fH CRitlCAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



device suggested by gallantry, and endeavoured to outstrip each other in brilliancy 

 of appearance." 



******* 

 *' In the thirty-seventh year of this reign, A. D. 1363, the commons exhibited 

 a complaint in parUament against the general usage of expensive apparel not suited 

 either to the degree or income of the people ; and an act was passed by which 

 suitable regulations on this head were enforced with heavy penalties for their 

 infringement." 



" Caps of several shapes continue to be worn, and the knight's chapeau is 

 frequently met with in nearly its present heraldic form ; but one of the most im- 

 portant novelties in civil costume is the occasional appearance of feathers— or rather 

 a feather — for it is always single, and generally worn upright in front of the bonnet 

 or cap. Beaver hats are spoken of about this time. They were probably manu- 

 factured in Flanders, and these caps and hats were frequently worn over the capu- 

 chon. The golden chaplets or fillets round the heads of princes or princesses of the 

 blood royal begin to be surmounted with pearls or leaves about this period, and 

 assume the form of coronets, but without uniformity of pattern to distinguish the 

 particular rank." 



" The habits of the ladies of this reign were exceedingly sumptuous and extrava- 

 gant, * passing the men in all manner of arraies and curious clothing ;' and several 

 distinct fashions appear to have existed at the same period. One consisted of the 

 gown or kirtle, with tight sleeves, sometimes reaching to the wrist, sometimes only 

 to the elbow, and, in the latter case, with the same pendent streamers or tippets 

 attached to them, that we have noticed in the dress of the other sex. The gown was 

 cut rather lower in the neck, fitted remarkably close to the waist, and was occa- 

 sionally worn so long, not only in the train but in front, as to be necessarily held 

 up in walking. Another, and newer fashion, was the wearing of a sort of spencer, 

 jacket, or waistcoat, for it resembles either, or rather all three, faced and bordered 

 with furs, according to the rank of the wearer. It has sometimes sleeves reaching 

 to the wrist, at others it seems to be little more than the skeleton, if we may so 

 speak, of a garment, with long and full skirts, wanting sides as well as sleeves, or 

 at least the arm-holes cut so large that the girdle of the kirtle worn under it is visible 

 at the hips. The cote-hardie was also worn by the ladies in this reign, buttoned 

 down the front like that of the men, sometimes with tippets at the elbow, and there 

 is an appearance of pockets in some of the illuminations of this period. At the 

 tournaments and public shows the ladies rode in party-coloured tunics, one half being 

 of one colour, and the other half of another, with short hoods and liripipes (the long 

 tails or tippets of the hoods) wrapped about their heads like chords [cords.] Their 

 girdles were handsomely ornamented with gold and silver, and they wore small 

 swords, * commonly called daggers,' before them in pouches, and thus habited they 

 were mounted on the finest horses that could be procured, and ornamented with the 

 richest furniture. The fashion of wearing daggers stuck through pouches became 

 very general amongst knights and gentlemen about this period ; and we may there- 

 fore fairly presume, that the ladies then, as now, affected male attire in their riding 

 habits, with peculiar alterations, caprices of their own, which were in turn eagerly 

 caught at and imitated by the fops and gallants of the day." 



" The military habits of tliis reign present several striking novelties — amongst 

 others, the casing of the body so nearly in complete steel, that plate armour may be 

 said to commence from this period — unequivocal testimonies of the chivalric spirit of 

 the age, and the splend(jur with which it was considered incumbent and politic to 

 invest the honourable profession of arms. — The principal causes of the adoption of 

 plate armour were, according to Sir S. Meyrick, the excessive weight of the chain 

 mail, with its accompanying garments. Indeed it was so great that the knights 

 sometimes sank under it, suffocated with the heat, as well as the burden. The new 

 stx'el-back and breast-plate enabled the wearer to dispense with the hauberk and the 

 plastron, and the jupon was a much lighter and less cumbrous garment tlian either 

 tlie surcoat or cyclas. Besides, if of well-tempered metal, the plate could not be 

 pierced or pushed into the body of the knight, as the hauberk was apt to be if the 

 ganibeson or hacketon was imperfect underneath, the breast only having at that 

 time the additional protection of a steel plate. This great improvement was of 

 Italian origin. The Florentine annals give the year 1315 as the date of a new 



