cannot fail to excite both wonder and surprise; verily, a full furnished wardrobe of that day contained a pretty little fortune. The durability and strength are also very remarkable: some years past, on a visit to Baginton Hall, Warwickshire, I put on the robe of Mr. Bromley, who was speaker of the house of commons in Queen Anne's reign. It was of black velvet, lined with taffeta, and loaded with most costly gold lace and brocade the colours, although more than one hundred years old, still were good. The lace chamber, on Ludgate Hill, advertised, in 1710, one Brussels head, £40; one ground Brussels head at £30; one looped Brussels head at £30. Various wig-makers advertised them from five to forty guineas each. In the "Original Weekly Journal," 1720, it is stated that the hair of a woman who died at the age of 107, being perfectly white, was sold to a periwigmaker for £50. A damask table-cloth at that time cost £18. Counterpanes from 50 to £100, quite ordinary prices. Drayton gives the following description of one on a state bed, "On which a tissue counterpane was cast, In lively pictures neatly handled was." Fine linen, made at Ipswich, sold at 15s. an ell. Lady Wotton, at the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King James, wore a profusely embroidered gown worth £50 per yard. Lord Montague spent £1500 on the dress of his two daughters. GENTLEMEN'S DRESSES. "Whether the 'great one's' sinner it or saint it, THE English people have always been fond of furs. "Fox, lamb, and sable skins were used for facing clothes, but the latter were restricted to the nobility; 1000 ducats have been given for a facing of sable skin; a suit trimmed with this article was the richest dress worn. ""* This writer might also have noticed that the gowns of the common council and the mayors of the cities or towns were usually trimmed with the fur of the martin cat, that being the handsomest native fur. Gives kindly warmth to weak, enervate limbs, * Malone. WARDROBE OF A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.-Extract from a will, dated 1573, in the prerogative court of Canterbury: "I give unto my brother, Mr. Wm. Sheeney, my best black gowne, garbed and faced with velvet, and my velvet cap; also I will unto my brother, Thomas Marcall, my new sheepe-colored gowne, garbed with velvet and faced with cony, (rabbits' fur ;) also I will unto my son Tyble my shorte gowne, faced with wolf and laid with Bellement's lace; also I will unto my brother Cowper my other shorte gowne, faced with fox skin; also I will unto Thomas Walker my night-gowne, faced with cony, with one lace also, and my reddy (ruddy) colored hose; also I will unto my man Thomas Swaine my doublett of canvass that Forde made mee, and my new gaskins made by Forde; also I give unto John Wildinge a cassock of sheepe's colar, edged with pont's skins; also I give unto John Woodlie my doublett of fruite canvass and my hose, with fryze bryches; also I give unto Symonde Bishoppe, the smith, my other fryze jerkin with silk buttons; also I give unto Adam Ashame my hose with the frendge, (fringe,) and lined with crane-colored silk, which gifts I will to be delivered immediately after my decease." He Harrison, who wrote in 1580, complains that the gaudy trappings were coming into the rural and mercantile world. says: "Neither was it merriere with England than when he was knowne abroad by his own clothes, and contented himself at home with his fine carsie hosen and a meane slop, his coate, gowne, and cloake of browne, blue, or puke, (puce,) with some prettie furniture of velvett or furre, and a doublette of sadde tawnie or black velvet, or other whalie silk, without such garrishe coloures as are nowe worne in these daies; and never broughte in butte bye consent of the Frenche, who thinke themselves the gayest men when they have most diversitie of jagges and change of coloures about them." In 1582 Queen Elizabeth issued a proclamation regulating the apparel of the apprentices. They were not to wear any apparel but what was given by their masters; not to wear a hat in the city, but woollen caps without silk; to wear no ruffles, cuffs, loose collars; no doublets but what were made of canvass, fustian, sack-cloth, English leather, or woollen cloth, without gold, silver, or silk; to wear no cther coloured cloth or kersey in hose or stockings than white, blue, or russet; to wear little breeches, same stuff as doublets, without lace or bordering; to wear no swords, daggers, nor other weapons, but a knife; neither a ring, jewel of gold or silver, nor silk in any part." There was also an order during her reign relating to the dress, the beards, and the hair of the great lawyers. King James did not go into mourning after Queen Elizabeth's death, nor suffered any one else. The chancellor of the University of Cambridge, on a visit of the king (James) there, 1615, issued an order admonishing the students against the fearful enormity and excess of apparel, as peccadilloes, vast bands, huge cuffs, shoe roses, tufts, locks and tops of hair, unbeseeming that modesty and carriage of students of so renowned a university. The neck-ruff was worn by both sexes. The bishops and judges were the last of the male sex to give them up. John Taylor, the water poet, and Ben Jonson, thus lash the dresses: "Wear in a farme edged with gold, And spangled garters worth a copyhold, A gaudy cloak three manors worth almost; A beaver band and feather for the head, Prized at the church's tithe-the poor man's bread." TAYLOR. "The Savoy chain about my neck, the ruff "The coxcomb in Shakspeare's time wore earrings, and, peacock-like, he displayed all his feathers." I have before stated that James was rather slovenly himself. A writer of the Court of King James, 1650, who signs himself Sir A. W., an eye-witness, says: "He would not change his clothes till they were very ragged, his fashion never; insomuch that, one bringing to him a hat of a Spanish black, he cast it from him, saying, he neither loved them nor their fashions. Another time, bringing him roses on his shoes, he asked if they meant to make him a ruffed fool-dere; one yard of sixpenny riband served that turn." But he encouraged the most sickening foppery in the courtiers that surrounded him.* When the royal driveller sent over that contemptible thing, Buckingham, to France, "stuck o'er with titles and hung round with strings," as ambassador special, to bring the Princess Henrietta to England, he provided for the mission a suit of white uncut velvet and a cloak, both set all over with diamonds, valued at £80,000; besides an aigrette made of diamonds. His sword, girdle, hat-bands, and spurs were also set * See Strutt; and play of "Westward Hoe," written by Jonson, Chapman, and Marlowe, and printed in 1605. thick with these precious gems; in fact, he was the king of diamonds personified. He had another suit with him, of purple satin, embroidered all over with pearls, valued at £20,000; and also, in addition, he had five-and-twenty other dresses of great and varied richness. In his suite he had throngs of nobles and gentles, and all attired in costly raiment for the purpose, in chains of gold or ropes of pearl, suitable for such an embassy. How truly do these men prove a remark of Juvenal : "Fools are best pleased with things that cost most money." The shape of the hat was very high, and in the form of a sugar-loaf, with a very large, slouching brim, and expensive bands. From "Youth's Behaviour, or Decency in Conversation among Men, composed in French by grave persons for the use and benefit of their youth, and translated into English by Francis Hawkins, nephew to Sir Thomas Hawkins, in 1668," he is instructed to "wear not thy hat too high, nor too close on thy eye, not in the fashion of swaggerers and jesters." The old portraits in the family mansions represent the breeches like long sausage hose, pinned up like pudding-bags; a Dutch fashion. There was also another Dutch fashion, called the Vandyke costume, but they hung loose below the knee, and were either fringed or adorned with a row of points, which were ruffed with lace or lawn. The other part was a sort of doublet of silk or satin, with slashed sleeves; a falling collar of pointed lace; a short cloak, worn carelessly over one shoulder; on the broad-brimmed Flemish beaver one or more ostrich feathers falling gracefully from it; a very broad and richly embroidered sword-belt, in which was hung a Spanish rapier. (See annexed engraving.) The silk doublet was occasionally exchanged for a buff coat, reaching half-way down the thigh, (pockets in the skirts to catch the winter's snow or summer's dust,) with or without sleeves. A beau of this period was an animated trinket; from the top of his beaver, that fluttered with gay streamers, to his boot point nothing was to be seen but an assemblage of bright colours and a blaze of jewellery; he seemed fit only "to dance in his ringlets to the whistling wind." As he languishingly waved his handkerchief to and fro, he scented the air with his musk; his gloves, which were too fine for use, were made of perfumed leather; his pockets were stored with orangeade; and when he addressed a lady, it was not only with honeyed words, but with sweet and substantial comfits. Not even contented with all this, the fops at last proceeded to paint their faces, and thus their resemblance to woman became complete. A rougher species of coxcombry was exhibited by those few who might be called the military dandies of the day besides affecting a soldierly swagger and style of language, they wore black patches upon their faces, clipped into the forms of stars, half moons, and lozenges. This fashion originated in those who returned from the wars in the low countries, and began with the men before it was adopted by the women. Under the date of 1659 Pepys gives an account of the dress of a gentleman: "A short-waisted doublet and petticoat breeches; the lining, being lowest, is tied above the knee; they are ornamented with ribands up to the pockets, and half their breadth upon the thigh. The waistband is set about with ribands, and the shirt hanging out over them.* Beneath the knee hung long, drooping, lace ruffles. The hat high crowned, and ornamented with a plume of feathers; and a rich falling collar of lace, with a cloak hung carelessly over the shoulder. The hair COSTUME OF THE NOBILITY AND GENTRY TIME OF CHARLES II. very long, and flowing in ringlets over the shoulders. In 1664 the crown of the hat was lowered, and the plume laid upon the brim." In 1666 the king (Charles II.) had a new dress, which he resolved never to aller. A king's resolve, and such a king! * Gentlemen's shirts, elegantly worked with silk and needle-work, cost £10 each. |