CHAPTER VI

A GIRDLE.

The famous Agnes Sorel had considerable influence over the fashions of her day, and she practised exaggeration with audacity: her hennin was taller than any other, her skirts were longer, and her bodices lower; and she would band her forehead and encircle her throat with the most magnificent jewels.

A POINTED SHOE.

Elizabeth of York had a fancy for veils richly jewelled at the border and arranged to form a hood and fall down either side of the face, the hair being plainly parted on her forehead. The picture on the opposite page shows her wearing a full gown of silk brocade, with a border of ermine decorating the hem of this and the sleeves, and putting in its appearance again straight across the bodice anddown the centre of the front. On her head hangs a stiff mitred head-dress, the inner rim being outlined with jewels, and her pendent veil reaches nearly to the waist.

ELIZABETH OF YORK.

Not being content with the weight of brocades and silks they had to carry, the women burdened themselves with canes with handles bearing the image of a bird. They carried fans, too, and collected from Spain perfumed gloves made of kid or silk, with the backs embroidered in gold or silver; the glove, however, was punctiliously removed when the hand was given in greeting.

France exhibited a nice sense of colour, and the most popular combination was a veil of white tissue, a girdle of green wrought with gold, and a glimpse of violet under-skirt below a brocaded dress "set off with black shoes."

Thecôte hardiewas improved by being cut open in a point in front, with revers upon the shoulders, and a lappet of velvet or brocade was used to fill in the opening, and, turning back, revealed some delicate tissue of gauze and lace.

The noble ladies of Germany affected much simplicity, adopting this attitude in contrast to that of the burghers' wives and daughters. Their costume was narrow in cut, the close-fitting skirt widening as it reached the ground. The bodices were cut low off the shoulders, laced in front, with tightly-fitting sleeves that buttoned the whole length, and were finished by cuffs extending over the hands. The over-dress had wide sleeves and a long train laced below the waist behind, the fulness held at the bust with a girdle. Mantles were of a semicircular shape, with a long train fastening to the front with a buckle, or finishedwith a turnover collar held in place with ribbons on the shoulders. The shorter mantle known as the "tappert" was open at each side, and had a large upstanding collar and hood, and married women affected a circular cloak gathered at the neck by a cord and falling in voluminous folds to the hem.

Young girls and matrons braided their hair, or parted it simply in the centre, and rolled it in two portions bound with ribbon or twisted fillets; these rolls, brought over the ears to form a frame for the face, were held in a gold net, with a jewelled pendant in the centre. A favourite cap had a thickly ruched border, and another, known as the Burgundian, had a high conical crown with a rounded point, and was worn over a kerchief with the veil floating behind. Gold bands and crowns rested on the hair, a rectangular kerchief folded in two receiving some attention. Shoes were made open with points, and wooden clogs and goloshes expressed the Teuton caution.

As the century drew to its close further license was visible. High dress was the exception, all bodices being round with slight points, the shoulders uncovered, and the back cut down as low as the waist; and sleeves exhibited much diversity of design, being at times narrow and at others full, and then again falling far below the hands, or reaching up to the elbow, ornamented with slashings. Over-dresses were laced at the back, and invariably the openings were filled in with the chemise, or a folded fichu, or an embroidered plastron. Men and women alike wore wonderful chemisettes with wide borders embroidered withsilk, or wrought with pearls, and fur was a decoration beloved of both sexes.

Fur adorns the short over-sleeve of the coat sketched on page 52; and the wearer, it would seem, had infinitely better fortune in the selection of his vest and soft shirt than in his mushroom hat, which, made of cloth and stitched, could not have failed to be at least trying to the most perfect beauty.

Trains extended themselves when the waists of the bodices grew shorter, and the dresses were gathered in front, pleats falling from the bust or just below the short waist. The girdles appeared just below the armpits, and the sleeves were so long that they had to be turned back from the wrists, the scolloped border appearing on those which were wide and wing-shaped.

In France and England splendour followed upon splendour; even the prayer-books did not escape the general craze for elaboration and decoration, their covers being emblazoned with jewels and silken embroidery. Jewels glittered round every fair neck and on every fair head; and all heads were fair, assisted by art when nature denied such grace.

The hair and the train were the conspicuous points of magnificence, and fashion, playing the game of heads and tails, allowed them both to win her best attention.

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

The Tudor period brought an extraordinary revolution in dress, the first important change taking place in the sleeves, which were now of different material and different colour from the gown. Several pairs of sleeves would be allotted to each gown, and were necessarily made detachable, while in shape they were full and puffed, padded and quilted and slashed and fitting tightly; and the square-necked, short-waisted style of dress was punctilious in a display of a stomacher and a full train.

Cloth of gold was the favourite fabric, being used alike for decoration as for garments, and indeed gold asserted itself on every rich material, and there was a silver taffeta embroidered in gold; and a damask of crimson or yellow wrought with gold offered itself persuasively for fur trimming, lynx and sable and marten accepting the responsibility with zeal.

The fair footed it bravely in low shoes adorned with large ribbon Tudor roses, which were also allotted the delicate duty of ornamenting elaborate garters. The plainer variety of shoe was of wood covered with velvet or leather, stitchedwith silk and fastened with buckles or rosettes; and a wooden shoe in vogue was known as the pantoffle, and not unlike that chopine worn in Italy at this time and later, when it attained the pinnacle of the preposterous. This shoe was, however, known in England only in a modified form.

None of the fashions of the day could truthfully be called comfortable. Comfort obviously was banished from consideration, and each innovation during the sixteenth century shows its demands more and more disregarded.

The hoop appeared, and held the best affections in its grasp of iron, wood, or whalebone, the indispensable edicts against it following quickly upon its popularity. Rich and poor alike fell victims to its aggressive charms, and alike insisted upon its wear, and, on the occasion of her marriage with Prince Arthur of Wales, Catherine of Medici wore the dress of Spain and a mantilla bordered with gold and precious stones, and her skirt was distended by several hoops.

The wives of that merry polygamist Henry VIII. were sympathetically attached to beautiful clothes, and Anne Boleyn is credited with wearing a cap of blue velvet trimmed with golden bells, and a vest of velvet starred with silver, and over it a surcoat of watered silk lined with miniver, with large pendent sleeves; blue velvet brodequins were on her feet, with a diamond star on each instep, and above her long curls was placed an aureole of plaited gold. It is a well-known fact that Anne, because of some slight deformity of the hand, held affectionately to the charms of the hanging sleeve after it had been discarded in favour of the full puffed and slashed sleeve.There is an attractive picture of her by Holbein, with the hair drawn from her forehead in small curls, and a plait hanging from the top of the head over one ear, the crown being worn rather far back and kept in place by a jewelled caul.

To Spain historians have granted the laurel of the ruff, which became first popular in England in the reign of Henry VIII.; and Anne Boleyn introduced lappets made of velvet and adorned with precious stones, either pointed at the hem or square and broad.

During those days the length of the gown denoted the rank of the wearer, countesses and baronesses and ladies of lower degree stamping their estate upon the dimensions of their train. Embroidery decorated the gowns and petticoats alike, many of the dresses being cut open in front to display a satin kirtle and an apron embroidered in gold and many colours. The bodice of the dress sometimes differed in colour from the skirt, and the sleeves would match the skirt; and there was much variety in head-dress, the velvet cap tasselled and set with jewels above a floating veil being a popular style. But cauls, coifs, and French hoods, and the high bands in front, were in evidence, together with a white three-cornered cap, the original no doubt of the Marie Stuart cap of succeeding years.

The men were as prodigal as the women, and spared no expense or time or thought in their pursuit of the sumptuous and the elegant; their shoes and garters and hats glittered with gems, and they wore rings and chains in profusion, raising the trades of tailors and goldsmiths and cloth-makers to supreme importance. Jack of Newbury,a famous cloth merchant of the time of Henry VIII., is described as appearing before that monarch in a plain russet coat and a pair of white kersey slops, the stockings of the same piece being sewn to his slops. Slops was a term developed from "slip," and signified any garment easily adjusted, and an example of its use occurs inMuch Ado About Nothing, a phrase running "as, a German from the waist downward, all slops"; hence may the suspicious glean that the Teuton habit of costume was not mainly trim.

IN THE TIME OF HENRY VII.

Men yielded to the general craze for an expanded hip, wearing great breeches stuffed with hair or bran or wool, and exhibiting no less thanfeminine enthusiasm in the width of their ruffles. Their hose, of different detail, was either of cloth or silk, and blazed with colour, being ornamented with gold or threads of Venetian silver, though the King himself preferred cloth hose, which also had the honour of decorating Queen Elizabeth, until she chanced to meet with the silk stocking, to which she thereafter clung with tenacity.

Jane Seymour's coronation dress was of her faithless spouse's favourite material, cloth of gold; all his wives seem to have been obliging enough to yield to his fancy for this extravagance, and this poor lady's choice was decorated with a raised design of embroidery and pearls, and the stomacher beneath was thickly encrusted with jewels, while her surcoat was of purple velvet bordered with ermine and embroidered with gold, and a jewelled velvet caul was on her head. Anne of Cleves endeavoured to popularise the Dutch fashion of a gown without a train, and she was as much a failure in this as in her other ambitions. Catharine Parr, the last of the noble six, had a gown of cloth of gold made with a sleeve quite tight at the shoulder, bordered at the elbow with fur, and showing beneath a slashed and puffed under-sleeve, finished by a small ruffle at the wrist.

Mary inherited her father's love of splendour and costly apparel, and her favourite head-dress was of cloth of gold, and her gowns were generally of velvet trimmed with fur and jewelled. Elizabeth devoted herself to fashion in a frank, whole-hearted way that brooked no half-measures, and amongst her terrors of death must have been parting with her gowns, for she died possessed of no fewer than three thousand dresses. What a harvest for theladies-in-waiting or the dealers of the day to gather! Her crimson locks she piled high up in curls and puffs, surmounted by crowns of jewels, and her sleeves and hooped skirts were padded into diamond design traced with embroidery, and every point would hold a pendent jewel. She showed no desire to achieve grace or elegance below the waist; nothing more entirely unbecoming to the feminine figure can be imagined than the tight, hard, flat, narrow bodice terminating in a point at the front, cut off at the waist on the hips, above the monstrously distended petticoat. The over-part of the dress and the skirt beneath it were boned and wired, and tight lacing ruled in an injurious degree, though the enormous sleeves, ruffles, and skirts might well have accorded such an effect of slimness as to render stringent measures unnecessary.

A TRIO OF RUFFS.

Dress was a magnificent affair altogether; velvet and taffeta and fine scarlet cloth were used, lace played its part bravely, and silken scarves fringed with gold and silver were thrown over the shoulders, with deep capes of satin or velvet edged with lace. Every shape and length of garment obtained, and the only extravagance from which dress did not suffer was in thedécolletage, which was narrow and straight and of dimensions eminently decent.

QUEEN ELIZABETH IN FULL DRESS.

Elizabeth introduced the whalebone corset, and hers might well have been called the "wire and whalebone age," for the influence of these was needed for the petticoats, the gowns and stays, and it had a considerable share in the good conduct of the ruffles which extended some nine inches from the neck. In France the ruffles were so enormous that they hardly allowed their wearers to turn their heads at all, and courtiers who affected them wereprovided with long-handled spoons to enable them to take their soup in comfort. These huge ruffs were trimmed with lace outlined with wire threads to ensure sufficient stiffness, a demand creating the supply of starch, which made its appearance in this century, being introduced by the wife of Elizabeth's coachman, who established herself as Lady High Laundress of the Court, and made at once a competenceand a reputation. Ruffs were of yellow as well as white, and yellow too were some of the extensive lace collars jewelled and embroidered in gold, which with wired edges outlined the shoulders of all dresses worn on state occasions.

Pins and ribbons were first brought into use in the reign of Elizabeth, and really to her interest in the subject of fashion we owe much. Silk stockings amongst other things, such as cosmetics, face washes and perfumes, and embroidered and scented gloves, and fans made of ostrich or peacock feathers with gold and silver handles, were adopted by the men as well as by the women.

Of the many head-dresses favoured by Elizabeth one resembled a cushion, ornamented with jewels; another, known as a ship-tire, left the neck and shoulders bare; and another, dubbed the tire valiant, was made of many kerchiefs, so disposed as to allow only the nose, eyes, and mouth to be visible.

In the early days of the sixteenth century dress in France was somewhat simple, but about 1550 tastes altered and every kind of trimming was eagerly sought and found, and the lappets, which became a popular addition to the head-dress, displayed jewelled borders or golden tassels in the shape of a flower. The hair fell in curls about the face and on the neck, and in a long description which we have from Rabelais, of a dress of the period in Paris, there is mention of a beautiful bouquet of feathers, a panache, which matched the muff, and was thickly spangled with gold. To him also we owe an excellent account of crimson stockings with the edges embroidered three inches above the knee, and of garters of elaborate detail to hold these, and of shoesand slippers of crimson or violet velvet to complete them. Attire consisted of a chemise worn beneath a corset of silk camlet, a hood of silk, and above this acottein silver tissue embroidered in gold. In summer the Parisian wore, instead of a dress, wraps made in a loose burnous style of velvet seamed with pearls, and no costume was complete without its rosary, its girdle, jewelled necklaces and bracelets. The most popular head-dress was a velvet hood with a hanging curtain, and the turban wound its graceful way above a network of pearls or precious stones. Muffs received much attention and elaboration, fur and lace and jewels alike being dedicated to their service, and in their depths would nestle the dog or monkey or marmoset whose mistress counted such a pet in her armoury of attractions. A description of arobe montante, which appears to have been comparatively anégligé, not permitted the honour of attending Court functions, shows it cut square in the neck, with a collar of fine cambric finished with a small ruff, the sleeves, puffed and slashed and fitting tightly to the wrists, being of a different material from the dress; and in France, as in England, rank determined the length of the train, queens burdening themselves with no less than six yards.

A CHEMISETTE.

AN ITALIAN LADY.

TWO ITALIAN COIFFURES.

In the early days of this century turban head-dresses were popular in Italy, and slashed andpuffed sleeves were trimmed with ribbon. It is interesting to note that the women of Genoa were bound by law to wear a dress of plain cloth, but that their under-garments were of the richest silks, and shoes and hose were costly details. The sketch on page 59 shows an Italian lady under attractive conditions, with a stomacher and collar traced with a raised design of gold outlined with pearls, and puffed sleeves tied with ribbons tagged with metal; and, covering her hair, is a close coif edged with pearls. Italian also are the two heads illustrated, lace and jewels and ribbons being used for their adornment. The Italian gentleman wears a full-crowned cap of velvet, and a cloth coat showing slashings and collar of velvet, the lawn frill inside the collar being repeated at the wrists of the sleeves, whose detail of slashing may well be left to the imagination.

AN ITALIAN GENTLEMAN.

A SPANIARD IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Spain was faithful to the horned head-dress late into the sixteenth century; and talking of Spain, I am reminded of that illustration opposite, where asixteenth-century Spaniard is exploiting an unusual form of trunk, in cut-out cloth, showing white beneath, and buttoned with straps on to the hose. His white shirt is slashed, and from the double collar falls a tassel; tassels are pendent from the drapery of the long gold-bordered cloak, and a gold net appears beneath the characteristic cap of velvet.

A SHOULDER-JACKET.

The picture on page 64 of Maximilian of fame shows him brave in upstanding felt hat, encircled with flaunting feathers, and beneath this a striped scarf is bound round his head, and the monstrous sleeves have slashings of colour. Tassels dangle from the scarf beneath the chin and over either ear, and bold bows assert themselves above one knee, and claim their right to hold the folds of his sash in front.

A sixteenth-century sacque coat in its original sin—or grace—appears illustrated on the left, with sleeves slashed and the armholes bearing padded rolls on the top. The inner vest has a high collar boned to stand out at the back, and the helmet-shapedhat is trimmed with bands of braid buttoned with gold, with two feathers waving at one side.

THE CAPE WITH BUTTONED SLEEVE.

Another edition of the helmet-shaped hat, far less successful, however, in the interests of beauty, decorates the right-hand figure, which bears round the neck a wonderful ruff, and gives a capital idea of a strange form of cape buttoned down the sleeve, gathered slightly in the process, and bordered with a band of plain colour.

MAXIMILIAN.

Fair and sweet looks the maiden on page 58 beneath the kilted frill of her cap, and her littlebodice shows her chemisette of white lawn tied in front with small bows.

"I will ruffle it with the best of them" was distinctly the determination of the valiant queen who smiles upon you on page 56. Lace forms her huge collar and her pendent lappets, and tightly round her throat sits a lace ruffle; an audacious feather stands rampant on top of her crown, and beneath this is a cap bordered with jewels, curved at one side to allow a good view of her curled head, where the flat cap of jewels holds a golden pendant in the centre of her forehead.

Far more demure are the ruffle and cap which appear on page 55 beneath the closely-hooded mantle, and severity marks the net and lace of the dame whose hair is entwined with pearls; and a typical Medici collar of lace is elaborately wired to form a frame to the fair head, upon which jewels and feathers alike disport themselves.

In this century fashion was playing the woman who often varies, and La Bruyère in reviewing the situation says: "A fashion has no sooner supplanted some other fashion than its place is taken by a new one, which in turn makes way for the next, and so on; such is the feebleness of our character. While these changes are taking place a century has rolled away, relegating all this finery to the dominion of the past." And writing in the twentieth century, I can see some satisfaction in that.

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Familiarity has bred respect, even affection, for the typical costume of Charles I.'s reign, and that unfortunate monarch himself, depicted by Van Dyck in sombre coat and lace collar, is amongst the dear intimacies of our daily life. Sir Peter Lely, who followed on the footsteps of Van Dyck, left many modish records of his time, and though he has been rated for dressing his nymphs in inappropriate extravagances of fringes and embroidery, he undoubtedly clothed lovely woman with an excellent fantasy, bestowing height and grace by the length and simple disposition of his drapery. Mignard, the French artist, also wrote a page in fashion's history in his paintings of the Court ladies as Madonnas; covering the vanities of the sinner with the mantle of the saint, he was much sought after for his pains.

The main features of feminine costume in Charles I.'s reign may be realised in recalling the dresses which have so often appeared to delight us in the various presentations of stage plays of his period; the bodice is tight, the basque square and tabbed, and round the waist are a few folds of silk fastened into a rosette in the front; thelace collar falls from the neck to the shoulders in deep points, and the ringleted hair bears a ribbon rosette, or is surmounted by a plumed hat.

A FEATHER AND A CHICKEN-SKIN FAN.

Henrietta, Queen of Charles I., is accredited with the introduction of female labour for clothing the outer woman, and from her day mantle-making ranked among female occupations. But the tailor still ruled supreme, and though the sex of the milliner was the more sympathetic, it was left to the next century to popularise feminine services.

The farthingale extended its circumference in the reign of James I., when much effort was taken to suppress it, for the King declared it occupied more room at his court than he himself. The ruff flourished, but less obtrusively than in the preceding reigns, and in its place was adopted what was known as a fall, a loose band overhanging the top of a wide collar starched and frilled at the base—a fancy some merry writer of the period noted with the epigram:

A question 'tis why women wear a fall?The truth on't is, to pride they're given all,And pride, the proverb says, will have a fall.

A question 'tis why women wear a fall?

The truth on't is, to pride they're given all,

And pride, the proverb says, will have a fall.

With the farthingale were worn long sleeves, lace coifs, and fluted basques, and stomachers; and later the long sleeves were replaced by those reaching the elbow, made in puffs tied with bows or tightly fitting and bordered with frills. Beneath the panier of the full skirt, which was trimmed with many bands of gold and embroidery, appeared a frilled apron, and the bodices were high at the back, and cut square in front, and over the shoulders was worn a scarf. Muffs were indispensable, and heads were decorated in monstrous disproportion.

A FULL APRON.

The kings' favourites in France influenced dress by their caprices, which made to some extent for beauty, not conspicuously evident when thefontangeshead-decoration was in vogue. This was a polyglot erection which owed its birth to the fact that the famous beauty, losing her hat one day in the hunting-field, tied her hair with her garter. Thefontangesextended its glories to a framework of wire half a yard in height, which was divided into several tiers, each being covered with a different material; ribbon, chenille, pearls, flowers, and muslin were all brought into service, and beneath these a cluster of curls fell on the forehead. Each tier might take a different name, and amongst these, duke, cabbage, cat, organ-pipe,and mouse were chosen with as much rhyme as reason. But the christening of fashions was a common habit, and when Paris was reduced to misery by the Ligue, and depression was written large upon the dress, which, cut square and heavy in style, bore about it a suggestiveness of architecture, colours were distinguished by such quaint names as "Dying Monkey," "The Sick Spaniard," etc. Like the girl in some comic opera, "I wonder why?"

Mlle. de Ninon and Mesdames de Montespan and de Maintenon each inspired the names of a coiffure, a crown, and a cap, the last lady giving its title to a head-dress in the form of a scarf entwining a helmet. The battle of Steinkirk stood sponsor to a cravat and to a three-cornered fichu trimmed with gold and silver fringes; and the "Ninon" coiffure was parted in the front and flowed in curls at either side, the back being held by a ribbon.

No such distinction was gained by the English "mistresses" and maids of honour, whose names and escapades were legion; nor did they seek much individuality in their clothes, confident that the fashions prevailing were sufficient to excite the envy of the one sex and the admiration of the other; yet Lady Castlemaine, Miss Hamilton, Miss Warmestre, Miss Jennings, Miss Temple, Miss Price, Miss Stewart, and all the rest of the merry gang, were slaves of the mirror, and the joys of the masquerade were high in their favour, and for this no costume was too extravagantly absurd or too absurdly extravagant to obtain their satisfaction.

THE LACE COMMODE.

The distinguishing feature of fashion was the lace commode, which prevailed ubiquitously; itssimplest charms are easily realised by the pictures on these pages, where, too, are evident examples of thechopineand the clogs, whosepas de fascinationwere executed under such disadvantages. High heels were conspicuous everywhere, but it was left to Italy to have the honour of popularising the most ridiculous fashion of thechopinesor stilted clogs, which asserted themselves at different heights, mostly outrageous, beneath a covering of gauffered leather, a commodity which looks like the modern poker-work. The idea of thechopineswas imported from Turkey to Italy and thence to England, where, however, it is well to mention, it received but the scantiest consideration. The height of thechopinesserved to indicate rank, and some were of such monstrous inconvenience that they necessitated their wearer being supportedon either side while she walked. Every conceivable device was sought for the decoration of the shoes, and a frenzy of extravagance broke out in buckles of gold, silver, paste, and diamonds.

CLOGS AND CHOPINES.

Charles II., from long residence in France, had much sympathy with fashion, which was beloved of men and women, who patronised the lace collar, the muff, the fanciful buttons, and feathers with equal enthusiasm. The sexes, too, shared a love for curls and the hats of broad brims, whose flopping habits proved so inconvenient that they were turned up first at one side and then at the other, and lastly at the back, when they developed into the well-loved cocked hat. Hat-bands were prominently important, made either of cord in silver or gold or silk, and glorified by the addition of jewels for the gay and witty Duke of Buckingham, who changed his love as often as his coat, and showed a prodigal appreciation of the arts of gallantry and costume. He led many of the fashions for men, and added to these a conspicuous number of ribbons, buckles, and cravats. He spared his friends neither his wit nor his money, and Dryden epitomised his fall: "He had his jest, while they had his estate."

Two manufactures which were accorded prominent attention in these times were the linen and button manufactures, the former being made from the yarn obtained in Ireland, while for the latter, inspiration came from various parts of the Continent. Steel, brass and copper, and jet were used to make these buttons, and their value is quoted from 3d. to 140 guineas per gross. Fairholt, writing on the subject, says: "Buttons were made sometimes like a picture, the back dark, upon which, in various degrees of relief, were placed in ivory or bone, figures and flowers. Others showed elegant patterns in white upon gilt, and many most tasteful appeared on Court suits, these being made of mother-of-pearl or ivory, the centre embellished with patterns in gilt."

Muslin came generally into use under such flimsy conditions that it was described by some writer as costing "some 30s. per yard, and being but the shadow of a commodity when procured." India was the happy hunting-ground for muslins till Flanders and Germany took up its cause and, in the eighteenth century, Bolton and Glasgow granted it special attention.

Elegance characterised many of the prevailing modes, which encouraged a conspicuous simplicity, when the superabundance of jewellery and most elaborate trimmings decreased to some extent, and a simple string of pearls was worn round the neck, and the studiednégligébecame the highest expression of coquetry. The hair was curled into ringlets, and amidst these nestled a single rose or a chaplet of pearls; and at the sides it was slightly puffed over the ears, with some support of pad or wire to secure its righteous bearing.

A MOB-CAP.

Women of the lower classes wore muslin caps with ribbons twisted round them, but what lovely hats were obtainable by the wealthy! Above the long ringlets huge plumes waved over a hat of straw, or the velvet cap would be covered with feathers. Hair-dressing was a fine art, and many were the styles in which the ringlets were treated; they would be cut to graduated lengths, short in front and long at the back, or would only obtain at each side of the face and round the neck, the main portion of hair being drawn up on the top; or the hair was cut rather short, and curled over the head, while black ribbons and pearls decorated it.

The cultivation of beauty was earnest and intelligent, and all ladies of high degree owned amongst their retinue starchers and brushers, and the position of patches had a political significance according to the opinions of the fair patched. The patch, by the way, was brought into fame about 1655; though, owing its first existence to the times of the Romans, it cannot conscientiously claim this to be the date of its birth.

The house coats and gowns and petticoats were quilted, and being made of silk from Japan, China, and Persia and trimmed with Flemish lace, may be freely granted a cosmopolitan sympathy. An attractive description of a dress of this time tells of a musk-coloured silk shot with silver, with trails of silver flowers, trimmed with white bone lace, whose importation from foreign lands excited the displeasure of Charles II. Lace was a triumphant feature, being indispensable for the commodes, the frilled cravats, and the collars. It was useful alike to men and women, and beautiful specimens of lace were enriched with gold and silver under the auspices of Venice and Spain. Mazarin had, in endeavouring to stay the popular greed for lace, caused a small social revolution, and the French bought lace from England. Colbert was wiser in his generation, for he set up a factory at Alençon, and Brussels and Mechlin devoted themselves assiduously and most successfully to lace.

Amongst the vain efforts of an earlier period in France was one to kill fashion, whose reckless prodigality had been voted insupportable, and like to bring ruin to the people. A contemporary print shows the funeral of fashion, the design being of fashion led by four women and followed by a crowd of workpeople, while a sarcophagus in the background bears the following epitaph:—

Here lies under this picture, for having deserved it,Fashion, which caused so much madness in France.Death has put superfluity to death,And will soon revive abundance.

Here lies under this picture, for having deserved it,

Fashion, which caused so much madness in France.

Death has put superfluity to death,

And will soon revive abundance.

But Louis XIV. was so appreciative of the charms of costume that he would distribute all materials, silks and satins and brocades, to his courtiers, and exercise some jurisdiction over the way these were to be made. Painting on silk and satin was amongst the novelties of his reign, but embroidery still held the affections of the prodigal, and at a fête at Vaux, Mlle. de la Vallière is recorded to have worn a gown of white with golden stars and leaves in Persian stitch, and a blue sash tied in a large knot upon her bosom, while her fair waving hair, entwined with flowers and pearls, fellin profusion about her neck and shoulders, and her gloves were of cream-coloured lace. A gold dress embroidered with gold is also included in the chronicles, and there were double borders of gold and silver to many of the under-skirts, which were made of silk or satin with a long train which was carried over the left arm. Bodices were trimmed with galon, ribbon, and lace, and Madame de Sévigné writes of the "transparent gown," whose descendant lives to-day in our lace and jet frocks over tissue.

GLOVE WITH JEWELLED GAUNTLET.

The Duchess of Bourgogne showed her nice taste in a gown of silver tissue with gold flowers outlined with orange and green, and again in a grey damask bordered with silver; and the same record tells of a mantilla of gold Spanish point lace, and of a coat and skirt of cloth of silver laced with silver, and worn with diamonds and rubies. "All werry capital," as Sam Weller might have observed, had he only heard of them.

Amongst the desirable and the desired was a blue camlet waistcoat embroidered and fringed with silver. Spanish broadcloth of the very finest description was dedicated to waistcoats and to the hunting and riding costumes which were as much masculine as feminine, and mainly picturesque, with small rapiers to emphasise the manly tone. All hats were feathered, and the cravats frilled, a state of affairs which excited comment from that irrepressible critic Pepys, who granted it small admiration when he wrote: "Walking in the galleries at White Hall I find the ladies of honour dressed in their riding garbs with coats and doublets and deep skirts,just for all the world like mine, and buttoned their doublets up to the breast, with periwigs and hats, so that only for a long petticoat dragging under their men's coats nobody could take them for women in any point whatever. It was an odd sight, and a sight which did not please me."

A RIDING COSTUME.

But Pepys, in his immortal diary, did not pay proper respect to fashion. He commented on the clothes of the ladies, it is true, but he showed a lamentable vagueness, if not careless indifference, about their details. Doubtless his notes on dress were quite satisfying to his masculine mind, but I find them practically useless in assuaging the deepest emotions of feminine curiosity. However, I know from him and other sources that Nell Gwynn, the careless slattern, wore a cart-wheel hat when delivering a prologue in a play, and furthermore that she "looked pretty" on one occasion when Pepys passed her as she stood at her lodging door in "smock-sleeves and a bodice,"whatever such description might please to mean. Colours, shapes, and materials this inimitable gossip ignored as unimportant; yet it may be written down to his credit that he confessed he was moved when he saw Lady Castlemaine's smocks and linen petticoats hanging out to dry in the Privy garden at White Hall, laced with the richest lace at the bottom which ever he saw, and he vows, "they did me good to look at them"; and so much may we count for grace, even though I sigh to think of the number of tucks and gaugings he failed to mention.

It is to be hoped that, after that painful interview with the riding garb of the ladies at White Hall, he turned the other way and went back to the Privy garden and his joyful contemplation of Lady Castlemaine's under-wear.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Marie Stuart shares with Madame de Pompadour the honour of standing godmother to fashions which will be known through the ages by their names. The former luckless lady will ever be associated with that coif which is pointed in the front, and curves at either side, while the latter stands eternal sponsor to the rolled coiffure which turns back from the face over a high pad. There may perhaps be other glories better worth attainment, but nobody respectfully imbued with the importance of dress can venture to assert that these ladies lived in vain.

IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

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And in a minor degree their privilege has been shared by others. The art of Gainsborough and of Watteau has immortalised a hat, a pleat, and a flowered sac; Madame du Barry has a special shade of pink consecrated to her memory; the lace collar which expands round the shoulders had at its christening no less a person than Catherine de Medici; and Napoleon gave his name to a hat. Of the more modern garments I could take as examples the cardigan, a waistcoat of wool named after a noble lord; and I could recall that another noble lord, one Spencer, introduced a short woollenjacket; and that the great general Garibaldi is responsible for the loose shirt with open collar; and that a peculiar kind of open-sleeved bed-jacket, known as the nightingale, is sacred to the heroic efforts of that devoted nurse who did such splendid duty at the Crimea.

MADAME DE POMPADOUR.

Madame de Pompadour represented in her century everything that was most beautiful, most desirable, and most alluring, and she played her part as pioneer of fashion with a fierce, reckless enthusiasm, and, from the crown of her rolled hair to the tip of her embroidered shoes, expressed conclusively the prodigal and the pretty. Upon her feet she bestowed considerable attention, and narrow pointed shoes were amongst her innovations;she would have them decked with every conceivable conceit, and kick her red heels in defiance of public opinion. A pair of her shoes are even now kept in the Museum at Cluny, and these are embroidered in a design of green foliage, outlined with silver, clasped with silver buckles glittering with old paste. Fans also were amongst her weaknesses; she had these of every size and shape, with long handles which could not be folded, and mounts of carved and decorated ivory, some of her Chinese fans being worth a small fortune.

Mrs. Delany's letters may be the foundation for a liberal education in the art of costume as practised in England in the eighteenth century, and her description of Lady Huntingdon's dress at a Court ball is as vivid as remarkable, reflecting at once credit on the Boswell and the inspiration:—

Her petticoat was of black velvet embroidered with chenille, the pattern a large stone vase filled with ramping flowers, which spread almost over the breadth of the petticoat from the top to the bottom; between each vase of flowers was a pattern of gold shells and foliage embossed and most heavily rich. The gown was white satin embroidered also with chenille mixed with gold, no vase on the sleeve, but two or three on the tail; it was a most laboured piece of finery, the pattern much properer for a stucco staircase than the apparel of a lady.

She also writes the description of a dress she is going to wear at the wedding of Princess Anne (George II.'s eldest daughter) and Prince William of Nassau and Orange in 1734:—

I have got my wedding garment ready; 'tis a brocaded lute-string white ground, with great ramping flowers in shades of purples, reds, and greens. I gave thirteen shillings a yard: which looks better than it describes, and it will make a show. I shall wear it with dark purple and gold ribbon, and a black hood for decency's sake.

And again she describes:

The Princess of Orange's dress was the prettiest thing that ever was seen—acorps de robe—that is, in plain English, a stiff bodied gown. The eight peers' daughters that held up her train were in the same sort of dress, all white and silver, with great quantities of jewels in their hair and long locks; some of them very pretty and well-shaped, it is a most becoming dress. The Princess wore a mantua and petticoat, white damask with the finest embroidery of rich embossed gold. On one side of her head she had a green diamond of vast size, the shape of a pear, and two pearls prodigiously large that were fastened to wires and hung loose in her hair; on the other side small diamonds prettily disposed; her ear-rings, necklace, and bars to her stays all extravagantly fine, presents of the Prince of Orange to her.

In the same letter she says: "The Queen commended my clothes."

In the reign of Louis XV. the English borrowed all their fashions from France. The beautiful Austrian, Marie Antoinette, came in a blaze of splendour to charm and astonish every one, and the loveliest ladies of her Court, headed by her friend the Princess de Lamballe, vied with her in inaugurating a reign of costume which was to have been "roses, roses all the way." Alas, however, thorns made themselves felt only too soon. In her early days the Queen seemed to have no care save that noble lover of hers and her dressmaker; and she studied the minor details of the etiquette of her Court so assiduously that we have the amusing history of her disrobing, surrounded by a bevy of ladies, each taking their turn in handing their royal mistress her chemise.

Marie Antoinette's delicate beauty called for pale colours, and green and pink and puce were amongst the favoured tones, the last mentioned taking its name from no more attractive source than the back of a flea. Her earlier dresses displayed stiff pointed bodices with stomachers, held with little tied bows of velvet, and paniers bunched liberally on the hips to show the under-dress of lace, bordered with flounces, headed and festooned with roses. Thedécolletagewas square, and the elbow sleeves had frills of lace.

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