Hoops

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 19 September 1765

'Ther will be a ball as usual at Mr Simpson's Rooms on Monday next, being the anniversary of their Majestyies [sic] Coronation; subscribers of which are taken in at both Rooms No Ladies to be admitted to dance a minuet, without a lappetted head and full dress hoop; and such minuet dancers as chuse [sic] to dance country-dances must be attended by a woman servant to put the hoops off, as no hoops (be their size large or small) are allowed in country dances.'

The sheer size of hoops made them a problem when moving around, and carriages and doorways had to be modified; even then, women often had to enter rooms sideways; small rails were put in place around tables to stem the risk of small objects being swept off the top by entrant hooped skirts. For this reason, they were increasingly not permitted in country dances which at the Assemblies meant large numbers dancing in close proximity. At one court ball in 1780, the ladies were said to have worn such large hoops that they took up as much room as four people[1]. Mr Neal, the treasurer of the Charitable Musical Society of Dublin, made it a proviso for attendees at his new music hall that women remove the hoops from their skirts and men remove their swords so that 700 people could be squashed in.

1. Peg Plunkett: Memoirs of a Whore by Julie Peakman