HASTINGS, a market-town of the county of Sussex, sixty-four miles from London. It is situated on the sea-shore, in the hundred of Baldstow and the rape of Bramber. It is said to have been originally built by a Danish pirate, whose name it bears. It is the principal of the cinque ports, and had formerly a harbour, but is now only a roadstead adapted for small vessels and fishing boats. It contains three parishes, but only two churches, both very ancient edifices. There is a custom-house and town-hall, but no other public buildings deserving of notice, excepting an old castle in ruins, which overlooks the town. There is an extensive herring fishery carried on in the autumn, and in all seasons the taking of fish for present use gives occupation to many of the inhabitants. There is also a vast deal of contraband trade pursued, with more zest than gain to those engaged in it. But the town owes its prosperity chiefly to the number of casual visitors, who frequent it on account of the peculiar mildness of the air, and the excellent accommodations for sea-bathing. These circumstances have operated of late years to promote building of a better description; and as a cleft interposed on the western side of the town, the rock has been scooped out sufficiently to erect a new and handsome square. From the same causes, a beautiful suburb called St Leonard's has been covered with many sumptuous houses, adapted for the more wealthy class of visitors. This place has been rendered famous in history by the victory obtained near it by William the Conqueror. It is a borough, governed by a mayor and jurats, and returns two members
to parliament. Under the new law the voters are about 580. There are good markets on Wednesday and Saturday. The population amounted in 1801 to 2982, in 1811 to 3848, in 1821 to 6085, and in 1831 to 10,097.
HAT is a term of Saxon derivation, from hat, a cover for the head. It is sometimes called castor, from its being made of the fur of the castor or beaver. As a piece of dress, the period of its introduction is not certain, although it may with great probability be referred to the early distinctions of Roman Catholic dignitaries. Froissart chronicles, that it was "saide to the cardynals, Sirs, advyse you if ye delivere us a Pope Romayne, we be content, or els we woll maik your heddes reeder than your hattes be;" from which, and many other documents, it appears that at this period, as well as for some centuries thereafter, hats were generally of a scarlet or red colour, and made of "a fine kinde of haire matted thegither." A "hatte of beever," about the middle of the twelfth century, was worn by some one of the "nobels of the lande, mett at Clarendom;" and Froissart describes hats and plumes which were worn at Edward's Court in 1340, when the garter order was instituted. In the Diary of Henry's secretary, there is "ane scarlet beever hatte" presented on new year's day 1443. Even at this early period hats were of various shapes, both in the crowns and the brims; the latter being chiefly broad, sometimes narrowing towards the back, and a little bent up and scooped in front. In Henry's privy purse expenses, during his congress with Francis I. in 1520 or 1521, there is "peid for a hatte and plume for the king, in Boleyn, xvs.;" and in Wolsey's inventory, taken on his resigning the great seal to Sir Thomas Moore, there are no fewer than five mentioned. The fashion of this article was then much more diversely capricious than even now, as will appear from an extract from Stubbs' Anatomie of Abuses, published about 1585: "Sometimes they use them sharpe on the crowne, peaking up like the spire or shaft of a steeple, standing a quarter of a yard above the crowne of theire heads; some more, some lesse, as please the fantasies of their inconstant mindes. Othersome be flat, and broade on the crowne, like the battlements of a house. Another sorte have rounde crownes, sometimes with one kind of bande, sometimes with another; now black, now white, now russed, now redde, now grene, now yellow; now this, now that; never content with one colour or fashion two daies to an end. And as the fashions be rare and strange, so is the stuffe whereof their hattes be made divers also; for some are silk, some of velvet, some of taffetie, some of sarsnet, some of wool, and, which is more curious, some of a certaine kinde of fine haire, these they call bever hattes, of xx. xxx. or xl. shillings price, fetched from beyonde the seas, from whence a great sorte of other vanities doe come besides; and so common a thing it is, that every servyng man, countreiman, and other, even all indifferently, doe weare of these hattes." About the beginning of 1700, the crowns of hats were mostly round, much lower than before, and had very broad brims, resembling what are now occasionally called Quakers' hats, the protrusive encumbrance of which soon suggested the convenience of their being turned up in front; fashion dictated the upbending of another side or flap, and ultimately a third, so that by this progress, in 1704, the regular three-cocked hat became the order of the day, when feathers ceased to be usually worn. Near the middle of the eighteenth century, a round-edged but flat-topped and full-brimmed hat got into very general use, and the flat and other cocked hats now dwindled almost into a mere distinction of real or assumed rank. Twenty-five years after this, a very near approach to that of the present times became fashionable, and, within ten years, altogether superseded the ordinary use of the cumbrous and antique cock-plumes, jewels, silk loops, rosettes, badges, gold and
silver bands and loops, have at various periods ornamented this article of dress; metal bands and loops being now esteemed proper only to naval and military "men of honour," and the humble liveried attendants on state, rank, and official dignity. The opera or soft folding hat is the only relic at present in general use, of the hats worn by our grandfathers, although it is not improbable that the affluent and growing extravagance of this century is likely to re-introduce the elegant Spanish hat as the precursor perhaps of the prevalence of various other styles, as well as the cocked hat, not yet entirely discarded from the revolving wheel of luxurious fashion.
HAT-MAKING now embraces two distinct kinds of manufacture, felted and covered hats; the covering of the latter being sometimes silk, and at other times Braganza or cotton Angola.
Felted hats comprehend two classes, differing chiefly in the materials used in making, the process being nearly identical. The lower class is marked by inferior ingredients, unmixed with beaver, and embraces wool, plated, and short nap hats.
Wool hats are made entirely of coarse native wool and hair stiffened with glue, chiefly for negroes' wear. Value 1s. 2d. to 2s. 2d. Plates have a nap or pile rather finer than their body, and are sometimes waterproof stiffened. Value 3s. to 4s. 6d. Short naps are distinguished from plates by additional kinds of wool, viz. hare's back, seal, neuter, musquash (Muscovy cat), and are all waterproof stiffened. Value 5s. to 9s.
The second class may be said to comprehend two orders, called stuff and beaver hats. The first includes mottled and stuff bodies. The latter term is not used generally, as all stuffs are understood to be of this sort when mottled is not expressed. Mottled bodies are made chiefly of fine Spanish wool, and inferior rabbit down or coney wool. Value 1s. 8d. to 2s. 6d. Stuff bodies consist of the best hare, Saxony, and red wools, mixed with Cashmere hair and silk. Value 3s. to 4s. Stuff hats are napped, that is, covered with pile of mixed seal, neuter, hare-back, inferior beaver, and musquash. Value 10s. to 15s. Beaver hats are, or ought to be, napped with beaver only; the lower priced qualities with brown wools taken from the back; the more valuable kinds with cheek and white wools, being the finest parts of the fur found on the belly and cheeks of the beaver. Value 16s. to 22s.
The apparatus and terms used in making felted hats, which it is necessary to describe briefly, are the bow, bow-pin, basket, hurdle, battery, and planks.
The bow is about six feet long, usually made of ash, thick enough not to be elastic. The handle A, B, C, is called the stang; A is named the breech; C, the end farthest from the workman's hold, the cock. D, the bowstring, is a strong catgut cord tensely fastened.
The bow-pin is used (just as the finger on the guitar) for vibrating the bowstring.
The hurdle is a fixed bench, with three enclosing sides, to prevent the stuff being flittered off in bowing.
The basket is of light wicker-work, about twenty by twenty-two inches in size.
The battery consists of A, the kettle; B, C, the planks, which are inclined planes, usually eight in number, one only being appropriated to
each workman. The half of each plank next the kettle is lead, the upper half is mahogany.
The first process in hat-making is bowing the stuff or furs, which are weighed out to a proportionate scale, and laid on the hurdle, immediately under the bow, which is suspended by a pulley. The bow is held firmly with the left hand, rather toward the breech-end, not edgewise, but on its side, with the string in contact with the stuff; the clotted and adherent portions of which are separated into single fibres, and attain a loose, flocky, mixed condition by the continued vibration of the bowstring, caused by a very rapid succession of touches with the bowstick. It is then divided as nearly as possible, and one half laid aside, whilst the other is again bowed. In this second operation, partly by the bowing, but chiefly by the gathering, or patting use of the basket, the stuff is loosely matted into a conical figure, about fifty by thirty-six inches, called a bat. In this formation care is taken to work about two thirds of the wools down towards what is intended for the brim, which being effected, greater density is induced by gentle pressure with the basket. It is then covered with a wettish linen cloth, upon which is laid the hardening skin, a piece of dry half-tanned horse hide. On this the workman presses or bakes for seven or eight minutes, until the stuff shall have adhered closely to the damp cloth, in which it is then doubled up, freely pressed with the hand, and laid aside. By this process, called basoning (from a metal plate or bason, used for like purposes in making wool hats), the hat has become compactly felted and thinned toward the sides and point. The other half of the flocked stuff is next subjected to precisely the same proceedings, after which, a cone-shaped slip of stiff paper is laid on its surface, and the sides of the bat folded over its edges to its form and size. It is then laid paper-side downward upon the first bat, which is now replaced on the hurdle, and its edges transversely doubled over the introverted side-lays of the second bat, thus giving equal thickness to the whole body. In this condition it is re-introduced between folds of damp linen cloth, and again hardened, so as to unite both halves, the knitting together of which is quickly effected. The paper is now withdrawn, and the body being folded into three plies, is removed to the plank or battery room.
In the battery the liquor is scalding heat, composed of pure soft water, about half a gill of oil of vitriol as an astringent, and a full handful of oatmeal to correct its pernicious tendencies. Herein the body is imbrued, and withdrawn to the plank to partly cool and drain, when it is unfolded, rolled gently with a pin tapering towards the ends like a liquor horse, turned, and worked with in every direction, to toughen, shrink, and at same time prevent adhesion of its sides. Stopping or thickening the thin spots which now appear on looking through the body, is carefully performed, by additional stuff daubed on by successive supplies of the hot liquor from a brush frequently dipped into the kettle, until the body be shrunk sufficiently (about one half), and thoroughly equalized. When quite dried, stiffening is performed with a brush dipped into a glutinous pulpy composi-