Hoops

The examples given in Johnson's article *Farthingale* will sufficiently answer the question. Farthingales are mentioned in Latimer with much indignant eloquence: "I trow Mary had never a verdingale." If the question had been, not whether they were in use as early as 1651, but whether they were in use in 1651, perhaps there would have been more difficulty, for they do not appear in Hollar's dresses, 1640.