5,000 Persons in lesser offices and places 6 120
2,000 Eminent merchants and traders by sea 8 400
8,000 Lesser merchants and traders by sea 6 198
10,000 Persons in the law 7 154
2,000 Eminent clergymen 6 72
8,000 Lesser clergymen 5 50
40,000 Freeholders of the better sort 7 91
120,000 Freeholders of the lesser sort 5.
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