There seem to have been originally at least three varieties of academic head-dress, one of which, the round cap of velvet for doctors, survives as part of their full dress to the present day. The square cap was adopted at the universities, according to Robinson, after 1520, in imitation of the University of Paris. In this con nection should be mentioned the term "tuft-hunting," i.e., at tempting to thrust oneself into the society of one's social superiors, derived from the gold tufts or tassel worn by noblemen and fellow commoners on their college caps.
Academic dress underwent much inquiry and some revision at the time of the Reformation, chiefly in the direction of sobriety and uniformity, "excess of apparel" being repressed as severely as ever, but not with much more effect. There have been few far reaching changes since the 17th century. Cambridge has of late years inquired into and revised her regulations as to dress, and in the Ordinances (latest ed. 1908, Statute A, cap. VII. p. 303) clear rules are laid down; the Oxford regulations (see Statuta et De creta Univ. Oxon. for 1909, Tit. xiv., de vestitu et habitu, pp. 327– 328) have not been revised lately, and some of them are a dead letter.
Doctors of both universities have three sets of robes : firstly, the full-dress gown of scarlet cloth ; secondly, the congregation habit and hood of scarlet (now at Cambridge a cope, at Oxford the so-called "cope") ; thirdly, the black gown. The first is worn by all doctors except the doctor of music, and is accompanied by the round cap of velvet. The Oxford D.D. also wears a cassock, sash and scarf. The scarlet gown is of a different and older shape than the M.A. and B.A. gowns. As now worn, it is faced with silk of the same colour as the hood of the faculty. The second, or cope, has now gone almost out of use, but is still worn when presenting for degrees, etc. It is sometimes worn over the black gown. There are several types of black gown, but the tufted gown of Loggan's day has now gone out of use. The M.D. and Mus.D. black gowns at Cambridge are now made after the pattern of the LL.D. gown, with wing-like sleeve and flap collar, trimmed with black lace, but the D.D., D.Sc. and Litt.D. wear the M.A. gown, the former with the scarf, the two latter with lace on the sleeve, placed horizontally for D.Sc. and vertically for Litt.D. Some doctors of divinity wear the full-sleeved gown with scarf. The head-dress of a D.D. is the
square cap, of lay doctors the velvet bonnet with gold cord.
The Oxford sleeveless commoner's gown, though still by statute talaris, now reaches little below the waist, the full-sleeved scholar's gown to the knees. The tufted silk gown of the gentleman-com moner and the nobleman's gold-laced gown are not yet abolished by statute, but have fallen into disuse. Vice-chancellors have no official costume, but wear the habit of their degree. The chancel lors of the older universities wear a black damask robe with gold lace, and a black velvet square cap with gold tassel or a doctor's velvet bonnet with gold cord ; those of the newer universities have robes "created" by the robe-makers, who are nowadays to a large extent the arbiters of academic dress.