ENGLISH COSTUME
AGENTS
& FXH A NEW YORK
TH MACMILLAN COMPANY O CANADA LTD.
BOND STRRRT. TORONTO
MACMILN & COMPANY. LTD.
A MAN OF THE TIME OF GEORGE IV.
HERE $'ou see tlae coat which we now wear, slightly
altered, in out evening dre.ss. If came into fashion,
with this form of top-boots, in x799, and was caIIed
a [ean-de-Bry. Notice the commencement of the
whisker fashion.
ENGLISH COSTUME
PAINTED DESCRIBED
BY DION
CALTHROP
BY ADAM
CLAYTON
PUBLISHED
CHARLES
BLACK" LONDON MCMVII
lPublishd in.four volur,s durin. 190OE
lbliahed in on volume, dpril, 1907.
/,4'
INTRODUCTION
Trv. world, if we choose to see it so, is a eompli-
cated pieture of people dressing and undressing.
The history of the world is eomposed of the chat
of a little band of tailors seated eross-legged on
theh- boards; they gossip aeross the eenturies,
feeling, as they should, very busy and important.
Someone ruade the eoat of many eolours for Joseph,
another eut into material for Elijah's mantle.
Baldwin, from his st.aH on the site of the great
battle, has only to streteh his neek round to nod
to the tailor who ruade the toga for Julius Coesar ;
has only to lean forward to smile to Pasquino, the
wittiest of tailors.
John Pepys, the tailor, gossips with his neigh-
bour who eut that jaekanapes eoat wîth silver
buttons so proudly wom by Samuel Pepys, his
son. /lr. Schweitzer, who eut Beau Brummell's
coat, talks to Mr. Meyer, who shaped his pant-
ri
INTRODUCTION
loons. Our world is full of the sound of scissors,
the clipping of which, with the gossiping tongues,
drown the grander voices of history.
As you will see, I have devoted myself entirely
to civil costume--that is, the clothes a man or a
woman would wear from choice, and not by reason
of an appointment to some ecclesiastical post, or
to a military calling, or to the Bar, or the Bench.
Such clothes are but symbols of their trades and
professions, and have been dealt with by persons
who specialize in those professions.
I have taken the date of the Conquest as my
starting-point, and from that date--a very simple
period of clothes--I have followed the changes of
the garments reign by reign, fold by fold, button
by button, until we arrive quite smoothly at Beau
Brummell, the inventor of modern clothes, the
prophet of cleanliness.
I have taken considerable pains to trace the
influence of one garment upon its successor, to
reduce the wardrobe for each reign down toits
simplest cuts and folds, so that the reader may
follow quite easily the passage of the coat from its
birth toits ripe age, and by this means may not
INTRODUCTION vii
only know the elothes of one rime, but the reasons
for those garments. To the best of my knowledge,
sueh a thing has never been done before; most
works on dress try fo include the world from
Adam to Charles Dickens, lump a century into a
page, and dismiss the aneient Egyptians in a couple
of eolour plates.
So many young gentlemen have blown away
their patrimony on feathers and tobacco that itis
necessary for us to confine ourselves to certain
gentlemen and ladies in out own country. A
knowledge of history is essential to the study of
mankind, and a knowledge of history is never
perfeet without a knowledge of the clothes with
whieh to dress it.
A man, in a sense, belongs to his clothes ; they
are so much a par of him that, to take him
seriously, one must know how he walked about, in
what habit, with what air.
I ara eompelled to speak strongly of my own
work because I believe in it, and I feel that the
series of paintings in these volumes are really a
valuable addition to English history. To be modest
is often tobe exeessively vain, and, having ruade
Vlll
INTRODUCTION
an exhaustive study of my subject from my own
point of view, I do not feel called upon to hide my
knowledge under a bushel. Of course, I do not
suggest that the ordinary cultured man should
acquire the saine amount of knowledge as a painter,
or a writer of historical subjects, or an actor, but he
should understand the clothes of his own people,
and be able to visualize any date in which he may
be interested.
One half of the people who talk glibly of Beau
Brummell have but half an idea when he lived,
and no idea that, for example, he wore whiskers.
Hamlet they can conjure up, but would have some
difficulty in recognising Shakespeare, because most
portraits of him are but head and shoulders.
Napoleon has stamped himself on men's minds
very largely through the medium of a certain form
of hat, a lock of hair, and a gray coat. In future
years an orchid will be remembered as an emblem.
I have arranged, as far as it is possible, that each
plate shall show the emblem or distinguishing
mark of the reign it illustrates, so that the con-
tinuity of costume shall be remembered by the
arresting notes.
INTRODUCTION ix
.As the fig-leaf identifies Adam, so may the chap-
eron twisted into a cockscomb mark Richard II.
.As the curle:l and scented hair of Alcibiades occurs
to our mind, so shal] Beau Nash manage his clouded
cane. Elizabeth shall be helped to the memory
by her Piccadilly ruff; square Henry VIII. by his
broad-toed shoes and his little fiat cap; Anne
Boleyn by her black satin nightdress; James be
called up as padded trucks; Maximilian as puffs
and slashes; D'Orsay by the eurve of his hat;
Tennyson as a dingy brigand; Gladstone as a
collar; and even more recent examples, as the
Whistlerian lock and the Burns blue suit.
And what romantic incidents may we hOt hang
upon out clothes-line ! The cloak of Samuel Pepys
(' Dapper Dick,' as he signed himself to a certain
lady) sheltering four ladies from the tain ; Sir SValter
Raleigh spreading his cloak over the mud to protect
the shoes of that great humorist Elizabeth (I never
think of her apart from the saying, 'Ginger for
pluck'); Mary, Queen of Scots, ordefing false
attires of hair during her captivity--all these
seenes clinched into reality by the knowle3ge of
the dress proper to them.
INTRODUCTION
And what are we doing to help modern history
--the pieture of our own times--that it may look
beautiful in the ages to tome ? I cannot answer
you that.
Some chapters of this work have appeared in the
Connoisseur, and I have to thank the editor for his
courtesy in allowing me to reproduce thern.
I must also thank Mr. Pownall for his help in
the early stages of my labours.
One thing more I must add: I do not wish this
book to go forth and be received with that frigid
politeness which usually welcomes a history to the
shelves of the bookcase, there to remain unread.
The book is intended to be read, and is not wrapped
up in grandiose phrases and a great wind about
nothing ; I would wish to be thought more friendly
than the antiquarian and more truthful than the
historian, and so have endeavoured to show, in
addition to the body of the clothes, some little of
their soul.
DION CLAYTON CALTHROP.
Contents
WILLIAM THE FIRST ....
WILLIAM THE SECOND
HENRY THE FIRST o
STEPHEN
HENRY THE SECOND
RICHARD THE FIRST
JOH N
HENRY THE THIRD .
EDWARD THE FIRST ....
EDWARD THE SECOND. . .
EDWARD THE THIRD . . .
RICHARD THE SECOND
THE END OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
HENRY THE FOURTH o
HENRY THE FIFTH . .
HENRY THE SIXTH . , o
EDWARD THE FOURTH o .
EDWARD TRE FIFTH
RICHARD THE THIRD o .
HENRY THE SEVENTH o °
xi
IO
8
102
122
141
xii
CONTENTS
pAG|
44o
Illustrations in Colour
I.A
.A
$.A
.A
5. A
6. A
8. A
9. A
I0. A
II.A
I. A
l& A
I« A
l& A
16. A
17. A
18. A
Man of the Time of George IV. . 1820-1830 Frontiiec
FACIIG AG 1'
Man of the Time of Williarn I. 1066-1087 .
Woman of the Time of William I. ,, . 8
Man of the Time of William II. 1087-1100 . 10
Woman of the Time of Wil]iam 11. ,, . 16
Man of the Time of Henry [. 1100-1135
Child of the Time of Henry I. . ,, .
Woman of the Time of Henry I.. ,, . 6
Man of the Time of Stephen 1185-1154, . SO
Woman of the Time of Stephen ,, . 38
Man of the Time of Henry II. 1154-1189 .
Woman of the Time of Henry II. ,, .
Man of the Time of Richard I. I 189-1199 . 56
Woman of the Time of Richard I. ,, . 60
Man ofthe Time of John 1199-1£16 .
Woman of the Time of John . ,, 66
Man of the Time of Henry III. 1216-1£7£ . 68
Woman of the Tirae of Henry III. » . 74
XII|
xiv
ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
! 9. A Peasant of Early England .... 78
0. A Man and Woman of the Time of
Edward I. 17-1 $07 . 88
tl. A Man and Woman of the Time of
Edward II.. 1307-137 96
. A Man of the Time of Edward lIl.. ! 37-1377
3. A Woman ofthe Time of Edward III. ,, 10
$4. A Man of the Time of Richard I I. 1377-1399 1
$5. A Woman of the Time of Richard II. ,, 136
$6. A Man and Woman of the Time of
Henry IV.. 1399-1413 155
7. A Man of the Time of Henry V. 1413-1455 164
$8. A Woman of the Time of Henry V. ,, 17
29. A Man of the Time of Henry VI. 1452-1461 180
30. A Wonmn of the Time of Henry VI. ,, 195
31. A Man ofthe Time of Edward IV.. 1461-183
35. A Woman of the Time of Edward IV. ,, $08
33. A Man of the Time of Richard III.. 1483-1485 $16
34. A Woman ofthe Time of Richard III. ,,
35. A Man ofthe Time of Henry Vil. 1485-1509 $$6
36. A Womanof the Time of Henry Vil. ,,
37. A Man of the Time of Henry VIII.. 1509-1547
$8. A Man of the Time of Henry VIII.. ,, $56
89. A Woman ofthe Time of Henry VIII. ,, 58
40. A Woman of the Time of Henry VIII. ,, . $66
41. A Man and Woman of the Time of
E¢lward VI. . . 1547-1553 78
ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR xv
#. A Man ofthe Time of Mary . . 1553-1558 . 86
4. A Woman of the Time of Mary . » . 90
44. A Man of the Time of Elizabeth 15.58-160
45. A Woman of the Time of E]izabeth. ,, . 306
46. A Woman of the Time of Elizabeth. ,, .
47. A Man ofthe Time of James I. 1603-1625 . 830
48. A Woman of the Time of James I.. ,, . 838
49. A Man ofthe T/me of Charle I. 1625-1649 846
50. A Woman of the Time of Charles I.. ,, . 354
51. A Cromwellian Man 1649-1660 . 360
52. A Woman of the Time of the
Cromweils ,, . 362
53. A Woman of the Time of the
Cromwe]ls ,, . 364
54. A Man ofthe Time of Charles Il. 1660 1685 . 366
55. A Man of the Time of Charles Il. ,, 368
56. A Woman of the Time of Charles II. " ,, 372
57. A Man of the Time of James II. 1685-1689 378
58. A Woman of the Time of James Il. ,, 380
59. A Man of the Time of William
and Mary 1689-170
0. A Woman of the Time of William
and Mary ,,
61. A Man ofthe Time of Queen Anne 170-171 396
62. A Woman of the Timi of Queen
Anne. ,, 400
68. A Man of the Time of George I. . 171-177 408
xvi ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
66. A Woman of the Time of George I.
65. A Man of the Time of George II.
66. A Woman of the Time of George II.
67. A Man of the Time of George III..
68. A Woman ofthe Time of George III.
69. A Man of the Time of George III.
70. A Woman ofthe Time of George 11I.
1716-1727
1727-1760
1760-1820
176O- 182O
Illustrations in Black and White
A Series of Thirty-two Half-tone Reproductions of
Engravings by Hollar 358
A Series of Sixty Half-tone Reproductions of Wash Draw-
ings by the Dightons--Father and Son--and by the
Author 460
Numerous Line Drawings by the Author throughout the Text.
WILLIAM THE FIRST
Reigmd twenty-one years : 1066--1087.
Born 107. Married, 105.% Mati]da of Flandert.
THE MEN
/ï I¥rt" France should
ahvays give the lead
in the matter of dress
//," ", I as a nice poht in sar-
torial moralitya
] fft . . morality which holds
[ i that it takes nine tailors to
make a man and but one
1 lliner to break him, a code,
l wi oen have to «eal.
Saorially, then, we com-
lnenee fith the 14th of Oetober, 1066, upon
whieh day, fatal to the fashions of the country,
the flag of King Harold, smnptuously woven and
1
ENGLISH COSTUME
embroidered in gold, bearing the figure of a
man fighting, studded with precious stones, was
eaptured.
lVilliam, of Norse blood and pirate traditions,
landed in England, and brought with him blood-
shed, devastation, new laws, new eustoms, and new
fashions.
Principal among these last was the method of
shaving the hair at the back of the head, which
fashion speedily died out by reason of the parlous
times and the haste of war, besides the utter
absurdity of the idea. Fashion, however, has no
sense of the ridiculous, and soon replaced the one
folly by some other extravagance.
¥illiam I. found the Saxons very plainly dressed,
and he did little to alter the masculine mode.
He found the Saxon ladies tobe as excellent
at embroidery as were their Norman sisters, and
in such times the spindle side was content to sit
patiently at home weaving while the men were
abroad ravaging the country.
l¥illiam was not of the stuff of dandies. No
man could draw his bow; he helped with his own
hands to elear the snowdrift on the march to
Chester. Stark and tierce he was, loving the
A MAIq OF THE TIME OF WILLIAM l.
(x---x3-)
CLOAK buckled at the shoulder. Leather thougs
crossed on his legs. Shoes of leather. Tunic fitting
fo his body like a jersey.
WILLIAM THE FIRST
solitudes of the woods and the sight of hart and
hind.
¥hen some kind of order was restored in England,
many of the Saxons who had fled the cotmtry and
gone to Constantinople caine back, bringig with
thein the Oriental idea of dress. The Jews caine
with Eastern Inerchandise into England, and brought
rich-coloured stuffs, and as these spread through
the country by slow degrees, there caine a gradual
change in colour and inaterial, and finer stuffs
replaced the old hoinespun garinents.
The Jews were at this tiine very eininent as silk
manufacturers and Inalers of purple cloth. The
Britons had been very fainous for their dyed woollen
stuffs. Boadicea is said to have worn a tunic of
chequered stuff, which was in ail probability
rather of the nature of Scotch plaids.
The tunics worn by the Inen of this tiine were,
roughly speaking, of two kinds: those that fitted
close to the body, and those that hung loose, being
gathered into the waist by a hand. The close-
fitting tunic was h the forin of a knitted jersey,
with skirts reaching to the knee; it was open on
either side to the hips, and fell froin the hips in
loose folds. The neck was slit open four or rive
1--2
¢ ENGLISH COSTUME
incbes, a.nd had an edging of embroidery, and the
sleeves were wide, and reached just below the
elboxvs. These also had an
' ! (1 edging of embroidery, or a
/ _ _" .,._ band different in colour to
. j thc, rest of the tunic.
l'he othcr fonn of tunic
likc the modern shirt, cxcept
that the neck opening was
smaller. It was loose and
easy, u4th wide sleeves to the
elbow, and w gathered in
af the waist by a band of stuff
or leather.
The skies of the tunics were eut square or
V-shaped in ont and behind. There were also
tunics similar in shape to either of those mentioned,
except that the skirts were very short, and were
tucked into wide, short breeches which reached to
the knee, or into the trousers which men wore.
Under this tunic was a plain shiloE, loosely fitting,
the sleeves tight and inkled over the wrist, the
neck showing above the opening of the tunic.
This shirt was generally white, and the opening
WILLIAM THE FIRST
at the neck was sometimes stitched with coloured
or black wool.
Upon the legs they wore neat-fitting drawers of
wool or cloth, dyed or of natural colour, or loose
trousers of the saine materials, sometimes worn
loose, but more generally bound
round just above the knee and at
the ankle. .
They wore woo]len soeks, and for
footgear they wore shoes of skin
and leather, and boots of soft
leather shaped naturally to the
foot and strapped or buckled aeross
the instep. The tops of the boots
were sometilnes ornamented with
coloured bands.
The cloak worn was semieireular
in shape, with or without a smali semicircle eut
out at the neck. It was fastened over the right
shoulder or in the centre by means of a large
round or square brooch, or it was held in place
by means of a metal ring or a stuff loop through
which the cloak was pushed; or it was tied by
two eords sewn on to the right side of the cloak,
which cords took a buneh of the stufl' into a knot
ENGLISH COSTUME
and so held it, the ends of the cords having tags
of metal or plain ornaments.
One may sec the very same make and fashion of
tunic as the Normans wore under their armour
being worn to-day by the Dervishes in Lower Egypt
--a coarse wool tunic, well padded, ruade in the
form of tunic and short drawers
in one piece, the wide sleeves
laching just below the elbow.
The hats and caps of these
men were of the most simple
fbrm--plain round-topped skull-
caps, fiat caps close to the head
without a brim, and a hat with
a peak like the hehnet.
Hoods, of course, were worn
during the winter, ruade very
close to the head, and they were
also worn under the hehnets.
Thus in such a guise may we picture the Norman
lord at home, eating his meat with his fingers, his
tet in loose skin shoes tied with thongs, his legs in
loose trousers bound with crossed garters, his tunic
open at the neck showing the white edge of his shirt,
his face clean-shaven, and his hair neatly cropped.
WILLIAM THE FIRST
7
THE VOMEN
Nothing could be plainer or
more homely than the dress of
a Norman lady. Her loose
gown was ruade with ample
s'lirts reaching well on to the
ground, and it was gathered in
at the waist by a belt of wool.
cloth, silk, or cloth of gold web.
The gown fitted easily across
the shoulders, but fell from
there in loose folds. The neck
opening was eut as the man's, about rive inches
down the front, and the border ornamented with
some fine needlework, as also were the borders
of the wide sleeves, which came just below the
elbows.
Offen the gown was made short, so that when
it was girded up the border of it fell only to the
knees, and showed the long chemise below.
The girdle was, perhaps, the richest portion of
their attire, and was sometimes of silk diapered with
gold thread, but such a girdle would be very costly.
More oiïen it would be plain wool, and be tied
8
ENGI,ISH COSTUME
simply round the waist with short ends, which did
not show.
The chemise was a plain white garment, with
tight sleeves which wrinkled at the wrists; that is
to say, they were really too long tbr the arm, and
so were eaught in small folds at the wrist.
The gown, opening at the neek in the saine way
as did the men's tunies, showed the white of the
chemise, the opening being
held togetber sometimes by a
brooch.
Towards the end of the
reign the upper part of the
gown--that is, from the neek
to the waistwas worn close
and fitted more closely to the
figure, but hot over-tightly--
mueh as a tight jersey would fit.
Over ail was a eloak of the
semicircular shape, very voluminousabout three
feet in diameterwhieh was brooehed in the centre
or on the shoulder.
On the head, where the hair was closely coiled
with a few curls at the ibrehead, a wimple was
worn, which was wound about the head and throa
A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF WILLIAM I.
(xo66.xo7)
A TWlST Of WOO| holds the gown at the waist. Under
the gown the chemise shows. The neck of the gown
is embroidered.
WILIIAM THE FIRST
9
over the shoulder, not allowing the hair to show.
These wimples were sometimes very broad, and
were almost like a mantle, so that they fill over
the shoulders below the breast.
Tied round the wimple they sometimes had a
snood, or band ofsilk.
The shoes were like those worn by the men.
These ladies were all housewives, eooking, pre-
paring simples, doing embroide3z and weaving.
They were their own milliners and dressmakers,
and generally ruade their husbands' elothes, although
some garments might be ruade by the tosvn tailors ;
but, as a rule, they weaved, cut, sewed, and fitted
for their families, and then, aoEer the garments were
finished to satisfaction, they would begin upon
strips of embroidery to deeorate them.
In sueh occupation we may pieture then, and
imagine them sitting by the windows with their
ladies, busily sewing, looking up from their work
to sec hedged fields in lambing-time, while shepherds
in rough sheepskin clothes drove the sheep into
neat enelosure, and saw to it that they lay on warm
straw against the cold February night.
WILLIAM THE SECOND
Reigned thirteen yea: 1087w1100.
Bore c. 1060.
THE MEN
ABOUOE this time there
came to England a
Norman, who settled
near by the Abbey of
Battle- Baldwin the
Tailor by naine, whom
(,,,.ï"
[,:l ! one might call the fither of
il / English tailoring. ,
,,,.,]lll,I Baldwin the Yailor sat
.I contentedly cross- legged on
t/' his beneh and plied his
x.a needle and thread, and snip-
ped, and cut, and sewed, watching the birds
pick worms and insects fi'om the turf of' the battle-
ground.
10
A MAN OF THE "rIME OF WILLIAM IL
SHOWS th wide drawers wlth an embroidered hem.
Under them can be seen the long woollen drawers
bound with leather thongs,
'WILIJAM THE SECOND
11
England is getting a little more settled.
The reign opens picturesquely enough with
William Rufus hastening to England with his
father's ring, and ends with the tragedy of the
New Forest and a blood-stained tunic.
Clothes begin to play an important part. Rich
fur-lined cloaks and gowns trail on the ground,
and sweep the daisies so lately pressed by mailed
feet and sopped with
blood where the Saxons
fell.
Times have changed
since Baldwin was at
the coronation at West-
minster on Christmas
l)ay twenty years ago.
Flemish weavers and
farmers arrive from
overseas, and are estab-
lished by ,'Villiam Il.
in the North to teacl
the people pacifie arts, TUe Cloak puahed through Ring.
causing in rime a stream of Flemish merchandise
to flow into the country, chiefly of rieh fabrics and
line eloths.
ENGLISH COSTUME
The men adopt longer tunies, made after the
same pattern as before--split up either side and
loose in the sleeve--but in many cases the skirts
reaeh to the ground in heavy folds, and the sleeves
bang over the hands by quite a yard.
The necks of these tunics are ornamented as
be|bre, with coloured bands or stiff embroidery.
The cuffs have the embroidery both inside and
out, so that when the long sleeve is turned back
over the hand the embroidery will show.
The fashion in cloaks is still the saine--of a
semicireular pattern.
The shoes are the same as in the previous reign--
that is, of the shape of the foot, except in rare
cases of dandyism, when the shoes were ruade with
long, narrow toes, and these, being stuffed with
moss or wool, were so stiffened and curled up at
the ends that they presented what was supposed
to be a delightfully extravagant appearance.
They wore a sort of ankle garter of sort leather
or cloth, which came over the top of the boot and
just above the ankle.
The hair, beard, and moustaches were worn long
and carefully combedin fact, the length of thê
beard caused the priests to rail at them under such
WILLIAM THE SECOND
terres as 'tilthy goats.' But they had hardly the
right to censorship, since they themseh'es had to
be severely reprimanded by their Bishops for their
extr.avagance in dress.
Many gentlemen, and especially the Velsh, wore
long loose trousers as far as the ankle, leaving these
garments free from
any cross gartering.
These were seeured
about the waist by a
girdle of stufl or '
leather.
The ultra - fhshion-
able dress was an
elongation of every U:-t.J/
part of the simple
dress of the previous
reign. Given these
few details, it is easy
for anyone w]m wishes to go furthcr to do so,
in which case he must keep to the main out-
line very carefully; but as to the actual length
of sleeve or shoe, or the very measurements of
a cloak, they varied with the individual folly of
the owner. So a man might bave long sleeves
ENGLISH COSTUME
and a short tunic, or a tunic whieh trailed upon
the ground, the sleeves of which reached only to
the elbow.
I have notieed that it is the general eustom of
writers upon the dress of this early rime to dwell
lovingly upon the eolours of the various parts of
the dress as they were painted in the illuminated
manuseripts. This is a foolish waste of rime, inso-
lnueh as the eolours were lnade the means of
displays of pure design on the part of the very
early illuminators ; and if one were to go upon sueh
evidenee as this, by the exaetness of sueh drawings
alone, then every Norman had a face the eolour of
which nearly resembled wet biscuit, and hair picked
out in brown lines round eaeh wave and eurl.
These woollen elothes--eap, tunie, semieireular
cloak, and leg eoverings--have all been aetually
found in the tolnb of a Briton of the Bronze Age.
So little did the elothes alter in shape, that the
eady Briton and the late Norman were dressed
neady exaetly alike.
rhen the tomb of VVilliam II. was opened in
1868, it was round, as had been suspeeted, that the
grave had been opened and looted of what valuables
it lnight have eontained; but there were round
WILLIAM THE SECOND
15
among the dust which fil]ed the bottom of thc
tomb fragrncnts of red cloth, of gold cloth, a
turquoise, a serpent's head in ivory, and a wooden
spear shaft, perhaps the very spear that SVilliam
carried on that fatal day in the New Forest.
Also with the dust and bones of the dead King
some nutshells were discovered, and examination
showed that mice had been able to get into the
tomb. So, if you please, you may hit upon a pretty
moral.
THE WOMEN
And so the lady began to lace ....
A moralist, a dcnounccr of the fait
sex, a satirist, would have his fling at
this. VVhat thundering epithcts and
ï avalanche of words should burst out
at such a momentous point in English
history 1
However, the lady pleased herself.
Not that the lacing was very tight,
but it commenced the habit, and the
habit begat the harm, and the thing
grew until it arrived finally at that
buckram, square-built, cardboard-and-tissue figure
which titters and totters through the Elizabethan era.
16
ENGLISH COSTUME
Our male eyes, trained from infancy upwards to
avoid gazing into certain shop windows, nevertheless
retain a vivid impression of an awesome affair
therein, which we understood by hints and signs
confined our mothers' figures in its deadly grip.
That the lady did not lace herselï overtight is
proved by the many informations we have of ber
household duties; that she laced tight enough for
unkind comment is shown by the fact that some
old monk pictured the dex-il in a neat-laced gown.
It was, at any rate, a distinct departure from the
loosely-clothed lady of 1066 towards the neater
figure of 1135.
The lacing was more to draw the wrinkles of the
close-woven bodice of the gown smooth than fo
forma false waist and accentuated hips, the beauty
of which malformation I must leave to the writers
in ladies' journals and the condemnation to health
thddists.
However, the laeing was not the only matter of
note. A change was eoming over ail iminine
apparela change towards riehness, whieh ruade
itself felt in this reign more in the fabric than in the
aetual make of the garment.
The gown was open at the neck in the usual
A WOMAN OF THE TIME OI t WILLIAM II,
(o87--zzoo)
THIS shows the gown, which is laced behind, fitting
more closely fo the figure. The sloeves are wider
above the wrist.
VII.LIAM THE SECOND
17
tnanner, was fidl in the skirt and longer than
heretofore, was laced at the back, and was loose
in the sleeve.
The sleeve as worn by the men --that is, the over-
long sleeve hanging down over the hand--was also
worn by the women, and hung down
or was turued back, according to the
fi'eak of the vearer. Not only this,
but a new idea began, which was fo ,
eut a hole in the long sleeve where
the hand came, and. pushing the
hand through, to let the l'est of the
sleeve droop down. This developed,
as ve shall see later.
Then the cloak, which had before
been fastened by a brooch on the
shoulder or in the centre of the
breast, was now held more tightly over the shoulders
by a set of laces or bands which ran round the back
from underneath the
thstened, thus giving
shoulders.
You must remember
brooeh where they were
lnore definition to the
that such fashions as the
hole in the s!eeve and the laced cloak were hot ail)"
more universal than is any modern fashion, and tht
o
18
ENGLISH COSTUME
the good dame in the COUlltry was about a century
behind the rimes with her loose gown and heavy
cloak.
There were still the short gowns, which, being
tucked in at the waist by the girdle, showed the
thick wool chemise below and the
unlaced gown, fitting like a jersey.
The large wimple was still worn
wrapped about the head, and the hair
, was still carefully hidden.
Shall we imagine that itis night, and
that the lady is going to bed ? Sbe is
in her long white chenfise, standing at
the window looking down upon the
_.__ market square of a snall town.
-.--_--a ïhe lnoon l.icks out every detail of
carving on the church, and throws the
pol'C]l iato a dense gloom. Nota soul is about,
hOt a light is tobe seen, nota sound is tobe
heard.
The lady is about to leave the window, when she
hears a sound in the street below. She peers down,
and sees a man running towards the church; he
goes in and out of the shadows. From her open
window she can hear his heavy breathing. Now he
WILI,IAM THE SECOND
19
darts into the shadow of the porch, and then out
of the gloom colnes a furious knocking, and a voice
crying, ' Sanctuary !'
The lady at her window knows that cry wdl.
Soon the monks in the belfry will awake and ring
the Galilee-bell.
The Galilee-beil tolls, and the knocking ceases.
A few curious citizens look out. A dog barks.
"Ften a door opens and closes with a bang.
There is silence in the square again, but the
lady still stands at ber window, and she follows
the man in her thoughts.
Now he is admitted by the monks, and goes at
once to the altar of the patron-saint of the church,
where he kneels and asks for a coroner.
The coroner, an aged monk, cornes to him and
confesses him. He tells his crime, and renounces
his rights in the kingdom ; and then, in that dark
church, he strips to his shirt and offers his clothe.
to the sacrist for his fee. Ragged, mud-stained
clothes, torn cloak, ail fail from him in a heap upon
the floor of the church.
Now the sacrist gives him a large cloak with a
cross upon the shoulder, and, haviug fed him, gives
him into the charge of the under-sheriff, who will
212
'2O
ENGLIII COS'I'!'3IE
next day pa.s Itim from constablc to constable
towal'ds the toast, where he will be seen on board
a ship, and so pass away, an exile for ever.
The night is eold. The lady pulls a curtain
across the window, and then, stripping he-elf of
her chemise, she gets into bed.
HENRY THE FIRST
Reigned thirty-five years : 1100--1135.
Born 1068. Mm'ied to Matiida of Scotland, 1100; to
Adela of Louvain, 11°1.
THE MEN
THE Father or Popular Litera-
ture, Gerald of Vales, says:
' It is better to be dumb than
hot to be understood. New
times require new ishions, and
so 1 have thrown utterly aside
the old and dry methods of
some authors, and aimed at
adopting the fashion of speeeh
which is aetually in vogue
to-dav.'
Vailfly, perhaps, I have en-
deavoured to follow this pre-
cept laid down hy Fatler Gerald, trying by slight
pietures of the rimes to make the dry bones live,
Ol
ENGLISH COSTUME
to make the elothes stir up and puff themselves
into the shapes of men.
Itis almost a neeessity that one who would
deseribe, paint, stage, or understand the costume
of this reign should "know the state of England at
the rime.
For there is in this reign a distinction without
a differenee in elothes; the-shapes are almost
identieal to the shapes and patterns of the previous
reigns, but everybody is a little better dressed.
The mantles worn by the few in the rime of
VVilliam the Red are worn now by most of the
nobility, fur-lined and very full.
One may see on the sides of the west door of
Roehester Cathedral Henry and his first wife, and
notiee that the mantle he wears is very full; one
may see that he wears a supertunie, whieh is gathered
round his waist. This tunie is the usual Norman
tunie reaehing to the "knee, but now itis worn over
an undertunic which reaehes to the ground in heavy
tblds.
One may notice that the Kïng's hair is long and
elegmtly twisted into pipes or ringlets, and that it
hangs over his shoulders.
No longer is the priestly abuse of ' filthy goat'
A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY L
{xxoo--xx3)
HIs hair is curled in ringlets ; he wexs a long cloak.
The shirt shows at the neck of the tunic. The small
design in the corner is from a sanetuary door-
knocker.
HENRY THE FIRST .
applicable, for Henry's beard is neatly trimmed
and cut round his fce.
These two things are the only practical difference
between the two dates--the end of the eleventh
century and the beginning of the twelih.
The up.dertunic was ruade as a perfictly plain
gown with tight sleeves cnding at the wrist; it
hung loose and full upon the fiure. Over this
was worn the short tunic with wide sleeves ending
at the elbow. Both tunics would have broad borders
of embroidered work or bands of coloured material.
The supertunic would be brooched by one of those
circular Norman brooches which was an ornamental
circle of open goldwork in which stones and jewels
were set. The brooch was fstened by a central
pin.
The extravagances of the previous reign were in
some measure done away with; even the very long
hair was not fhshionable in the latter hall of this
reign, and the ultra-long sleeve was not so usual.
So we may give as a list of clothes for men in
this reign : -
A white linen shirt.
A long tunic, open at the neck, falling to the
ground, with tight sleeves to the a'ist.
ENGLIStl COSTUME
A short tunic reaching only to the knees, more
open at the neek than the long tunie, generally
thstened by a brooch.
Tight, well-fitting drawers or loose trousers.
Bandages or garters crossed from the ankle to
the knee to confine the loose trousers or ornament
the tights.
Boots ot' soft leather which had an ormmental
hand at the top.
Socks with an embroidered top.
Shoes of cloth and leather with an embroidered
band down the centre and round the top.
Shoes of skin tied with leather thongs.
Caps of skin or eloth of a vel T plain shape and
without abrim.
Belts of leather or cloth or silk.
Semicircular cloaks fastened as previously de-
scribed, and often lined with fur.
The clothes of every colour, but fith little or
uo pattern; the patterns principally eonfined to
îrregular groups of dors.
And to think that in the year in which Henry
died Nizami isited the grave of Olnar AI Khayym
in the ltira Cemetery at Nishapur !
A CHILD OF THE TIME OF HENRY I.
IT is only in quite recent years that there have been
quite distinct dresses for children, fasbions indeed
which began with the ideas for the improvement in
bygiene. For many centuries children were dressed,
with slight modifications, after the manner of their
parents, looking like Ilttle men and women, until in
the end they arrived at the grotesqne infants of
Hogarth's day, powdered and patehed, with little
stiff skirted suits and stiff broeade gowns, witla little
swords and little fans and, no doubt, many pretty
airs and graces.
One tbing I bave never sëen until tbe early six-
teenth centuryt and that is girls wearing any of
the massive headgear of their parents ; in .ail other
particulars they were the saine.
IIENRY THE FIRST
5
THE WOMEN
The greatest change in the
appearance of the women was
in the arrangement of the hail'.
A f ter a hundrcd years or
more of headcloths and hidden
hair suddenly appears a head
of hair. Until now a lady
might have been bald for all
the notice she took of her
hair; now she must needs
borrow hair to add to her
own, so that her plaits shall
be thick and long.
It is easy to see how this came about. The hair,
for convenience, had always been plaited in two
plaits and coiled round the head. where it lay con-
cealed by the wimple. One day some fine lady
decides to discard her close and uncomtbrtable
head-covering. She lets her plaits hang over her
shoulders, and so appears in public. Contempt of
other ladies who have fine heads of hair for the
thinlmss of her plaits; competition in thick and
long hair; anger of ladies whose hair is hot thick
6
ENGLISH COSTUME
and long; enormous demand ibr artificial hair;
thilure of the supply to meet the ever-increasing
demand; invention of silken cases filled with a
substitute for hair, these eases attaehed to the end
of the plaits to elongate them--in this manner do
many fashions arrive and flourish, until sueh time
as the eommon people find means of eopying them,
and then my lady wonders how she eould ever have
vorn such a common affair.
ïhe gowns of these ladies remained much the
saine, except that the loose gown, without any
show of the figure, was in great favour ; this gown
was confmed by a long girdle.
ïhe girdle was a long rope of silk or wool, which
was placed simply round the waist and loosely
knotted ; or it was wound round above the waist
once, crossed behind, and then knotted in front, and
the ends allowed to hang down. Ïhe ends of the
girdle had tassels and knots depending from them.
The silk cases into which the hair was placed
were often ruade of silk of variegated colours, and
these cases had metal ends or tassels.
The girdles sometimes were broad bands of silk
diapered with gold thread, of which manufacture
specimens remain to us.
A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY I.
(oo--zz3S)
THIS shows the peudut sleeve with cm embroidered'
hem. The long plzits of hzir ended with met.al, or
dLk. tags. At the neck and wrists lhe white chemise
«Iows.
HENRY THE FIRST
7
The sleeves of the gowns had now altered in
shape, and had aequired a sort of pendulent euff,
which hung down about two hands' breadth from
the wrist. The border was, as usual, richly orna-
mented.
Then we have a new invention, the pelisse. It is
a loose silk coat, which is brooched at the waist, or
buttoned into a silk loop.
The sleeves are long--that
is, they gradually inerease
in size from the underarm
to the wrist, and sometimes
are knotted at the ends,
and so are unlike the other
gown sleeves, whieh grow
suddenly long near to the
wrist.
This pelisse reaehes to
the knees, and is well open in ff'ont. The idea was
evidently brought back ff'oto the East after the
lmights arrived baek ff'oto the First Crusade, as it
is in shape exaetly like the eoats won by Persian
ladies.
We may eoneeive a niee pieture of Countess
Constance, the wife of Hugh Lufus, Earl of
8
ENGLISH COSTU]I E
Chester, as she appeared in her dairy fresh from
milking the eows, which were her pride. No doubt
she did help to milk them ; and in her long under-
gown, with her plaits once more confined in the
tblds of her wimple, she ruade eheeses--such good
eheeses that Anselm, Arehbishop of Canterbury,
rejoiced in a present of some of them.
What a change it must have been to Matilda,
ri'ce of the veil that she hated, from the Black
Nuns of Ronlsey, and the taunts and blows of her
aunt Christina, to becolne the wife of King Henry,
and to disport herself in fine garmenfs and long
plaited hair--Matilda the very royal, the daughter
of a King. the sister to three Kings, the wife of a
King, the lnother of an Epress !
STEI'HEN
Ileigned nineteen years : 11.'35--11.54.
Born 109$. Married, 1124, fo Matilda of Boulognc.
IHE MEN
VHE" one regards the
mass of nmterial in exist-
ence showing costunle of
the tenth and eleventh cen-
- turies, it appears curious
that so little fabric remains
of this particular period.
Ïhe few pieces of fabric
in existence are so worn
and bare that they tel! little,
whereas pieces of earlier
date of English or Norman
nlaterial are perfect,
although rhin and delicate.
Thcre are few illuminated manuscripts of the
twelfth century, or of the first halt' of it, aud to the
9
ENGI,ISII COSTUME
few there are ail previous historians of costume
bave gone, so that one is left without choice but to
go also to these saine books. The possibilities,
however, of the manuscripts referred to have not
been exhausted, and t0o much attention has been
paid to the queer drawing of the illuminators ; so
that where they utilized to the full the artistic
license, others have sought to pin it down as
accurate de]ineation of the costume of the rime.
In this I bave left out ail the supereccentric
costumes, fearing that such existed merely in the
imagination of the artist, and I have applied my-
self to the more ordinary and understandable.
As there are sueh excellent works on armour, I
have hot touehed at all upon the subject, so that we
are left but the few simple garlnents that men wore
when they put off their armour, or that the peasant
«md the merchant habitually wore.
Ladies oceupied their leisure in elnbroidery and
other fine sewing, in consequence of which the
boders of tunics, of cloaks, the edgings of sleeves,
and bands upon the shoes, were elegantly patterned.
Ïhe more important the lnan, the finer his shoes.
As will be seen from the drawings, the man
wore his hair long, smoothly parted in the centre,
A MAN OF THE TIME OF STEPHEN
(xx35--x)
Hz is vearing a cloak with hood attached; it is of
skin, zhe smooth leather inside. He bas an ankle
gaiser covering she top of his shoes. On the arm
over whicb she cloak bangs tan be seen the vhite
sleeve of the sbirt.
STEPHEN 81
with a lock drawn down the parting from the back
of his head. As a rule, the hair curled back natur-
ally, and hung on the shoulders, but sometinaes the
older fashion of the past reign remained, and the
hair was carefully curled
in locks and tied with
coloured ribbon.
Besides the hood as
covering for the head,
lncll wore one or other
of the simple caps
shown, lnade of cloth or _
of fur, or of eloth fur-
lined.
Next to his skin the
man of every elass wore
a shirt of the pattern
shown--the selfsame
shirt that we wear to day, excepting that the
sleeves were ruade very long and tight-fiLting, and
were pushed back over the wrist, giving those
wrinkles which we notice on ail the Bayeux
tapestry sleeves, and which we sec for many
centuries in drawings of the undergarment. The
shape has ahvays remained the saine; the modes
ENGLISH COSTUME
of fastening the shirt differ very slightly--so
little, in faet, that a shirt ot" the tburth eentury
which still remains in existence shovs the saine
button and loop that we notice of the shirts of
the tvelfth eentury. The richer man had his
shirt embroidered round the neck and sometimes
at the culte. Over this garment the !11111 WOl'{2
his tunic--of wool, or cloth, or (rarely) of silk;
the drawing explains the exact making of if. The
tunic, as will be seen, was embroidered at the
neck, the cuffs, and round the border. One draw-
ing shows the most usual .of these tunics, while the
other drawings will explain the variations from it--
either a tight sleeve nmde long and rolled back, a
slee-e ruade 'ery wide af the cuff and allowed to
STEPHEN 33
bang, or a sleeve ruade so that it till some way
over the hand. It was elnbroidered inside and out
at the turf, and was turned back to allow fi'ee use
of the hand.
Over the tunic was worn the cloak, a very simple
garment, being a piece of cloth eut in the shape
of a semicircle, embroidered on the border or
hot, according to the purse and position of the
owner. Sometimes a piece was eut out to fit
the neck.
Another form of cloak was worn with a hood.
This was generally used for travelling, or worn by
such people as shepherds. It was ruade for the
ficher folk of fine cloth, fur-lined, or entirely of fur,
and for the poorer people of skin or wool.
The cloak was fastened by a brooch, and was
pinned in the centre or on either shoulder, most
generally on the right ; or it xvas pushed through a
ring sewn on to the right side of tle neck of the
eloak.
The brooches were practically the saine as those
worn in the earlier reigns, or were occasionally of a
pure Roman design.
As will be seen in the small diagrams of men
wearing the clothes of the day, the tunic, the shirt,
3
EGLISH COSTUME
and the cloak were worn according to the season,
and many drawings in the MSS. of the date show
men wearing the shioE alone.
On their legs men wore trousers of leather for
riding, bound round with leather thongs, and
trousers of wool also,
bound with coloured
straps of wool or cloth.
Stockings of wool were
worn, and cloth stockings
also, and socks. There
was a sock without a
foot, jewelled or em-
broidered round the top,
which was worn over
the stocking md over
the top of the boot in
the manner of ankle
gaiters.
The country man xvore twists of straw round his
calf and ankle.
For the feet there were several varieties of boots
and shoes ruade of leather and stout cloth, noxv and
again with wooden soles. As has been said before,
the ilnportant people rejoiced in elegant footgear
STE PH E N 85
of all colours. All the shoes buttoned with one
button above the outside ankle. Ïhe boots were
sometimes tall, reaching to the bottom of the calf
of the leg, and were rolled over, showing a coloured
lining. Sometimes they were loose and rrinkled
over the ankle. They were both, boot and shoe,
made fo fit the foot; fbr in this reign nearly ail the
extravagances of the prex4ous reign had died out,
and it is rare to find drawings or mention of long
shoes stuffed with tow or wool.
During the reign of Stephen the nation was
too occupied in wars and battles to indulge in
excessive finery, and few arts flourished, although
useful improvements occurred in the crafts.
There is in the British Museum a fine enamelled
plate of this date which is a representation of
Henry of Blois, Stephen's brother, who was the
Bishop of Winchester. Part of the inscription,
translated by Mr. Franks, says that ' Art is above
gold and geins,' and that 'Henry, while living,
gives gifts of brass to God.'
Champlevé enamel was very finely made in the
twelfth century, and many beautiful examples re-
main, notably a plaque which was placed on the
column at the foot of which Geofli'ey Plantagenet
8--2
36
ENGI.ISH COSTUME
was buried. It is a portrait of him, and shows
the Byzantine influence still over the French
style.
This may appear tobe rather apart from costume,
but it leads one to suppose that the ornaments of
the rime may have been frequently executed in
enamel or in brass--sueh ornmnents as rings and
brooches.
It is hard to say anything definite about the
eolours of the dresses at this rime. Ail that we
can say is that the poorer classes were clothed pfin-
cipally in self-coloured garments, and that the dyes
used for the elothes of the nobles were of very
brilliant hues. But a street scene would be more
occupied by the colour of armour. One would
have seen a knight and men-at-armsthe knight
in his plain armour and the men in leather and
steel; a few merchants in coloured cloaks, and
the common crowd in brownish-yellow elothes
with occasional bands of colour encircling their
waists.
The more simply the people are represented, the
more truthful will be the pieture or presentation.
Few pîctures of this exact rime are painted, and
few stories are written about it, but this will give
STEPHEN 37
ail the inforlnation necessary to produee any pieture
or stage-play, or to illustrate any story.
The garments are perfectly easy to eut out and
make. In order to prove this I have had them
ruade fronl the bare outlines given here, without
any trouble.
THE WOMEN
Though lnany parts of Eng-
land were at this tine being
harassed by xvars, still the
domestic element grew and
flourished.
The bornes of the English
from being bare and rude began
to knoxv the delights of em-
broidery and weaving. The
workroom of the ladies was
the nost civilized part of the
eastle, and the effeet of the
Norman invasion of foreign fashions was beginning
to be felt.
As the knights were away to their fighting, so
were the knights' ladies engaged in sewing sleeve
embroideries, placing of pearls upon shoes, making
38
ENGLISH COSTUME
silk cases for their hair, and otherwise stitching.
cutting, and contriving against the return of their
lords.
It is recorded that Matilda escaped from Oxford
by a postern in a white dress, and no doubt her
women sympathizers ruade much
of white for dresses.
The ladies wore a simple
underga]nent of rhin material
ealled a sherte or eamise; this
was bordered with some slight
embroidery, and had tightish
long sleeves pushed back over
the wfist. The garment fell
well on to the ground. This
tamise was wom by all cl,'tsses.
The upper garment was one
of three kinds: made from the neck to below the
breast, including the sleeves of soif material ; from
the breast to the hips it was made of some elastic
material, as knitted wool or rhin cloth, stiffened by
criss-cross bands of cloth, and was fitted to the
figure and laced up the back; the lower part was
made of the same material as the sleeves and bust.
The second was ruade tight-titting in the body
& rOMAN OF THE TIME OF STEPHEN
{xx35xx54)
HE dress fits to hec figure by lacing at the back.
Her long sleeves axe tied up to keep them from
trailing upon the ground. Her hair is fastened at
the end into silken cases. She has a whimple in ber
hands whieh she may wind about her head.
STEPHEN 39
and bust, all of one elastic material, and the skirt
of loose rhin stuff.
The third was a loose tunic reaching half-way
between the knees and feet, showing the ca.mise,
and tied about the waist and hips by a long girdle.
The sleeves of these garments showed as many
variations as those of the men, but with the poor
folk they were short and useful, and with the rich
they went to extreme length, and were often knotted
to prevent them from trailing on the ground.
The collar and the borders of the sleeves were
enriched with embroidery in simple designs.
In the case of the loose upper garment the border
was also embroidered.
In winter a cloak of the same shape as was worn
by the men was used---/.e., cut exactly selnicircular,
with embroidered edges.
The shoes of the ladies were fitted to the foot in
no extravagant shape, and were sewn with bands
of pearls or embroidery. The poorer folk went
about barefoot.
The hair was a marrer of great moment and most
carefully treated; it was parted in the centre and
then plaited, sometimes intertxvined with coloured
ribbatds or twists of rhin coloured material ; it was
ENGI.Lq lI COSTUME
added to in length by artificial hair, and was tied
up in a number of ways. Either it was placed in
a tight silk case, like an umbrella case, which came
about half-way up the plait from the bottom, and
had little tassels depending from it, or the hair was
added to till it reached nearly to the feet, and was
bound round with ribbands, the ends having little
gold or silver pendants. The hair hung, as a rule,
down the front on either side of the face, or occa-
sionally behind clown the back. as was the case
when the wimple was worn.
When the ladies went travelling or out riding
they rode astride like men, and wore the ordinary
common-hooded cloak.
Brooches for the tunic and rings for the fingers
were common alnong the wealthy.
The plait was introduced into the architecture of
the rime, as is shown by a Norman moulding at
Durham.
Compared with the Saxon ladies, these ladies of
Stephen's rime were elegantly attired; compared
with the Plantagenet ladies, they were dressed in
the simplest of costumes. No doubt there were,
as in all ages, women who gave all their body and
soul to clothes, who wore sleeves twice the length
STEPHEN 41
of anyone else, xvho had more elaborate plaits and
more highly ornamented shoes; but, taking the
period as a whole, the clothes of both sexes were
plainer than in any other period of English
history.
One must remember that when the Normans
came into the country the gentlemen among the
Saxons had already borrowed
the fashions prevalent in
France, but that the ladies
still kept in the main to simple
clothes; indeed, it was the
nan who strutted to woo elad
in ail the fopperies of his rime
--to win the simple woman
who toiled and span to deek
her lord in extravagant em-
broideries.
The learning of the country
was shared by the ladies and
the clergy, and the influence of Osburgha, the
mother of Alfred, and Editha, the wife of Edward
the Confessor, was paramount among the noble
ladies of the country.
The energy of the clergy in this reign was more
ENGLISH COSTUME
directed to building and the branches of architecture
than to the more studious and sedentary works of
illumination and xoEiting, so that the sources from
which we gather information with regard to the
costume in England are few, and also peculiar, as
the drawing of this date was, although eareful,
extronely archaie.
Pieture the market-town on a market day when
the serfs were waiting to buy at the stalls until the
buyers fl-om the abbey and the eastle had had their
piek of the fish and the meat. The lady's steward
and the Father-Proeurator bought earefully for their
establishments, talking meanwhile of the annual
catch of eels for the abbey.
Picture Robese, the mother of Thomas, the son
of Gilbert Beeket, weighing the boy Thomas eaeh
year on his birthday, and giviug his weight in
money, elothes, and provisions to the poor. She
was a type of the devout housewife of her day, and
the wife of a wealthy trader.
The barons were fortifying their estles, and the
duties of their ladies were homely and domestie.
They provided the food for men-at-arms, the
followers, and for their husbands ; saw that simples
were ready with bandages against wounds and sick-
STEPHEN 43
ness; looked, no doubt, to provisions in case of
siege; sewed wth their maidens in a vestiary or
workroom, and dressed as best they could for their
losition. VThat they must have heard and seen
was enough to turn them fTom the altar of fashion
to works of compassion. Their bouses contained
dreadful lrisons and dungeons, where men were
lut UlOn rachentegs, and fastened to these beams
so that they were unable to sit, lie, or sleel, but
must starve. From their windows in the towers
the ladies could see men dragged, lrisoners, up to
the castle walls, through the hall, ul the staircase,
and cast, lerhals past their very eyes, from the
tower to the moat below. Such times and sights
were hot likely to foster lroud millinery or dainty
ways, deslite ofwhich inate vanity tan to ri}»bands
in the hair, monstrous sleeves, jewelled shoes, and
tight waists. The tiring women were hot over-
worled until a later leriod, when the hair would
take hours to dress, and the dresses months to
embroider.
In the town about the castle the raerchants'
wives wore simple homespun clothes of the saine
form as their ladies. The serfs wore plain smocks
loose over the camise and tied about the waist, and
ENGLISH COSTUME
in the bitter cold weather skins of sheep and wolves
unlined and but roughly dressed.
In 1154 the Treaty of Vallingford brought
many of the edls to an end, and Stephen was
officially recognised as King, making Henry his
heir. Before the year vas out Stephen died.
I bave hot touehed on ecelesiastical costume
because there are so many excellent and eomplete
works upon sueh dress, but I may
say that it was above ail civil dress
most rieh and magnificent.
I have given this slight picture
of the rime iii order to shoxv a reason
for the simplicity of the dress, and
to show how, enclosed in their walls,
the clergy were increasing in riches
Cases for the Hair.
and in learuing; how, despite the
disorders of war, the internal peace of the towns
and hamlets was groxving, with trape gilds and
merehant gilds. The lords and barons fighting
their battles knew little of the bond of strength
that was growing up in these primitive labour
unions ; but the lady in her bower, in closer touch
with the people, receiving visits from foreign
mereha**ts and pedlars with rare goods to sell
STEPHEN 4.5
or barter, saw how, underlying the miseries of
bloodshed and disaster, the land began to bloon
and prosper, to grow out of the rough place it
had been into the fair place of market-town and
garden it was tobe.
Meanwhile I,ondon's thirteen conventual estab-
lishments were added to by another, the Priory
of St. Bartholomew, raised by Rahere, the King's
minstrel.
HENRY THE SECOND
Reigned thirty-five years : 1154--1189.
Bon 1183. Married, 115, to Eleanor of Guienne.
TItE MEN
Tu King himsdf is d¢scrib¢d
as being careless of dress,
chatty, outspoken. His hair
was clos¢-cropp¢d, his n¢ck
was thiek, and his eyes were
pronfinent; his eheek-bones
were high, and his lips eoarse.
The costume of this reign
was very plain in design, but
rich in stuffs. Gilt spurs were
attached to the boots by red
leather straps, gloves were
wom with jewels in the baeks of them, and the
mantles seem to have been ornamented with
designs.
46
A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY ]I.
(I I54--II8ç)
HI wears the short cloak, and his long tnnic is held
by a brooch at the neek and is girdled by a long-
tongued belt. There are gloves on his hands.
HENRY THE SECOND
The time of patterns upon clothes began. The
patterns were simple, as crescents, lozenges, stars.
Villiam de Magna Villa had corne baek from
the Holy l,and with a new fabric, a precious silk
called 'imperial,' which was made in a workshop
patronized by the Byzantine Emperors.
The long tunie and the short supertunic were
still worn, but these were not so frequently split
up at the side.
High boots reaching to the calf of the leg were
in COllllnOll LISe.
That part of the hood which t11 upon the
shoulders was now eut in a neat pattern round the
edge.
Silks, into which gold thrcad was sewn or woven,
made fine elothes, and cloth cloaks lined with ex-
pensive firs, even to the cost of a thousand pounds
of our money, were worn.
The loose trouser was going out altogether, and
in its stead the hose were ruade to fit more closely
to the leg, and were ail of gay colours ; they were
gartered with gold bands crossed, the ends of which
had tassels, which hung down when the garter was
crossed and tied about the knee.
Henry, despite his own careless appearance, was
ENGIJISH COSTUME
nicknamed Court Manteau, or Short 51antle, on
accourir of a short cloak or mantle he is supposed
to have brought into fashion.
The shirts of the men, which showed at the
opening of the tunic, were buttoned with small
gold buttons or studs of gold sewn into the linen.
The initial diftrence in this reign was the more
usual occurrence of patterns in diaper upon the
clothes.
The length of a yard was fixed by the length of
the King's afin.
With the few exceptions mentioned, the costume
is the saine as in the rime of Stephen.
Itis curious fo note what scraps of pleasant
gossip corne to us from these early rimes: St.
Thomas à Becket dining off a pheasant the day
before his mmoEyrdom; the angry King calling to
his knights, " How a fellow that hath eaten my
bread, a beggar that first came to my ComoE on a
lame horse, dares to insult his King and the Royal
Family, and tread upon my whole kingdom, and
hot one of the cowards I noufish af my table, hot
one will deliver me of this turbulent priest !' the
veins no doubt swelling on his bull-like neck, the
prominent eyes bloodshot witb temper, the result
HENRY THE SECOND
of that angTy speech, to end in the King's public
penance before the martyr's tomb.
Picture the scene at Canterbury on August 23,
1179, when Louis VIL King of France, dressed in
the manner and habit of a pilgrim, came to the
shrine and offered there his cup of gold and a royal
precious stone, and vowed a gift of a hundred hogs-
heads of wine as a yeady rental to the convent.
A common sight in London streets at this time
was a tin medal of St. Thomas hung about the
necks of the pilgrims.
And here I cannot help but give another picture.
Henry II., passing through Wales on his way to
Ireland in 1172, hears the exploits of King Arthur
which are sung to him by the Arelsh bards. In
this song the bards mention the place of King
Arthur's burial, at Glastonbury Abbey in the
churchyard, lVhen Henry cornes back from
lreland he visits the Abbot of Glastonbury, and
repeats to him the story of King Arthur's tomb.
One can picture the search: the King talking
eagerly to the Abbot ; the monks or lay-brothers
digging in the place indicated by the words of the
song ; the kùghts in armour, their mantles wrapped
about them, standing by.
5O
ENCJLI,qH COSTUME
Then, as the monks search 7 ïeet below the
surface, a spade rings upon stone. Picture the
interest, the excitement of these antiquarims. Itis
a broad stone which is uncovered, and upon itis a
rhin leaden plate in the form of a corpse, bem'ing
the inscription :
fliC ffACET BEPULTU8 IIICLYTU8 IEX ARTUIIIU$ IN INSULA
AVALONIAo »
They draw up this great stone, and with greedy
eyes read the inscription. The monks continue to
dig. Presently, at the depth of 16 feet, they find
the trunk of a tree, and in its hollowed shape lie
Arthur and his Queen--Arthur and Guinevere,
two names which to us now are part of England,
part of ourselves, as much as out patron St.
George.
Here they lie upon the turf, and ail the pmoEy
gaze on their remains. The skull of Arthur is
covered with wounds; his bones are enormous.
The Queen's body is in a good state of preserva-
tion, and her hair is neatly plaited, and is of the
colour of gold. Suddenly she falls to dust.
They bury them again with great tare. So lay
out national hero since he died at the Battle of
HENRY THE SECOND
51
Camlan in Cornwall in the year 542, and after
death was conveyed by sea to Glastonbury, and ail
traces of his burial-place lost except in the songs of
the peopie until such day as Henry found him and
his Queen.
THE WOMEN
About this rime came the
fashion of the chin-band, and
again the glory of the hair
was hidden under th, e wimple.
To dress a lady s hair for
this time the hair must be
brushed out, and then divided
into two parts: these are to
be plaited, and then brought
round the crown of the head
aud fastened in front above
the forehead. The front pieces
of hair are to be neatly pushed back from the
forehead, to show a high brow. Now a cloth of
linen is taken, folded under the chin, and brought
over the top of the head, and there pinned. Then
another thin band of linen is placed round the
head and fastcned neatly at the back; and over
4--2
5
ENGI.ISH COSTIME
ail a piece of fine linen is draped, and so arranged
that it shall just cover the forehead-band and fall
on to the shoulders. This last piece of linen is
fasteued to the chin-band and the forehead-strap
by pins.
This fashiou gave rise in later rimes to a linen
cap; the forehead-strap was increased in height and
stiffened so that it rose slightly
I & above the crown of the head,
and the wimple, instead of hang-
ing over it, was sewn down inside
3 4 if. and fell over the top of the
cap. Later the cap was sewn
in pleats.
The gown of this rime was
quite ioose, with a deep band
round the ueck and round the hem of the skirts,
which were very full. So far as one tan tell, if
was put on over the head, having no other open-
ing but at the neck, and was held at the waist
by an ornamental girdle.
Ïhe chemise showed above the neck of the gown,
which was fastened by the usual round brooch.
The sleeves were well fitting, rather loose af the
elbow, and fell shaped over the wrist, where there
A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY Iio
(xs4--xx)
THERE ls a chin-band to be seen passing under the
whimple ; this banal is pinned to hold it round the
head.
HENRY THE SECOND
58
was a deep border of embroidery. It is quite possible
that the cuffs atd hem may havc becn ruade of fur.
Thc shoes wcrc, as usual to the last two reigns,
rather blunt at the toe, ad geerally fitthg with-
out buckle, button, or strap romd the ankle, whcrc
they wcre rolled bael.
Abo'e the waist the tied girclle was still worn,
but this was bcing supplaated by a broad bclt of
silk or ornamcated lcather, which fastecd by
means of a bucklc. The togue of the bclt was
ruade vcry log, and whe buckled hug dow
bclow the knee.
The cloaks, fom the light way in which they are
held, appear to have been ruade of silk or some such
the material as fine cloth. Thcy arc hcld on to the
shoulders by a ruming band of stuff or a silk cord,
the eds of which pass through two fastcners sew
oa to thc cloak, and these arc kaotted or have sornc
projecting ornament which prevents the cord t'ron
slippitg out of the isteler.
In this way ole secs the cloak hanging fron
thc shoulders behind, and the cord strctched tight
across thc breast, or the cord knottcd in a second
place, ad so brigig thc eloak more over thc
houldcrs.
54, ENGLISH COSTUME
The effigy of the Queen at Fontevfaud shows
her dress eovered with diagonal bars of gold, in the
triangles of which there are gold crescents placed
from point to point, md no doubt other ladies of
her rime had their emblems or badges embroidered
into their gowns.
RICHARD THE FIRST
Reigned ten years : 1189--1199.
Born 1157. Married, 1191, to Berengaria of Navarre.
THE MEN
Trie King had but little
influence over dress in his
time, seeing that he left
England as soon as he was
' ruade King, and only came
baek for tvo lnoIlths
119, to raise money and to
be erowned again.
The general costume was
then as plain as it had ever
been, with long tunics and
broad belts ftstened by a
big buckle.
The difference in costume between this short
reign and that of Henry II. is almost impercep-
55
b6
ENGI,ISH f'O.TU M E
tible; if any différence nay be noted, it is in the
tinge of Orientalism in the garments.
There is more of the long and flowing robe, more
of the capacious mantle, the wider sleeve.
No dotibt the nany who came from the Crus'ades
ruade a good deal of diflirence to English bornes,
and actual dresses and tunies from the East, of
gorgeous colours and Eastem designs, were, one
must suppose, to be seen in England.
Cloth of gold and cloth of gold and silks--that
is, warf of silk and wet of gold--were much prized,
and were ealled by various names from the Persian,
as ' eiclatoun,' ' siglaton.'
Such stuff, when of great thiekness and value
so thick that six threads of silk or hemp were in
the varf--vas called ' smnite.'
Later, when the cloth of gold was more in use,
and the naine had changed from ' ciclatoun' to
' bundekin,' and from that to ' tissue,' to keep such
fine cloth from fraying or tarnishing, they p-t very
thin sheets of paper away between the folds of the
garments ; so to this day we eall sueh pal)er tissue-
paper.
Leaf-gold was used sometimes over silk to give
pattem and riehness to it.
A MAN OF THE TIME OF RICHARD I.
(Xx89--xX99)
RICHARD THE FIRST
A eurious survival of this time, which has a con-
nection with costume, was the case of Abraham
Thornton in 1818. Abraham Thornton was accused
of having drowned Maxy Ashford, but he was
acquitted by the jury. Ïhis acquittal did hot
satisfy popular feeling, and the brother of Mal'y
Ashfbrd appealed. Now Thornton was well advised
as to his next proceeding, and, following the still
existent law of this early time of which I write,
he went to Westminster Hall, where he threw
down, as a gage of battle, an antique gauntlet
without fingers or thumb, of white tanned skin
ornamented with silk fringes mad sewn work,
erossed by a narrow band of leather, the fastenings
of leather tags and thongs.
This done, he deelared himself' ready to defend
himself' in a fight, and so to uphold his innocence,
saying that he was within his rights, and that no
judge could compel him to corne before a jury.
This was held to be good and within the law, so
Abraham Ïhornton won his case, as the brother
refused to pick up the gauntlet. Ïhe scandal of
this pmcedure caused the abolishment of the trial
by battle, which had remained in the country's
laws ti'om the time of Henry II. until 1819.
58
ENGLISH COSTUME
It was a time of tbreign war and improvement
in nilitary arlnour and arms. Richard I. favoured
the cross-bow, and brought it into general use in
England to be used in conjunction with the old
44bot bow and the great bow 6 iet long with the
cloth-yard arrow--a bow which could send a shaft
through a 4-inch door.
For some time this military movement, together
with the influence of the East, kept England from
any advanee or great change in costume; indeed,
the Orientalism reaehed a pitch in the age of
Henry III. whieh, so thr as costume is concerned,
may be called the Age of Draperies.
To recall such a rime in pictures, one must then
sec visions of loose-tuniced men, with heavy cloaks ;
of men in short tmcs with sleeves tight or loose at
the wrists ; of hoods with capes to thon, the cape-
edge sometimes eut in a round design; of soft
leather boots and shoes, the boots reaching to the
calt' of the leg. To sec iii the streets bfight
Oriental colours and cloaks edged with broad
bands of pattern; to sec hooded heads and bared
heads on which the hair was long; to see maay
long-bearded lnen ; to see old men leaning on tan-
handled stieks; the sailor in a cap or eoif tied
RICHARD THE FIRST
9
under his chin ; the builder, stonemason, and skilled
workman in the same coif; to sec, as a whole, a
brilliant shit%ing colour scheme in which armour
gleamed and leather tunics supplied a dull, fine
background. Among these one might sec, at a
town, by the shore, a thief of a sailor being carried
thmugh the streets with his head shaven-, tarred
and feathered.
THE WOMEN
It is difficult to deseribe an
influence in dothes.
It is diflïcult nowadays to
say in millinery where Paris
begins and London accepts.
The hint of Paris in a gown
suggests taste; the whole of
Paris in a gown savours of
servile imitation.
No well - dressed English-
woman should, or does, look
French, but she may bave
a subtle cachet of France if she choose.
The perfection of art is to conceal the means to
60
ENGLISH COSTUME
the end; the perfection of dress is to hide the
milliner in the millinery.
The ladies of Richard I.'s rime did not wear
Oriental clothes, but they had a flavour of
Orientalism pervading their dress--rather mascu-
line Orientalism than tminine.
The long cloak with the cord that held it over
the shoulders ; the long, loose gown of fine colours
and simple designs ; the sol'c, low, heelless shoes ; the
long, unbound hair, or the hair held up and concealed
under an untied wimple--these gave a touch of
something foreign to the dress.
Away in the country there was little to dress for,
and what clothes they had were ruade in the house.
Stuffs brought home from Cyprus, ff'oto Palestine,
tom Asia Minor, were laboriously conveyed to the
bouse, and there ruade up into gowns. Local smiths
and silver-vorkers ruade them buckles and brooches
and ornamental studs ibr their long belts, or clasps
tbr their purses.
A vreck would break up on the shore near by,
and the news would arrive, perhaps, that some bales
of stuff were washed ashore and were to be sold.
The female anchorites of these days were busy
gossips, and ti'on their hermitage or shelter by a
A Vv'OMAN OF THE TIME OF RICHARD I.
(xx$9--xx99)
HER very full cloak is kept in place by the cord whch
passes through loops. A large buckle ]olds the
neck of the gown well together. The gown i
ornamented with a simple diaper pattern ; the hem
and neck are deeply embroidered.
|
IICItARD THE FIRST
61
bridge on the road would see the world go by, and
pick up friends by means of giRs of bandages or
purses made by them, despite the fact that this
traffic was forbidden to them.
So the lady in the country might get news of her
lord abroad, and hear that certain silks and stuffs
were on their way home.
The gowns they wore were long, flowing and loose;
they were girded about the middle with leathern
or silk belts, which drew the gown loosely together.
The end of the belt, affer being buckled, hung down
to about the knee. These govos were close at the
neek, and there fastened by a brooeh; the sleeves
were wide until they came to the wrist, over which
they fitted closely.
The cloaks were ample, and were held on by
brooches or laces across the bosom.
The shoes were the shape of the foot, sewn.
embroidered, elaborate.
The wimples were pieces of silk or white linen
held to the hair in front by pins, and allowed fo
flow over the head at the back.
Ïhere were still remaining at this date women
who wore the tight-fitting gown laced at the back,
and who tied their chins up in gorgets.
JOHN
Reigned seventen years : 1199--116.
Boaa 1167. Mam'ied, in 1189, to Hadwisa, of Gloucestr,
whom he divorced ; married, in 100, fo Isabella
of Angoulême.
THE MEN
wide enough
THERE was a garment in this reign
which was the keynote of costume
at the rime, and this was the sureoat.
If had been worn over the armour
for some rime, but in this reign it
began to be an initial part of dress.
Take a piece of stuff about 9 or 10
yards in length and about 22 hches
wide ; cut a hole in the centre of this
to adroit of a man's head passing
through, and you have a surcoat.
Under this garment the men wore a flowing
gown, the sleeves of which were so wide that they
6
A IIAN OF THE TIME OF JOHN
(i i99-- I'16]
:.
JOHN 65
reached at the base from the shoulder to the waist,
and narrowed off to a tight band at the wrist.
These two garments were held together by a
leather belt buclded about the middle, with the
tongue of the belt hanging down.
Broad borders of design edged the gonas at the
foot and at the neck, md heraldic devices were
sewn upon the surcoats.
King John himself, the quick, social, humorous
man, dressed very finely. He loved tle company
of ladies and their love, but in spire of his love for
them, he starved and tortured them, starved and
beat children, was insolent, selfish, and wholly
indifferent to the t-th. He ]aughed aloud during
the Mass, but for all that xvas superstitious fo the
degree of hanng relics about his neck ; and he was
buried in a monk's cowl, which was strapped under
his chin.
Silk was becoming more common in England,
and the cultivation of the silkworm was in some
measure gaining hold. In 1218 the Abbot of
Cirencester. Alexander of leckham, wrote upon
the habits of the silkworm.
Irish cloth of red colour was largely in favour,
presumably for cloaks and hoods.
EGLISH COSTUME
The general costume of this reign was very mueh
the same as that of Henry II. and Richard l.--the
long loose gown, the heavy doak, the long hair eut
at the neck, the fashion of beards, the shoes, belts,
hoods, and heavy fur cloaks, all mueh the smne as
before, the only real différence
.. being in the general use of
the surcoat and the very con-
veifient looseness of the sleeves
under the arms.
There is an inclination in
perhaps it will be
eompletely.
First, long hair and a neatly-trimmed beard ; over
this a hood and cape or a circular cap, with a slight
projection on the top of it.
Second, a shirt of white, like a modern sot shioE.
Third, tights of cloth or wool.
Fourth, shoes strapped over the Ustep or ticd
writing of a costume one tan
visualize mentaLly to leave out
much that might be usefid to
the student who knows little or
nothing of the period of dress
in xvhieh one is writing; so
better to noxv dress a man
JOHN 65
with thongs, or fitting at the ankle
like a slipper, or boots of sort leather
turned over a little at the top, at
the base of the calf of the leg.
Fifth, a gown, loosely fitting,
buckled at the neck, with sleeves
wide at the top and tight at the
wrist, or quite loose and coming to
just below the elbow, or a tunic
reaching only to the knees, both
gown and tunic fastened with a belt.
Sixth, a surcoat sometimes, at others a cloak held
together by a brooch, or made for travelling with a
hood.
This completes an ordinary wardrobe of the time.
THE WOMEN
As may be seen from the plate, no change in
costume took place.
The hair plaited and bound round the head or
allowed to flow loose upon the shoulders.
Over the hair a gorget binding up the neck and
çhin. Over ail a wimple pinned to the gorget.
A long loose gown ith brooch at the neck.
5
66
ENGLISH COSTUME
Sleeves tight at the wrist. The whole gown held
in at the waist by a belt, with one long end hanging
down.
Shoes ruade to fit the shape of the foot, and ver]
elaborately embroidered and sewn.
A long cloak with buckle or lace fastening.
In this reign there were thirty English towns
which had carried on a trade in dyed cloths for
fffty years.
A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF JOHN
OE may just see the purse beneath the cloak, where
it hangs from the belt. The cloak itself is of fine
diaper-patterned material.
HENRY THE THIRD
Reigned fifty-six years : 116--172.
Bmn 1207. Married, 136, to Eleanor of Frovence.
THE MEN
D.sPT the fact that historians ailude
to the extravagance of this reign, there
is little in the actual form of the cos-
tume to bear out the idea. Extrava-
gant it was in a large way, and costly
for one who would appear well dressed ;
but the fopperies lay more in the stuffs
than in the cut of the garments worn.
It was an age of draperies.
Tlis age must cal] up pictures of
bewrapped people swathed in heavy
cloaks of cloth of Flanders dyed with
the famous Flemish madder dye; of people in silk
cloaks and gowns from Italy; of people in loose
tunics ruade of English cloth.
67 52
68
ENGLISH COSTUME
This long reign of over fity years is a transitional
period in the history of elothes, as h its course the
draped man developed very slowly towards the
eoated man, and the loose-hung elothes very
gradually began to shape themselves to the body.
The transition from tunie and eloak and Oriental
draperies is so slow and so little marked by definite
change that to the ordinary observer the Edwardian
eotehardie seems to bave sprung fi'om nowhere:
man seems to have, on a sudden, dropped his stately
wraps and mantles and disearded his ehrysalis form
to appear in tight lines following the figure--a form
itffinitely more gay and alluring to the eye than the
ponderous figure that walks through the end of the
thirteenth century.
Up to and through the rime from the Conquest
until the end of Henry III.'s reign the clothes of
England appear--that is, they appear to me--to
be lordly, rich, fine, but never courtier-hke and
elegant.
If one may take fashion as a person, one nmy
say: Fashion arrived in 1066 in swaddling-clothes,
and so remained enveloped in rich cloaks and flow-
ing draperies until 1240, when the boy began to
show a more active interest in life; this interest
MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY III.
HEAVY cloak ad fulness o dress charactefisic o
this rime.
"!
HENRY THE THIRD
69
grew until, in 1270, it developed into a distaste for
heavy clothes ; but the boy -knew of no way as yet
in which to d himseff of the trailings of his mother
cloak. Then, in about 1272, he invented a cloak
more like a strange, long tunic, through which he
might thrust his arms for freedom; on this cloak
he caused his hood to be fastened, and so ruade
himself three garments in one, and gave himself
greater ease.
Then dawned the fourteenth century--the youth
of clothes--and our fashion boy shot up, dropped
his mantles and heaviness, and came out from
thence slim and youthful in a cotehardie.
Of such a time as this it is not easy to say the
right and helpful thing, because, given a flowing
gown and a capacious mantle, imaghation does the
rest. Cut does not enter into the arena.
Imagine a stage picture of this rime: a mass of
wonderful, brilliant colours--a crowd of men in
long, loose gowns or surcoats; a crowd of ladies
in long, loose gowns ; both men and women hung
xfith cloaks or mantles of good stuffs and gay
colours. A background of humbler persons in
homespun tunics with cloth or frieze hoods over
their heads. Here and there a fop--out of his
7O
ENGLISH COSTUME
date, a qualoEer-eentury before his time-- a loose
eoat with pocket-holes in front and a buttoned neek
to his coat, his shoes very pointed and la, ced at the
sides, his hair long, curled, and bound by a fillet or
encompassed with a cap with an upturned brim.
The beginning of the coat was this: the surcoat,
which up till now was split at both sides from the
shoulder to the hem, was now
sewn up, leaving only a wide
armhole from the base of the
ribs to the shoulder. This sur-
coat was loose and easy, and
was held in at the waist by a
belt. In due rime a surcoat ap-
peared which was slightly shaped
to the figure, was split up in front
instead of at the sides, and
whieh the armholes were smaller
and the neck tighter, and fastened
by two or three buttons. In front
two pocket-holes showed. Ïhis
of this surcoat
surcoat was also fastened by a belt at the waist.
In common with the general feeling towards
more elaborate clothes, the shoes grew beyond
their normal shape, and now, no longer conforming
HENRY THE THIRD 71
to the shape of thc foot, thcy became elongated at
thc tocs, and stuck out in a sharp point ; this point
was loose and sofa, waiting for a future day when
men should makc it still longer and "stuff it with
tow and moss.
Of all the shapes of nature, no shape has been so
marvellously maltreated as the human foot. It has
suffered as no other portion of the body has
suffered: it has endured exceeding length and
exceeding narrowness; it has been swelled into
broad, club-like shapes; it has been artificially
raised from the ground, ended off square, pressed
into tight points, curved under, and finally, as to-
day, placed in hard, shining, tight leather bbxes.
Al] this has been done to one of the most beautiful
parts of the human anatomy by the votaries of
fashion, who have in turn been delighted to expose
the curves of their bodies, the round swelling of
their hips, the beauties of their nether limbs, the
whiteness of their bosoms, the turn of their elbows
and amas, and the rotundity of their shoulders, but
who have, for some mysterious reasons, been for
hundreds of years ashamed of the nakedness of
their feet.
Let me ve a wardrobe for a man of this rime.
7
ENGLISH COSTUME
A hood with a cape to it; the peak of the hood
ruade full, but about hall a hand's breadth longer
than necessary to the hood; the cape cut some-
rimes at the'edge into a number of short slits.
A cap of sort stuff to fit the head, with or xth-
out an upturncd brim. A fillet of silk or metal for
the hair.
A gown made very loose and open at the neck,
wide in the body, the sleeves loose or tight to the
xw'ist. The gown long or shooE, on the ground or
to the knee, and almost invariably belted at the
waist by a long belt of leather with omamental
studs.
A surcoat split from shoulder to hem, or sewn
up except for a wide armhole.
A coat shaped very slightly to the figure, having
pocket-ho!es in front, small armholes, and a buttoned
neck.
A great oblong-shaped piece of stuff for a cloak,
or a heavy, round cloak with an attached hood.
Tights of cloth or sewn silk that is, pieces of
silk cut and sewn to the shape of the leg.
Shoes with long points--about 2 inches beyond
the toes--fastened by a strap in ri'ont, or laced at
the sides, or ruade to pull on and fit at the ankle,
HENRY THE THIRD 75
the last sometimes with a V-shaped pieee eut away
on either side.
There was a tendeney to beads, and a universal
custom of long hair.
In all such clothes as are mentioned above every
rich stuff of cloth, si]k, wool, and frieze may be
used, and fur linings and fur hats are constant, as
also are furred edges to garments.
There was a slight increase of heraldic ornament,
and a certain amount of foreign diaper pattenfing
on the elothes.
THE WOMEN
Now the lady must needs begin to repair the
ravages of time and touch the cheek that no longer
knows the bloom of youth with--rouge.
This in itself shows the change in the age. Since
the Britons--poor, simple souls--had sought to
embellish Nature by staining themselves blue with
wode and yellow with ochre, no paint had touched
the faces of the fashionable until this reign. Perhaps
discreet histo5ans had lei% that ïact veiled, holding
the secrets of the lady's toilet too sacred for the
black of print; but now the mm'der came out.
The fact in itself is part of the psychology of
74
ENGLISH COSTUME
clothes. Paint the ice, and you have a hint
towards the condition of fashion.
Again, as in the case of the men, no determined
cut shows which will point to this age as one of
such and such a garment or such an innovation,
but--and this I would leave to your imagination--
there was a distinction that was not great enough
to be a difference.
The goms were loose and flowing, and were
gathered in at the waist by a girdle, or, rather, a
belt, the tongue of which hung down in front ; but
as the end of the reign approached, the gowns were
shaped a little more to the figure.
A lady might possess such clothes as these: the
gowns I bave mentioned above, the sleeves of
which were tight all the way ri'oto the shoulder to
the wrist, or were loose and cut short just below
the elbow, showing the tight sleeves of the tmder-
gown.
Shoes very elaborately embroidered and pointed
af the toes.
A rieh cloak made oblong in shape and very
ample in eut.
A shaped mantle with strings to hold it together
over the shoulders.
A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HElqR / III.
(xx6--x7)
Tins will show how very slight were the changes in
woman's dress ; a plaht cloak, a plain gown. and a
whimple over the head.
HENRY THE THIRD
75
For the head a wimple made of white linen or
perhaps of silk ; this she would put above her head,
leaving the neck bare.
A long be]t for her waist, and, if she were a
great lady, a pair of gloves to wear or stick into
her be]L
THE COUNTRY FOLK
From the Conquest to the reign of Edward I.
UNTIL the present day the
countryman has dressed in a
nmnner most fitted to his sur-
roundings ; now the billycock hat,
a devil-derived offspring from a
Greek source, the Sunday suit of
shiny black with purple trousers,
the satin tie of Cambridge blue,
and the stiff shirt, bave almost
robbed the peasant of his poetical
appearance.
Civilization seems to have
arrived at our villages with a pocketful of petty
religious differences, a bagful of public-houses, a
bundle of permy and halfpenny papers full of stofies
to show the fascination of crime, and--these Sunday
clothes.
76
"['HE COUNTRY F{)LK
77
The week's workdavs still show a sense of the
picturesque in corduroys and jerseys or blue shirts,
but the landscape is blotted with men wearing out
old Sunday clothes, so that the painter of rural
scenes with rural characters must either lie or
go abroad.
As for the countrywoman, she, I am thankful to
say, still retains a sense of duty and beauty, and,
except on Sunday, remains more or
less respectably clad. Chivalry pre-
vents one from saying more.
In the old days--from the Conquest
until the end of the thirteenth century
--the peasant was dressed in perfect
clothes.
The villages were self- providing ;
they grew by then wool and hemp
for the spindles. From this was made
yam for materials to be ruade up into
coats mad shirts. The homespun frieze that the
peasant wore upon his back was hung by the noble-
man upon his walls. The village bootmaker made,
besides s-ldn sandals to be tied with thongs upon the
feet, leather trousers and belts.
The mole-eatcher provided skin for hats. Hoods
78.
ENGLISH COSTUME
of a plain shape were made from the hides of sheep
or wolves, the wool or hair being leff on the hood.
Cloaks lined with sheepsldn served to keep away
the winter cold.
To protect their legs from thorns the men wore
bandages of twisted straw wrapped round their
trousers, or leather thongs cross-gartered to the
knee.
The fleece of the sheep was woven in the summer
into clothes of wool for the winter. Gloves were
made, at the beginning of the thirteenth century,
of wool and soif leather ; these were shaped like the
modern baby's glove, a poueh for the hand and
fingers and a place for the thumb.
A eoarse shirt was worn, over whieh a tunie, very
loosely ruade, was plaeed, and belted at the waist.
The truffe hardly varied in shape from the Conquest
to the rime of Elizabeth, being but a saek-like
garment with wide sleeves reaehing a little below
the elbow. The hood was ample and the eloak
wide.
The women wore gowns of a like material to the
men--loose gowns whieh reaehed to the ankles and
gave seope for easy movement. They wore their
hair tied up in a wimple of eoarse linen.
A PEASANT OF EARLY ENGLAND
(WILLIAM I.H,NRv III.)
I-IlS hood is ruade from sheep-skin, the wool outside,
the hem trimmed into points. Fils legs are bound
up with garters of plaited straw. His shoes are of
the rcughest make of coarse leather. YIe bas the
shepherd's horn sluug over his shoulder.
THE COUNTRY FOLK
79
The people of the North were more ruggedly
elothed than the Southerners, and until the monks
founded the sheep-farming industry in Yorkshire
the people of those parts had no doubt to depend
for their supply of wool upon
the more eultivated peoples.
Picture these people, then,
in very simple natural wool-
coloured dresses going about
their ordinary country lire,
attending their bees, their
pigs, sheep, and cattle, eating
their kele soup, ruade of cole-
wort and other herbs.
Sec them ragged and
hungry, being fed by Remigius, Bishop of Lincoln,
aier ail the misery caused by the Conquest; or
despaJa'ing during the Great Frost of 1205, which
began on St. Hilary's Day, January 11, and lasted
until March 22, and was so severe that the land
was like iron, and could hot be dug or tilled.
SVhen better days arrived, and farming was taken
more seriously by the great lords, when Grosseteste,
the Bishop of Lincoln, wrote his book on farming
and estate management for Margaret, the Dowager-
8O
ENGLISH COSTUME
Countess of I,ilcoln, then clothes and stuffs mmm-
factured in the towns became cheaper and more
easy to obtain, and the very rough skin clothes and
undressed hides began to vanish from among the
clothes of the country, and the rough gartered
troc,ser gave way before cloth cut to fit the leg.
On lord and peasant alike the sun of this eafly
age sets, and with the sunset cornes the waming
bell--the couvreçfeu--so, on their beds of straw-
covered floors, let them sleep ....
EDWARD THE FIRST
Reigned thirty-five years : 1°.7--1307.
Born 1239. Married, 1254, Eleanor of Castile ;
1299, Marga'et of France.
MEN AND WOMEN
UNTIL the performance of the Sherborne Pageant,
i had never had the opportunity of seeing a mass
of people, under proper, open-air conditions, dressed
in the peasant costume of Early England.
For once traditional stage notions of costume
were cast aside, and an attempt vas ruade, which
was perfectly successful, to dress people in the
colours of their rime.
The mass of simple colours--bright reds, blues,
and greens--was a perfect expression of the date,
giving, as nothing else could give, an appearance of
an illuminated book corne to lire.
One might imagine that such a primary-coloured
crowd would bave appeared un-English, and too
81 6
8
ENGLISH COSTUME
Oriental or ltalian; but with the background of
trees and stone walls, the English summer sky
distressed with clouds, the moving cloud shadows
and the velvet grass, these tierce hard colours
looked disthactly English, undoubtedly of their
date, and gave the spirit ï Che ages, froln a clothes
point of view, as no other colonrs could bave done.
In deing this they attested to the historical truth
of the play.
It seemed natural to see an English crowd
one blazing jewel-work of colour, and, by the
excellent taste and ioaowledge of the designer,
the jewel-like hardness of colour was consistently
kept.
It was interesting to see the difference ruade to
this crowd by the advent of a number of monks
in uniform black or brown, and to see the setting
in which these jewel-like peasants shone--the
play of brillJant hues amid the more sombre
browns and blacks, the shifting of the blues
and reds, the strong notes of emerald green
all, like the symmetrical accidents of the
kaleidscope, settling into their places in perfect
harmony.
The entire scene bore the impress of the spirit
EDWARD THE FIRST 89
of historical truth, and it is by such æagcants that
wc can imagine co]ourcd picturcs of an England
of thc past.
Again, wc could observe the cffect of the light-
rcflccting armour, cold, shimmering steel, coming
in a play of colour against the backga'ound of
peasants, and thereby ont could note the exact
apæearance of an ordinary English day of such
a date as this of which I now write, the end of the
thioEoenth ccntury.
The mournful procession bearing the body of
Qucen Elcanor of Castile, resting at Waltham,
would show a picture in the samc colours as the
early paoE of the Sherborne Pageant.
Colour in England changcd very littlc ff'oto thc
Conquest to thc end of the reign of Edward l. ;
the prcdominant steel and leathcr, the gay, simple
colours of the crowds, the groups of one colour,
as of monks and men-at-arms, gave an cffcct of
constantly changing but over uniform colours and
dcsigns of colour, exactly, as I said belote, like the
shifting patterns of the kaleidoscope.
It was hot until the reign of Edward II. that
the effect of colour changed and became pied, and
later, with the advent of stamped velvets, heavily
6--2
ENGLISH COSTUME
designed broeades, and the sbining of satins, we
get that general effeet best reealled to us by
memories of Italian pietures ; we get, as it were,
a varnish of golden-brown over the erude beauties
of the earlier rimes.
It is intensely important to a "knowledge of
costume to remember the larger changes in the
aspect of erowds from the eolour point of view.
A knowledge of history--by wbieh I do hot mean
a parrot-like aequirement of dates and Aets of
Parliament, but an insight into history as a living
tbing--is largely transmitted to us by pietures;
and, as pietures praetieally begin fbr us with the
Tudors, we must judge of eoloured England from
illuminated books. In tbese you will go from
white, green, red, and purple, to sueh eolours as
I have just deseribed : more vivid blues, reds, and
greens, varied with brown, blaek, and the eolour of
steel, into the ehequered pages of pied people and
striped dresses, into rieh-eoloured people, people
in black; and as you close the book and arrive at
the wall-picture, back to the rich-coloured people
again.
The men of this rime, it must be remelnbered,
were more adapted to the arts of war than to those
EDVARD THE F[RST
85
of peace ; and the -knight who was up betimes and
into his armour, and to bed eaHy, was nota man
of so much leisure that he could stroll about in
gay clothes of an inconvenient make. His principal
tare was to relieve himself of his steel burden and
get into a loose gown, belted at the waist, over
..
whieh, if the weather was inelement, he would
weel" a loose eoat. This eoat was made with a
hood attaehed toit, very loose and easy about the
neek and ,eery Mde about the body; its length
was a marrer of ehoiee, but it ws usuel to wear
il: not mueh below the -knees. The sleeves were
also wide and long, having at a eonvenient place
ENGLISH COSTUME
a hole eut, through which the arms could be
placed.
The men wore their hair long and brushed out
about the ears---long, that is, to the nape of the
ncck. They also were most commonly bearded,
with or without a moustache.
Upon their heads they wore soft, small hats,
with a slight projection at the top, the brim of the
bat turned up, and scooped aw«ry in front.
Fillets of metal were wom about the hair with
some gold-work upon them to represent flowetu;
or they wore, now and again, real chaplets of
flowcrs.
There was an increase of hcraldic omamcnt in
this agc, and the surcoats were oftcn covered with
a large dcvice.
Thcsc surcoats, as in the previous rcign, wcrc
split from shouldcr to bottom hem, or wcrc scwn
up bclow thc waist ; for these, thin silk, thick silk
(called samite), and scndal, or thick stuf, was used,
as also for the gowns.
Thc shoes were pcakcd, and had long toes, but
nothing extravagant, and they wcrc laced on the
outsidc of the foot. Thc boots came in a peak
up to thc kncc.
EDWARD THE FIRST 87
The peasant was still very Norman in appear-
ance, hooded, cloaked, with ill-fitting tights and
clumsy shoes ; his ch'ess was o%en of bright colours
on festivals, as was the gown and head-hankerdhief
of his wife.
Thus you see that, for ordinary purposes, a man
dressed in some gown which was long, loose, and
eomfortable, th sleeves of it generally tight for
freedom, so that they did hot hang about his arm,
and his shoes, bat, cloak, everything, was as soft
and free as he eould get them.
The woman also followed in the lines of comfort:
her under-gown was full and slack at the waist,
the sleeves were tight, and were made to unbutton
from wrist to elbow; they stopped short at the
wrist with a euff.
Her upper gown had short, wide sleeves, was
fastened at the back, and was cut but roughly
to the figure. The train of this gown was very
long.
They sought for comfort in every particular
but one: for though I think the gorget very be-
eonfing, I think that it must have been most
distressing to wear. This gorget was a piece of
white linen wrapped about the throat, and pinned
ENGLISH COSTUME
into its place; the ends xvere brought up to meet
a wad of hair over the ears and there fastened,
in this way half framing the face.
The hair was parted in the middle, and rolled
over pads by the ears, so as to make a cushion
on which to pin the
gorget. This was the
general fashion.
Now, the eadier form
of head-dress gave rise
to another fashion. The
band which had been
tied round the head to
keep the wilnple in place
was enlarged and st[f-
fened with more material, and so became a round
linen cap, wider at the top than at the bottom.
Sometimes this cap was hollow-crowned, so that
it was possible to bring the wimple under the
chin, fasten it into place with the cap, and allow
it to fall over the top of the cap in folds ; some-
times the cap was solidly crowned, and was
pleated ; sometimes the cap met the gorget, and
no hair showed between them.
What we know as ' the truc loyers' knot' was
A MAN AND WOMAN OF THE TIME OF
EDWARD I. {$7--I.o7)
THE sleeves of the man's overcoat through which
bas tbrust his arms are complete sleeeves, and could be
worn in the ordinary manner but that they are too
long to b¢ convenicn ; hence the opening.
oO
EDWARD THE FIRST 89
sometimes used as an ornament sewn on to dresses
or gowns.
You may know the eflïgy of Queen Eleanor
in Vestminster Abbey, and if you do, you will
see an example of the very plainest dress of the
rime. She has a shaped mantle over her shoulders,
which she is holding together by a strap ; the long
mantle or robe
is over a plain, "
loosely - pleated
gown, which fits
only at the shoul- h,_,
ders; her hair is
unbound, and she
wears a trefoil
crown upon her
head.
The changes in
England tan best be seen by such monuments
as Edward caused fo be erected in memory of his
beloved wife. The arts of peace were indeed magni-
ficent, and though the knight was the man of war,
he knew how fo choose his servant in the great arts.
Picture such a man as Alexander de Abyngdon,
'le Imaginator,' who with lVilliam de Ireland
90
ENGLISH COSTUME
carved the statues of the Queen for rive marks
each--such a man, with his gown hitched up into
his belt, his hood back on his shoulders, watch-
ing his statue put into place on the cross at
Charing. He is standing by Roger de Crundale,
the architect of that cross, and he is directing the
workmen who are fixing the statue .... A little
apart you may picture Master $¥illiam Tousell,
goldsmith, of London, a very important person,
who is making a metal statue of the Queen and
one of her father-in-law, Henry III., for West-
minster Abbey. At the back men and women in
hoods and wimples, in short tunics and loose gowns.
A very brightly-coloured picture, though the dyes
of the dresses be faded by rain and sun they are
the finer colours for that: Master Tousell, no
doubt, in a short tunic fol" riding, with his loose
coat on him, the heavy hood back, a little cap on
his head; the workmen with their tunics off, a
twist of coloured stuff about their waists, their
heads bare.
It is a beautiful love-story this, of tierce Edward,
the terror of Scotland, for Eleanor, whom he
' cherished tenderly,' and ' whom dead we do hot
¢ease to love.'
EDWARD THE FIRST
91
The same man, who could love so tenderly and
well, who found a fantastic order of chivalry in
the Round Table of Kenilworth, could there swear
on the body of a swan the death of Comyn,
Regent of Scotland, and could place the Countess
of Buchan, who set the crown upon the head of
Brute, in a cage outside one of the towers of
Berwick.
Despite the plain eut of the garments of this
rime, and the absence of superficial trimmings, it
must have been a fine sight to witness one hundred
lords and ladies, all clothed in silk, seated about the
Round Table of Kenilworth.
EDWARD THE SECOND
Reioed twenty years : 1307--137.
Born 128. Married, 1308, Isabella of France.
MEN AND WOMEN
WtETHEI the changes in costume that took place
in this reign wel due to enterprising tailors, or to
an exceptionally hot summer, or to the fancy of
the King, or to the sprightliness of Piers Gaveston,
it is not possible to say. Each theory is arguable,
and, no doubt, in some measure each theory is
right, for, although men followed the new new
mode, ladies adhered to their earlier fashions.
Take the enterprising tailor--call him an aloEist.
The old loose robe was easy of cut ; it afforded no
ourlet for his craie; it cut into a lot of material,
was casily made at home--it was, in fact, a baggy
aflàir that fitted nowhere. Now, is it not possible
that some tailor-artist, working upon the vanity of
a lordling who was proud of his figure, showed how
9
EDWARD THE SECOND
he could present this figure to its best advantage
in a body-tight garment which should reach only
to his hips ?
Take the hot summer. You may or may not
know that a hot summer sonle years ago suddenly
transformed the City of London ri'oto a place of
top-hats and black coats into
a place of flannel jackets and
hats of straw, so that it is now
possible for a man to arrive at ,
his City office clad according
to the thermometer, without
incurring the severe dis-
pleasure of the Fathers of the
City.
It seems that somewhere
midway between 1307 and
1327 men suddenly dropped
their long robes, loosely tied at the waist, and
appeared in what looked uncommonly like vests,
and went by the naine of ' cotehardies.'
It must have been surprising to men who
remembered England clothed in long and decorous
robes to see in their stead these gay, debonair,
tight vests of pied cloth or pmoEi-coloured silk.
ENGLISH COSTUME
Piers Gaveston, the gay, the graceless but grace-
fid favourite, clever at the tournament, warlike and
vain, may bave instituted this complete revolution
in c!othes with the aid of the weak King.
Sufficient, perhaps, to say that, although long
robes eontinued to, be
worn, eotehardies ere
ail the fashion.
There was a general tendency to exaggeration.
The hood was attaeked by the dandies, and, instead
of its modest peak, they eaused tobe added a
long pipe of the material, whieh they ealled a
' liripipe.'
Every quaint thought and invention tbr tieing
up this liripipe was used: they wound it about
EDWARD THE SECOND
95
their heads, and tueked the end into the eoil;
they put it about their necks, and left the end
dangling ; they rolled it on to the top of their
heads.
The eountryman, not behindhand in quaint
ideas, copied the form of a Bishop's hood, and
appeared with his cloth hood divided
into two peaks, one on either side of
his head.
This new cotehardie was eut in
several ways. Strictly speal'dng, it was
a cloth or silk vest, tight to the body,
and dose over the hips; the length
was determined by the fancy of the
wearer. It also had influence on the
long robes still worn, which, although
full below the vaist to the feet, now
more elosely fitted the body and
shoulders. .
The fashionable sleeves were tight to
the elbow, and from there hanging and narrow,
shox4ng a sleeve belonging to an undergarment.
The cloak also varied in shape. The heavy
tmvelling-cloak, with the hood attached, was of
the old pattern, long, shapeless, with or without
ENGLISH COSTUME
hanging sleeves, loose at the neck, or tightly
buttoned.
Then there was a hooded cloak, with short
sleeves, or with the sleeves eut right away, a sort
of hooded surcoat. Then there were tow distinct
forms of cape: one a plain, circular
cape, not very deep, which had a plain,
round, narrow collar of fur or cloth,
and two or three buttons at the neck;
and there was the round cape, without
a collar, but with turned back lapels of
fur. This form of cape is often to be
seen.
The boots and shoes were longer af
the toes, and were sometimes buttoned
af the sides.
The saine foiTn of hats remain, but
these were now treated with fur brims.
Round the waist there was always
a belt, generally of plain black leather; from it
depended a triangular poueh, through whieh a
dagger was sometimes stuek.
The rime of parti-eoloured elothes was just
beginning, and the eotehardie was oien made
from two eoloured materials, dividing the body in
A MAN AND VOMAN OF THE TIME OF
EDWARD II. (x3oT--x327)
NOTICE the great length of lirlpipe on the man's
hood, also his short tunic of rayed cloth, his hanging
sleeve and his undersleeve.
The woman bas ber hair dressed in two side-p|aits.
to wh|ch the gorget or neckcloth is pinued.
, !
EDIVAR1) THE SECOND
97
two parts by the colour difference ; it
was the commencement of the age
which tan its course during the next
reign, when men were striped diago-
nally, vertically, and in angular bars;
when one leg vas blue and the other
red.
You will note that all work was
improving in this reign when you hear
that the King paid the wife of .lohn
de Bureford 100 marks for an cm-
broidered tope, and that a great green (f
hanging was procured for King's Hall,
London, for so]emn feastsa hanging
of wool, worked with figures of kings
and beasts. The ladies ruade little
practical change in theh" dress, except
to wear an excess of clothes against the
lack of draperies indulged in by the
melL
It is possible to sec three garments,
or portions of them. in many dresses.
First, there was a stuff gown, with tight
sleeves buttoned to the elbow fi-om the wrist;
this sometimes showed one or two buttons under
98
ENGLISH COSTUME
the gorget in front, and was fitted, but not tightly,
to the figure. It fell in pleated folds to the feet,
and had a long train; this was wom alone, we
may suppose, in summer. Second, there was a
gown to go over this other, whieh had short, wide
sleeves, and was full in the skirts. One or other
versc. Third,
there was a surcoat like to a man's, not over-long
or full, with the sleeve-holes cut out wide; this
went over both or either of the other gowns.
Upon the head they wore the wimple, the fillet,
and about the throat the gorget.
The arrangement of the wimple and fillet were
new, for the hair was now plaited b two tails, and
EDWARD THE SECOND 99
these brought down straight on cithcr side of the
face; thc fillct was bound over the wimple in
order to show thc plait, and thc gorget met the
wimplc behind the plait instcad of over it.
The oldcr fhshion of hair-dressing remained, and
the gorget was pinned to the wads of hair over the
ears, without thc covering of thc wimplc.
Sometimcs the fil]et was very widc, and placcd
low on the hcad over a wimple tied like a gorget;
in this way the two side-plaits showed only in
front and appearcd covered at side-face, while the
wimple and broad ff]let hid al] the top hair of
thc head.
Very rarely a tall, steeple head-dress was wom
over the wimple, with a hanging veil; but this was
not common, and, indced, it is not a mark of the
time, but belongs more propcrly to a latcr date.
However, I have seen such a head-dress dra at
or about this time, so must include it.
The semicircular mantle was still in use, hcld
over the breast by means of a silk cord.
It may seem that I describe thesc garments in
too simple a way, and the rigid antiquarian would
h£ve made eomment on eourtepys, on gamboised
garments, on eloth of Gaunt, or eloth of Dunster.
72
100
ENGI,IStl COSTUME
I may tell you that a gambeson was the quilted
tunic wom uuder armour, and, for the sake of
those whose tastes run hto the arid fields of such
research, that you may call it wambasium, gobison,
wambeys, gambiex, gaubeson, or half a dozen other
names; but, to my mind, you will get no further
with such knowledge.
Falding is an lrish frieze; cyclas is a gown;
courtepy is a shooE gown ; kirtle--again, if we know
too much we carmot be accurate kirtle may be a
loose gown, or an apron, or a jacket, or a riding-
cloak.
The tabard was an embroidered surcoat--that
is, a surcoat on which was displayed the heraldic
device of the owner.
Let us close this reign with its mournhl end,
when Piers Gaveston feels the teeth of the Black
Dog of Varwick, and is beheaded on Blacklow
Hill; when Hugh le Despenser is hanged on a
gibbet ; when the Queen lands at Orwell, conspir-
ing against her husband, and the Khg is a pfisoner
at Kenilworth.
Here at Kenilworth the King hears himself
deposed.
' Edward, once King of England,' is hereafter
EI)WARD THE SECOND
101
accounted 'a private person, without any manner
of royal dignity.'
Here Edward, in a plain black gown, sees the
steward of his household, Sir Thomas Blount,
break his staff of office, done only when a King
is dead, and diseharge al] persons engaged in the
royal service.
Parliament deeided to take this strong meesm'e
in .Ianuary; in the following September Edward
was murdered in eold blood at Berkeley Castle.
EDIVARD THE THIRD
Reigned fifty years: 137--1377.
Born 1812. Married, 138, Philippa of Hainault.
THE MEN
KsGs were Kings in those days; they managed
Egland as a nobleman managed his estates.
Edward I., during the year 1299, changed his
abode on an average three rimes a fortnight, visiting
in one year seventy-five towns and castles.
Edward I I. increased his travelling retinue until,
in the fourth year of the reign of Edward III., the
crowd who accompanied that King had grown to
such proportions that he was forced to introduce a
law forbidding knights and soldiers to bring their
wives and familles with them.
Edward III., with his gay company, would not
be stopped as he rode out of one of the gates of
London to pay toll of a penny a cart and a farthing
a home, nor would any of his train.
10
EDWARD THE THIRD
This toll, which included threepence a week on
gravel and sand earts going in or out of the City,
was raised to help pay for street repairs, the streets
and roads of that time being in a eontinual state of
slush, mud, and pits of water.
Let us imagine Edward III. and his retinue
passing over Wakefield Bridge before he redueed
his enormous eompany.
The two priests, William Kaye and Villiam
Bull, stand waiting for the King outside the new
Saint llary's Chapel. First eome the guard of four-
and-twenty arehers in the King's livery; then a
Marshal and his servants (the other King's Marshal
has ridden by some twenty-four hours ago); then
cornes the Chaneellor and his elerks, and with
them a good horse earrying the Rolls (this was
stopped in the fourth year of Edward's reign);
then they see the Chamberlain, who will look to
it that the King's rooms are deeent and in ortier,
furnished with benehes and earpets; next cornes
the Vardrobe Master, who keeps the King's
aeeounts; and, riding beside the King, the first
personal offieer of the kingdom, the Seneschal;
after that a gay eompany of knights and their
ladies, merehants, mon'ks dressed as ordinary lay-
ENGLISH COSTUME
men for travelling, soldiers of fortune, women,
beggars, minstrels--a motley gang of brightly-
clothed people, splashed with the mud and dust of
the cavalcade.
Remembering the condition of the day, the
rough travelling, the estates ihr apart, the dirty
inns, one nnlst hot
imagine this coin-
_ pany spick and
span.
. The ladies are
riding astride, the
gentlcmen are in
civil garments or
hall armour.
Let us suppose
that it is summer,
and but an hour or so after a heavy shower.
The heat is oppressive: the men have slung their
hats at their belts, and bave pushed their hoods
from their heads; their heavy cloaks, which they
domled hastily against the rain, are off now, and
hanging across their saddles.
These cloaks vary considerably in shape. Here
we may sec a circular cloak, split down the right
EDWARD THE THIRD
105
Nearly every man is alike in one
respect--elean-shaven, with long hair
to his neck, curled at the ears and on
the fbrehead.
Most men wear the cotehardie, the
well-fitting garment buttoned down the
front, and ending over the hips. There
is every variety of cotehardie--the long
one, coming nearly to thc knees; the
sholoE one, half-way up the thigh. Some
are buttoned all the way down the front,
side fron the neck, it
buttons on the shoulder.
Hem is another circular
cloak, jagged at the edge;
this buttons at the neck.
One man is riding in a
cloak, parti-coloured,
which is more like a
gown, as it has a hood
attached to it, and reaches
down to his feet.
and others only with two or three buttons at the neck.
Round the hips of every man is a leather belt,
from which hangs a pouch or purse.
106
ENGLISH COSTUME
Some of these purses are beautiful with stitched
arabesque designs; some have silver and enamel
clasps; some are plain black cloth or natural-
coloured leather ; neady ail, however, are black.
The hoods over the men's heads vary in a number
of ways: some are very full in the cape, which is
jagged at the hem ; some are close about the neck
and are plain ; some have long liripipes falling from
the peak of the hood, and others have a liripipe of
medium length.
There are two or three kinds of hat worn, and
felt and fur caps of the usual shape--round, with
a rolled-up brim and a little peak on the top. Some
of the hats are tall-crowned, round hats with a
close, thick brim--these have strings through the
brim so that the hat may be strung on the belt
when it is not in use; other hats are of the long,
peaked shape, and now and again one may see a
feather stuck into them; a third variety shows the
brim of a high-crowaaed hat, casteilated.
Among the "knights you will notice the general
tendency to parti-coloured clothes, not only divided
completely into halves of two colours, but striped
diagonally, vertically, and horizontally, so giving a
very diverse appearance to the mass of colour.
EDWARD THE THIRD
107
Here and there a man is riding in his silk
surcoat, which is embroidered with his coat of
arrns or powdered with his badge.
Here are cloth, velvet, silk, and woollen stuffs,
ail of fine dyes, and here is sorne fine silk cote-
hardie with patterns upon it gilt in gold leaf, and
there is a rnagnificent piece of stuff, rich in design,
frorn the looms of Palerrno.
Arnong the rnerchants we shall see sorne more
sober colours and quieter cut of clothes ; the archers
in front are in leather tunics, and these quiet colours
in front, and the respectable rnerchants behind,
enclose the brilliant blaze of colour round the King.
Behind all corne the peasants, rninstrels, rnurnrners,
and wandering troupes of acrobats ; here is a bear-
ward in wom leather cloak and hood, his legs
strapped at the ankle, his shoes tied on with
thongs; here is a wornan in a hood, open at the
neck and short at the back: she wears a srnocked
apron ; here is a beggar with a hood of black stuff
over his head--a hood with two peaks, one on either
side of his head; and again, here is a rninstrel
with a patched round cloak, and a rnumrner with
a two-peaked hood, the peaks stuffed out stiff,
with bells jangling on the points of thern.
ENGI,ISH COSTUME
Again, among this last group, we lnUSt notice
the old-fashioned loose tunies, the eoif over the
head, tied under the ehin, wooden-soled shoes and
poueh-glo.ves.
There are some Norfolk merehants and some
merchants from Flanders among the crowd, and
they talk as best they can in a sort of French-
Latin-English jargon among themselves; they speak
of England as the great wool-producing country,
the tax on which produced £30,000 in one year;
they talk of the tax, its uses and abuses, and how
EDWARD THE THIRD
lO9
Norfolk was proved the richest eounty in wool by
the tax of 1341.
The people of England little thought to hear
artillery used in a field of battle so soon as 1346.
when on August 26 it vas used for the first time,
nor did thev realize the horrors that were to corne
in 1349, when the Great Plague was to
sweep over England and kill half the
population.
There is one man in this crowd who
bas been marked by everybody. He is
a courtier, dressed in the height of
fashion. His cotehardie fits him very
well: the sleeves are tight from elbow
to wrist, as are the sleeves of lnost of
his fellows--some, however, still wear
the hanging sleeve and shov an mder-
sleeveand his sleeve is buttoned from wrist to
elbow. He wears the newest fashion upon his arm,
the tippet, a piece of silk which is made like a
det.achable cuff with a long streamer hanging from
it; his eotehardie is of medium length, jagged
at the bottom, and it is of the finest Sicilian
silk, figured with a fine pattern; rotmd his hips
he wears a jewelled belt. His hood is parti-
110
ENGLISH COSTUME
coloured and jagged at the edge and round his
face, and his liripipe is very long. His tights
are parti-coloured, and his shoes, buttoned up the
front, are long-toed and are made of red-and-white
chequered leather. By him rides a knight, also
in the height of fashion, but less noticeable: he
has his cotehardie skirt split up in front and
turned back; he has
not any buttons on
his sleeves, and his
belt about his waist
holds a large square
pouch; his shoes are
a Little above his
ankles, and are
buckled over the in-
step. His hair is
shorter than is
usual, and it is not
cuded.
As we observe these knights, a party of
armed knights come riding down the road towards
the cavalcade; they have tome to greet the
King.
These men have ridden through the tain, and
EDWARD THE THIRD
111
now, as they come closer, one can see that their
armour is already red with rust.
So the picture should remain on your mind,
as I have imagined it for you: the knights in
armour and surcoats covered with their heraldic
device; the archers; the gay crowd of knights
in parti-coloured clothes; the King, in his
cotehardie of plain black velvet and his black
beaver hat, just as he looked after Calais in later
years ; thc merchants ; the servants in
parti-coloured liveries of theii masteis'
colours ; the tattered crowd behind ;
and, with the aid of the drawings, you
should be able to visualize the picture.
Meanwhile Edvard will arrive at his destination,
and to soothe him before sleep, he will read out
of the book of romances, illusOraOed by Isabella,
the nun of Aumbresbury, for which he 
