Figure 1.--This cabient card portrait shows a boy about 6 years old with a hoop and stick. He appears to be very confident about playing this game! The hoop would have rolled out in the street by Victorian children. The hoop would have been run along the ground using the stick to push it along until it gathered speed. The stick could then be used to hit the hoop with and keep it moving. Alternatives were made from wood, iron and the rings from cooper's barrels. The photgpaher was H. Neame at Grace Hill, Folkestone in Kent. The portrait is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1890s. (Notice the side arrangement of the streamers.)

The original sailor suits, like the uniforms worn by English sailors, had long bell bottom trousers. Gradually as boys began wearing knee pnts in the 1860s, knee pants sailor suits appeared. English boys wore sailor suits with both kneepants and long pants. I believe boys also wore bloomer knickers with sailor suits. I am not sure which was more common, but I think knee pants became increasingly common in the 1880s. While royal children and perhaps children from titled families might wear the suits with long bell-bottomed trousers like the Prince of Wales in the famous Winterhalter painting, I think ordinary boys, however, were increasingly wearing kneepants suits. Most of the images we have seen show boys wearing long stocks with knee pants sailor suits, but I believe socks were alo worn during the summer.

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Created: 6:05 AM 1/6/2008
Last updated: 2:28 AM 7/25/2017