ONE of the country's leading academics will be taking particular care when performing the famous ''capping'' ritual in today's graduation ceremonies.
After being used to cap an estimated 100,000 students at Edinburgh University, staff discovered the tapping of all those braincells had taken its toll on the velvet hat's fabric, causing it to split.
Restoration work on the frayed headgear has now been done to ensure it remains a part of future ceremonies.
The capping ritual is a centuries-old tradition whereby those taking a degree are lightly tapped on the head with the cap by the university's vice-chancellor and principal, Sir Stewart Sutherland.
In the past, some over-enthusiastic dons may have worn out the bonnet's fabric by wildly striking hapless students with the ancient cloth rather than favouring a gentle, more ceremonial tap.
Last year, when the beloved hat was pulled out for another 4000 cappings, the university felt it was looking rather the worse for wear.
Lancashire firm North West Museums offered to patch it up for this summer's graduations.
The restoration, sponsored by tailors Ede & Ravenscroft, uncovered fascinating new evidence on the cap's origins.
Legend has it that the cap was made from the breeches of sixteenth century religious reformer John Knox, though other records trace the fabric to the trousers of the scholar George Buchanan, a contemporary of Knox.
However, a North West Museums conservator last month happened upon inked paper fragments in the inner lining of the cap, bearing the words ''Henry Banks 22 Duke Street Edinr 31 July 1849''.
After studying information provided by the 1851 census, the university discovered that Henry Banks was a successful merchant tailor who employed six men.
If the cap was manufactured in 1849, it would be more difficult to trace its origins to fabric which once belonged to either John Knox or George Buchanan.
For this reason, some staff and students are hoping that the date of ''31 July 1849'' refers to an earlier restoration of the hat, rather than the date of its manufacture.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article