Show A conventional bostom one of the simplest instincts instinct a of good manners would seem to be that a man should uncover his head while eating his dinner with his family yet it is pretty certain that the first gentlemen of england two centuries ago habitually wore their hats during that ceremony nor is it known just when or why the practice was changed in famous diary which is the best manual of manners for its period we read under date of sept 22 home to bed having got a strange cold in my head by flinging off my hat at dinner and sitting with the wind in my neck in lord Claren dons essay on the decay of respect paid to age he says that in his younger days he never kept bis hat on before those older than himself except at dinner lord clarendon died in 1674 that the english members of parliament sit with their bats on during the sessions is well known and the same practice prevailed at the early town meetings in new england the presence or absence of the hat is therefore simply a conventionality and BO if is with a thousand practices which are held so long as they exist to ba the most unchangeable and matter of course affairs harpers bazar |