I’ve been writing about the use of bunting in patriotic colours to decorate a fundraising event at Haverford House, home of my Duchess of Haverford. Just to make sure I wasn’t handing my readers an anachronism, I did a bit of research.

Sure enough, bunting — in the sense of long lines of flags put up to celebrate an event — goes back to at least the early seventeenth century. The term seems to have started as the name of the material used to make the flags. Buntine was a lightweight wool fabric used for flags on naval ships. Rows of small flags are, even today, used to signal from ship to ship. One source I found said the sailor whose job it is to raise the flags is still referred to as a bunt, but I can’t find any verification of that.

Bunting has traditionally been used for street parties, patriotic processions, and the like. No reason why I can’t have it in my ballroom for an event to raise money for the widows and children of soldiers and sailors.

Just for something different, here’s how to make it, with the occasional snippet of knowledge about how the Victorians used it.