Lord Byron on Uniform

“Medals, rank, ribands, lace, embroidery, scarlet,   Are things immortal to immortal man, As purple to the Babylonian harlot:   An uniform to boys is like a fan To women; there is scarce a crimson varlet   But deems himself the first in Glory’s van.”

“Suppose him in a handsome uniform,—   A scarlet coat, black facings, a long plume, Waving, like sails new shiver’d in a storm,   Over a cock’d hat in a crowded room, And brilliant breeches, bright as a Cairn Gorme,   Of yellow casimire we may presume, White stocking drawn uncurdled as new milk O’er limbs whose symmetry set off the silk.”