This is the sixth part of Peter Farrer's extensive study of the literary origins of petticoat discipline, and it is interesting to see the term used in the book for almost certainly the first time in English writing. This part of the book has a good deal more to do with petticoating, and should be of great interest to readers.

       IX  Hotel, Piccadilly
        X  Vivien
       XI  Mamma
      XII  Bacchus Docens
     XIII  Hortense
    XIV  That Night
     XV  Morning
    XVI  The Ladies’ Shop

Chapter IX

In IX the journey to London is completed. They arrive at Liverpool Street. The two ladies have struck up a friendship, and have agreed to stay at the same hotel in Piccadilly.

'In the course of the journey Miss Stormont had given my governess an account of the slavery in which she kept her young brother, and of the floggings she gave him periodically, not always because he was naughty, but because she considered them good for him'.  (78)

In spite of this frightening him, Julian finds Miss Stormont attractive: 'Her hair, the back of her head, looked so beautiful, she was so coquettish'.  Sitting underneath her, he cautiously exercises a little pressure, which eventually is returned, and as they get out of the carriage she gives him a glance which tells him that he is understood. When they take a hansom to the hotel, however,

'I could not help feeling indignant at the calm air of possession with which the majority of the women we met had plainly contemplated me, as if I were annexed, and definitely subject to the petticoat, and they knew it. The smiling hostess of the quiet private hotel where Mademoiselle stayed, increased my dismay by her curious and intelligent looks at me.

'My bedroom, as at home, opened off Mademoiselle’s, and the landlady pointed it out incidentally and quite as a matter of course, taking it for granted it was what Mademoiselle would wish.

'I should have expected her to consider it strange that a youth of my size should sleep in a room to which there was no access but through a young lady’s; and should have been much gratified to find my expectation realized. But the fact that Mademoiselle was my governess appeared quite sufficient explanation  to her. And if I had been but five or six years old, I could not have been treated with more indifference by these women'. (79-80)

Chapter X

X is headed by this quotation from Morte d’Arthur:

"And then, with great scorn, they got Sir Dinadan into the forest there beside, and there they despoiled him unto his shirt, and put upon him a woman’s garment, and so brought him into the field, and so they blew unto lodging. And every knight went and unarmed him. Then was Sir Dinadan brought in among them all. And when Queen Guenever saw Sir Dinadan brought so among them all, then she laughed so that she fell down, so did all that were there".

This passage comes in Book X, chapter XLIX of Morte d’Arthur (vol. 2, p.51 of the Everyman’s edition), and it is this quotation which put me on to the whole story which I have reproduced in my In Female Disguise (Liverpool: Karn Publications Garston, 1992), pp.59-60.

Briefly, Dinadan had just been defeated by Launcelot, who had put a woman’s garment over his armour. This was in revenge for a trick previously played by Dinadan. I would add that the phrase "with great scorn"has been amended by later scholars to "rete coystrons" i.e. scullions, who despoiled Dinadan.
…….

The chapter proper begins with Julian’s reflections on the respective charms of Mademoiselle and Gertrude: the former he compares to the Palmyran queen, Zenobia, and the latter to Tennyson’s Vivien, in the Idylls of the King, from which he quotes, thus again showing himself to be a well-read man. The ladies join him in the sitting room, and they have wine and biscuits. Mademoiselle tells Julian that Miss Stormont has begged her for him until the next morning.

'You see ladies can be kind sometimes', Gertrude remarked, looking at me with a look that spoke; 'and as you are to be made a girl to-morrow, I have asked Mademoiselle to let me have what remains of the boy. But' - putting up a finger - 'you are not to consider yourself anything more than a boy, and' – giving her petticoats a whisk – 'I shall treat you exactly like a child'.  (85)

And he must call her 'Mamma'. Mademoiselle goes out, leaving him with Gertrude.

Chapter XI

In XI Gertrude insists that he call her 'Mamma', and as he is in love with her that will be incest. They go into her bedroom and she locks the door. She undresses him, releases his foreskin, makes him urinate into a chamber pot, after saying, 'Please, Mamma, may I pee before you punish me?' The punishment, for his seduction of Maud, is an enema, after which he has a bath. When he returns, at her solicitation they make love, after she has first made him say: 'Oh Mamma dear, please let me – fuck you'. He is a little slow to comply with her requirement to perform again, and she becomes impatient:.

'Do you really deserve to have lady’s drawers and petticoats on? Come, Julian, how do you feel in them? Very naughty, eh? Is it not much nicer to be – between a lady’s legs – to be inside – actually inside her – than merely – to wear – her clothes? I shall whip – you – if you don’t obey'.  (98)

They sleep, and then dress for dinner

'That night, I was attired as a young man for once again in my life – trousers, a stiff shirt, an open waistcoat, socks. It positively felt a strange garb, and I felt at a loss and uncomfortable in it'. (99-100)

He then helps her dress.

Chapter XII

XII begins:

' When she was dressed, Gertrude turned and gave me a glittering smile, looking so fresh and beautiful in her exquisite  toilette of faint pink, that, without delay, I fell in love with her all over again. It was this lovely form, I reflected, that had sat so long upon my lap in the train, those hands that had invaded my privacy, and subjugated my rebellious male sex, those bright eyes that had seen all I had to show.

'She smiled at me and, daintily raising her voluminous and clinging drapery from her feet, showed me her low cut shoes and slender ankles in the pink, open-work silk stockings I had had the privilege of putting on for her; so high did she raise them that I gained a glimpse of the trimming of her pink silk skirt-drawers.

'Oh, Mamma, Mamma!' I exclaimed, falling on my knees and clasping my hands before her divinely corseted and dressed form. I kissed the backs of her hands one after the other as they held up her skirts.

'Julian, how impressed you appear to be! Would you', with a lovely flush, 'like to lose yourself, to be smothered in all this drapery – under – under - my petticoats?'  And she gazed at me inquiringly, and archly half lifted them.

'Above all things!' I cried with enthusiasm.

'So with a charmingly mischievous air she walked across to where I was kneeling, and threw her skirts over my head, and lifted her legs, one by one, across my shoulders'. (101-2)

The obvious result occurs.

'Mademoiselle very soon returned, and we went to dinner. Mademoiselle was in very high spirits, declaring London of all places the most charming, saying she was positively obliged to me for having occasioned the visit.

'I have got a box for the Gaiety tomorrow night and you shall attend us in your smartest corset, Miss', she said to me. 'Your smartest corset! Oh, I have seen such lovely ones! I wonder how you will like the regime of the stay-lace?'
 
'Gertrude's pretty assumption of authority over me thrilled me, as did also her constant glances. I looked at her silently in reply.

Towards the end of dinner Mademoiselle made an observation to me, to which I replied rather petulantly.

'His trousers make him uncommonly pert', observed Mademoiselle.

'Yes', rejoined Gertrude, 'he shall be punished after dinner by being deprived of them and of all his masculine garments; and as we have no others to give him just now he will have to remain without any at all'.
 
'Mademoiselle looked at me with a provoking little smile and a sparkle of satisfaction in her eyes, as much as to say: 'How will you like that, I wonder?' Aloud she said: 'I am glad your mamma keeps you well under her thumb. She evidently knows how to deal with a precocious boy'.
 
'The prospect of being despoiled of all my male finery, which gave me position and dignity and a sense of my importance by these two exquisite damsels upon whom I gazed, noting their lips and features, their busts, their unveiled, swelling and rounded bosoms, their shapely arms, their waists and their petticoats, filled me with a delicious tremor and a sweet confusion. A sense of their feminine sex overwhelmed me, intoxicated me. My heart palpitated to such an extent as almost to suffocate me, and effectively prevented my eating. I knew as sure as fate, that as soon as the dessert had been cleared away, I should have to undergo my doom'. (102-3)
 …….

'Now, Julian', said Gertrude peremptorily, 'I really am very sorry, but I cannot overlook your disrespect to Mademoiselle, you must be taught to behave properly, and with due deference to young ladies. Come here! I must deprive you of your trousers, and of those other things', she continued, twitching my shirt, 'which seem to inspire you with such boldness – you are evidently not fit to wear them. Your discipline does not even yet seem to have impressed you with sufficient awe of the petticoat. Perhaps when you have no clothes on, your feelings will induce you to behave more decorously'.  (104)

Gertrude then undresses him and makes this observation:

'This I believe', she said pulling me in front, 'this ugly thing is, I believe, the cause of all your naughtiness!'
'He will have it cut off to-morrow', calmly observed Mademoiselle.
'Oh! Oh!' I exclaimed shuddering, 'not really?'
'We shall see', she remarked.  (105)

She then tells him that he will have to pay for these garments when he wishes to get them back tomorrow.

'I think he should be well birched', remarked Mademoiselle, who had an inordinate affection for the birch. 'The birch', she exclaimed, 'warms a bold boy’s bottom more to a lady’s satisfaction than anything else. It is so delightful to feel that one has made a boy’s bottom smart, and burn so much, that he ardently wishes he had not one'. (105-6)

Chapter XIII

In XIII Mademoiselle, after spanking Julian, first invites oral sex, then intercourse, with his 'mamma’s' permission: 'May I fuck Mademoiselle?' Julian hopes that they will have a child. Then Gertrude takes him into her bedroom for the night.

Chapter XIV

In XIV Julian and Gertrude make love again, with the latter teaching him restraint. In the morning Gertrude relieves Julian’s anxiety about what is going to happen to him. He will be circumcised, but not castrated.

Chapter XV

In XV a girl arrives and shaves all his facial hair. Julian now has to ask Gertrude for his clothes. 'Gertrude was dressed in a charming spring-toilette; her tightly-laced waist struck me at once'. He then buys his clothes back from Gertrude by receiving a succession of cuts from her riding whip.

We now come to the best chapter in the book, the visit to the ladies’ shop and I reproduce it in full without any indentations. What I want to emphasise now is the way in which the episode was inspired by the letters in The Family Doctor. The phrase 'the regime of the stay-lace' has been used above. I use it as the title of my book. It comes in a letter from 'Finished Figure' to The Family Doctor, on 31 August, 1889 (see The Regime of the Stay-Lace, pp.63-4):

''I have carried out much the same system with my stepson, as he was very unruly, so at fourteen I subjected him to the regime of the stay-lace, and confined him in a long stiff corset, which I tightened periodically, but, of course, never removed. He soon ceased to rebel, and has become a submissive subject to corset discipline, which renders impossible all unseemly indulgence of lolling about".

Even more relevant is the letter from 'White Cat' of 13 September, 1890 (pp.77-9), who claimed that she had actually taken a youth of fifteen into a ladies’ shop to be fitted with corsets, and into another for boots and shoes:
 
"Next day my corset-maker arranged to assist, and our maid was taken into the plan. By the time he returned [i.e. from school] all was ready for him (including a new gut riding whip), and the very next day I took him out with me, and without a moment’s warning walked him straight into the corset-maker’s, and, before all the assistants and a lady customer and her two daughters, stated that I had brought him to be fitted with a corset. He blushed crimson, and, I think, would have been glad if he could have concealed himself under a chair from the smiles of the two young ladies just mentioned. We were taken to an inner room, and in a few minutes the principal herself came to attend to us. He was most loath to submit, but we did not heed his objections in the least, and before very long he was satisfactorily laced up in a very stiff corset which had been already prepared".

He is then taken to a bootmaker’s and fitted with ladies’ boots and shoes with high heels, in which he has to walk home. Later he wears ladies’ gloves, a theme not touched on by our author. This chapter can be seen as an imaginative filling in of the outline sketched above, with the addition of complete female clothing for Julian. The names of corsets, etc. will have come from advertisements and the letters to The Family Doctor. I have come across 'Ideal' and 'Sylph' corsets, for example.  There is some information about names of corsets and corset-makers in my Tight Lacing, A Bibliography etc. Part 1, 1828-80, and there will be more in the next part. That men at this date did in fact acquire complete women’s clothing from ladies’ shops is asserted in a letter from 'Ellen M.T'. in Society, 20 January, 1900 (see Men in Petticoats, pp.39-40):

'If one may believe the word of the saleswomen and managers of the underclothing departments of several of our big metropolitan drapers, there are quite a number of men who have a penchant for dressing in the garments of our sex. Only the other day I was shown some of the most exquisite lingerie at one of the West-End shops, which was not, as I supposed, for the wear of some fortunate bride, but for that of a young nobleman, who has his costumes at the same shop, and wears a French corset with a 20-inch waist!'

Chapter XVI: The Ladies' Shop

This is the full text of this important chapter, in which Julian is taken to a ladies' clothing shop to be humiliated and petticoated by the assistants, who have seen petticoat-governed males brought to the shop before.

'As soon as breakfast was over, a hansom was called, and I was again placed in the middle of the seat between my two dear tyrants. I had not on this occasion that thing behind to incommode me, but the whipping had made me quite sore enough to counterbalance the pleasure arising from its absence. We drove to a ladies' shop, not ten minutes' distance from Leicester Square. The window was full of corsets, chemises, drawers, mysterious combinations, and triple garments! Inside, behind the counters, the assistants were all girls, and in front of them numerous customers, all ladies and their daughters.

'I have brought', said Mademoiselle in a loud voice, 'this young gentleman to be fitted with a tight corset and lady's underclothing'.

What she said was distinctly heard over the whole shop. Some of the daughters tittered, the mammas looked pleased, and the shop-assistants changed colour.

I felt overcome with confusion, and I wished the ground would open and swallow me.
 
'Certainly, Madam', said the tall handsome shop-walker. 'Will you walk into a fitting room with me?'

'Miss S---- attend to this lady'. She singled out a girl, whom I had noticed as soon as I had got into the establishment, one who had dark brown hair rolled up in masses over a ruddy face; a voluptuous mouth, black eyes with heavy lips, and a sensual chin.

She had observed me noticing her, and had glanced at me.

'What corset would Mademoiselle desire?'

'Oh!' said Mademoiselle. 'a severe one with very stiff busks, long waist, high under the arms, long in front, and twenty-three inches in girth'.

'I quite understand; here is one, Paris-made, which perhaps might do with a Venus-shield; it would not wrinkle over the hips in the fitting of the dress or break; or', she went on, 'here is a Newmarket-Corset, very deep in front (she eyed me) or, here is a Rational-Corset, in fact we keep all kinds; or of course we can make anything you please. And do you wish for silk underclothing, or the ordinary linen?'

'Linen and silk too', replied Mademoiselle, 'both'.
 
At the prospect of a large order the manageress became yet more deferential in her manner, and gave some hurried  whispered directions to her underling.

'These things will be tried on?' she then asked, looking severely at me, and hesitatingly at my governess.

'Certainly', replied Mademoiselle. 'In fact I wish him dressed in them now'.

'We do not keep dresses; but we can send to ----- a few doors away, for some likely to fit, if you choose?'

'Do so', said Mademoiselle.

The woman bowed.

'Now, young gentleman', she said, addressing herself to me, 'I must trouble you to take off these things', and she took hold of my jacket.

'Indeed I won't, here – before – you all', I almost whined.

'Julian', exclaimed Mademoiselle, plainly laughing at my piteous tone.

'How dare you?' ejaculated Gertrude, 'have you forgotten my whip?'

'So has he been whipped, and I am sure he deserved it thoroughly, I can see what a naughty boy he is. He is under petticoat government, I think?' and she looked enquiringly at Mademoiselle.

'Yes', she answered, 'he decidedly is'.

'A very good thing too. We have had several gentlemen to dress as ladies and it does them great good'.

'Then it is not unusual?' exclaimed Gertrude.

'Oh! dear me, no; not in London at all events. Many gentlemen do it to please themselves, others, because they are made to. Come, Sir! You must take off these things and your trousers too. We do not allow trousers here unless they are linen and trimmed, or silk and open, you know – this is a ladies' shop'.

Miss S----, the underling, returned at this moment with an armful of silk drawers, chemises, petticoats, corsets, &c., and deposited them on the couch. There was a large glass in front of me and two others on each side. Mademoiselle and Gertrude were seated on two chairs a little distance away.

'Thank you, Miss ----, now please send a messenger to Messrs. ----- and ask them to send round a few ready-made dresses to fit a young lady; waist twenty-three inches, bust so-and-so and length, Madam?'

'I think', said Mademoiselle, after a slight pause, 'they had better send a few frocks suitable for a girl of twelve, or – say fourteen, as well as the long dresses'.

'Certainly', said the lady, pencilling down the directions with indecent glee on a pad which hung at her waist, and tearing off a slip she gave it to the girl, 'and pray, Miss S----, return as soon as you can; and bring a broad steel stay-busk or two with you'.

'I think', she said, looking at me, 'if he is troublesome, we shall find a means of compelling him – of making him only too glad to obey'.

While I was wondering what she meant, she succeeded in slipping off my jacket and waistcoat.

She had just begun fumbling about my trousers when Miss S---- returned. Needless to say that I could scarcely stand for shame.

'Miss S----, please hold his hands and give me those busks', by which she designated two long pieces of steel, buttoned the one on to the other, sloped and curved, and very pliable.

'I thank you', and she put them down, within reach.

'Now I think, Madam, we shall be able in a moment to cure this young gentleman of his refractory disposition; if you will allow me?'

'Certainly', said Mademoiselle, 'do what you please!'

'I have had some very refractory ones to deal with, but I think they have all had to submit at last', and she slipped her hand underneath me behind.

I vainly tried to jerk my hands from Miss S----, who was standing in front of me, grasping my hands tightly about the wrists with hers, and smiling in my face.

'Oh! Oh!' I cried. 'don't – how dare you?' and I grew very pale.

'Indeed', she retorted, 'how dare I? How dare you?' and she gave me a sound smack upwards upon the testicles from the back, at the pain of which I turned very faint.

I gave a little scream of pain.

'Hold your tongue, Sir, if you don't want another'.

Miss S---- held my hands tightly, and almost laughed outright. The punishment deprived me of the power of resistance completely and of all my bounce too.

'I see you know how to manage him', remarked Mademoiselle.

'I wish I had him under me for a week, he would not hesitate obeying me, whatever disgrace obedience might cost him', replied the manageress with conviction. She then unfastened and pushed down my trousers and drawers, next she lifted my shirt off my bottom and took up the busks.

'You must always', she observed, 'obey a lady. I can see your bottom has been well wealed – look, Miss S----! I should have thought you would have learnt that already by this time – but as you have not, with Madam's permission', whack, whack, whack, – 'hold him tight, Miss S----', – whack, whack, – 'Take off your trousers, shirt and all?' – whack whack, whack!

Miss S---- held me as if in a vice, her dark eyes full of deep pleasure.

'Oh! yah. Oh, you hurt! oh, stop, oh, yes, I will, I will, oh, Mademoiselle! oh, Gertrude, oh, Mamma!'

Mademoiselle and Gertrude shrieked with laughter at my utter discomfiture.

The manageress though was really quite angry, and gave me several more gratuitous stinging blows. Miss S---- holding me, then looked very serious.

' Stay busks', whack, 'don't' – whack, 'make such a litter as a birch – they are' – whack, whack, 'quite as effectual though, don't they smart?' – No nasty buds and bits about the floor, not such a noise as the swish of the rod, and besides they are an article of lady's attire you are punished with – what' (a sounding whack) 'has compressed your governess’s  form. I trust' – whack, whack, 'if ever you have a wife she will govern you severely – it is a capital thing for a man; and that she will make you dread her stay-busks. Now I think you will be more docile'.

Do you know, Madam', she said, recovering her breath, 'many ladies bring their husbands or lovers here to submit to the regime of the stay-lace? Only the other day – yesterday in fact, – was it not, Miss S----? – a young lady brought her fiancé, and explained she had promised to marry him, but only on condition that he would wear one of our tightest corsets, and a pair of lady's drawers under his trousers to teach him he was no longer his own master, but now under a mistress, and her property'.

'And did he submit?' asked Gertrude, with undisguised curiosity.

'Yes! he had to; in her presence, he was laced up and she chose the drawers and took away his own with her; he had half-a-dozen pairs, richly trimmed with lace; and then he begged as a sign of goodwill on his part, to be allowed to wear ladies' stockings too – she clapped her hands, and was delighted – she gave him a kiss as a reward, and made him show her what she should possess after they were married'.

'And did he?'

'The poor gentleman looked very shamefaced, but I held his hands behind him, and made him stand before her seated on that very couch and she had a good look; examined him carefully I promise you'.

'Did she touch him?'

'No. Now, Miss S----, now young gentleman, if you do not want more flogging, strip yourself, Miss S---- will help you; and as soon as you have taken your things off you shall have this nice chemise over your head'.

Miss S---- did help me, in fact she stripped me, and I stood naked before these four women.

'Whatever has he to be ashamed of? A back and thighs like a woman's, I declare; and such a smooth face. He will make a capital girl!'

A silk vest had been slipped on under the chemise, then long stockings, silk, next the corset.

Mademoiselle finally fixed on what was technically described as an Ideal Sylph-Corset with a very small long waist. It was very high under the arms and inconveniently long in front, and it was laced with great severity, Miss S---- holding me, while her fellow conspirator tugged at the laces and made it meet.

'Drawers', Mademoiselle explained. She would not have combinations.
 
'We always advise wide old-fashioned drawers for young gentlemen, who are to be unsexed – they can be easily moved for purposes of punishment, and combinations cannot be'.

At the sight of the flannel petticoat I rebelled again. I was not a girl, I would not wear the thing.

'Bring him here', cried Mademoiselle, exasperated. 'Give me the busk. Across my knee this instant, Julian'.

Miss S---- pushed me over. Whack, whack, whack!

'Oh, Mademoiselle! Oh, Mademoiselle! Oh, you hurt!'

Sobbing and trembling, the white flannel petticoat was then tied on.

'Now, Miss, your dress –'

When I was fully equipped, a cab was called and we were driven to a lady's coiffeure.

'No, I will not have my head shaved'.

'You must', said Delilah with a stamp.

'It is not necessary, Mademoiselle', remarked the hairdresser.

'Mais je le veux', exclaimed Mademoiselle, with another stamp of her little foot.

So my head was shaved, and I was furnished with a woman's head of hair – several wigs were chosen. Another cheque. Then to Rathbone Place, to a bootmaker's.

'This young lady requires boots and shoes very tight, very high heels. Two pairs to lace half-way up her legs, half-way to the knees', ordered Mademoiselle.

My feet were then forced into girl's tight boots, which were laced up, the five and a-half-inch heels feeling like mountains under me.

When we reached Oxford Circus, Mademoiselle would look in at a shop in Regent Street, where she saw some marvellous corsets with horrid belts below the waist, more instruments of torture, more like strait waistcoats than any I had seen before. I was willy-nilly taken in; the assistants were very much more hoity-toity here than nearer Leicester Square. They could hardly find a corset large enough for me, and plainly regarded me as a hoyden. Of course they found out that I was a boy. They entirely ignored the fact, although their winks to each other seriously embarrassed and discomforted me.

But when the belt below came to be laced, there was something in the way – their discovery of my sex had already cost me several sly pushes and touches, which, with feminine spitefulness, they gave me at every opportunity in the most promiscuous manner. One of them then whispered to Mademoiselle.

And as a result a principal was consulted.

'Yes', said the haughty and stately personage, 'a young lady of abnormal development and construction, in fact a hermaphrodite. I quite understand. We have met with several cases of it. The abnormal organ had better be turned under the belt, Miss -----'

This was ruthlessly done.

I recollected Lord Alfred Ridlington’s observation in the conservatory, 'that he had met several young ladies with that thing in front'. Oh! Would they – would they after all believe me to be really a girl? Walking was now more troublesome, but Mademoiselle insisted on it, and we went down Regent Street, along Conduit Street and Bond Street, and so back to the hotel.

Luncheon, was alas! I could scarcely eat, so tightly cased up was I.

Gertrude had to leave that afternoon. I bade her adieu with tears. And then I was suddenly revived, for Mademoiselle reminded her of the theatre, and induced her to stay until the next day, when Mademoiselle purposed returning to Suffolk.

This excellent series will continue in the June issue of 'Petticoat Discipline Monthly'.