Umbrellas and their History | Page 2

kind friend from whom to seek the protection so ardently desired.
Fortunately a very simple process will enable the reader to realise the
fact in its full extent; he need only walk about in a pelting shower for
some hours without an Umbrella, or when the weight of a cloak would
be insupportable, and at the same time remember that seventy years ago
a luxury he can now purchase in almost every street, was within the

reach of but very few, while omnibuses and cabs were unknown.
But, apart from considerations of comfort, we may safely claim very
much higher qualities as appertaining to the Umbrella. We may even
reckon it among the causes that have contributed to lengthen the
average of human life, and hold it a most effective agent in the great
increase which took place in the population of England between the
years 1750 and 1850 as compared with the previous century. The
Registrar-General, in his census-report, forgot to mention this fact, but
there appears to us not the slightest doubt that the introduction of the
Umbrella at the latter part of the former, and commencement of the
present century, must have greatly conduced to the improvement of the
public health, by preserving the bearer from the various and numerous
diseases superinduced by exposure to rain.
But perhaps we are a little harsh on our worthy ancestors; they may
have possessed some species of protection from the rain on which they
prided themselves as much as we do on our Umbrellas, and regarded
the new-fangled invention (as they no doubt termed it) as something
exceedingly absurd, coxcombical, and unnecessary; while we, who are
in possession of so many life-comforts of which those of the good old
times were supremely ignorant--among these we give the Umbrella
brevet rank--can afford to smile at such ebullitions as we have come
across in those books of the day we have consulted, and to which we
shall presently have an opportunity of referring.
We can happily estimate the value of such a friend as the Umbrella, the
silent companion of our walks abroad, a companion incomparably
superior to those slimy waterproof abominations so urgently
recommended to us, for, at the least, the Umbrella cannot be accused of
injuring, the health as they have been, as it appears, with very good
reason. In fact, so long as the climate of England remains as it is, so
long will Umbrellas hold their ground in public esteem, and we do not
believe that the clerk of the weather will allow himself to be bribed into
any alteration, at least for trade considerations.
Another remarkable proof of the utility of the Umbrella may be found
in the universality of its use. It has asserted its sway from Indus to the

Pole, and is to be met with in every possible variety, from the Napoleon
blue silk of the London exquisite, to the coarse red or green cotton of
the Turkish rayah. Throughout the Continent it forms the peaceful
armament of the peasant, and no more curious sight can be imagined
than the wide, uncovered market-place of some quaint old German
town during a heavy shower, when every industrial covers himself or
herself with the aegis of a portable tent, and a bright array of brass
ferrules and canopies of all conceivable hues which cotton can be made
to assume, without losing its one quality of "fast colour," flash on the
spectator's vision.
The advantages of the Umbrella being thus recognised, it must be
confessed that it has hitherto been treated in a most ungrateful and
step-motherly fashion. We fly to the Umbrella when the sky is
overcast--it affords us shelter in the hour of need--and the service is
forgotten as soon as the necessity is relieved. We make abominable
jokes upon the Umbrella; we borrow it without compunction from any
confiding friend, though with the full intention of never returning it--in
fact, it has often been a matter of surprise to us that any one ever does
buy an Umbrella, for where can the old Umbrellas go to? Although that
question has often been asked concerning the fate of pins, the fact as
regards the former, looking at their size, is more curious--and yet, for
all that, we treat it with shameful neglect, as if ashamed of a crime we
have committed and anxious to conceal the evidences of our guilt.
Let us then strive to afford such reparation as in our power lies, by
giving a slight description of THE UMBRELLA AND ITS HISTORY,
making up for any deficiencies of our pen by the assistance of the
artist's pencil.
CHAPTER II.
THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE UMBRELLA.
The Umbrella is derived from a stately family, that of the Parasol, the
legitimate use of the Umbrella, though sufficiently