ANCIENT DRESS OF THE ENGLISH. 175 



from the phosphuret of sulphur, to which the inflammability of the 

 mixture presented great obstacles. After several attempts more or 

 less unsuccessful, M. Gannal determined to filter the whole through 

 a chamois skin, which he afterwards placed under a glass bell, 

 taking care from time to time to renew the air at the end of a month 

 this skin becoming capable of being handled without inconvenience 

 it was doubled up, washed and dried. For the first time M. Gannal, 

 was then enabled to examine the crystallized substance which re- 

 mained on its surface. Exposed to the sun's rays, this substance 

 presented numerous crystals, reflecting all the colours of the rain- 

 bow. Twenty of them were each large enough to be taken up on 

 the point of a penknife ; and three others were of the size of a grain 

 of millet. These last having been submitted to the inspection of an 

 experienced jeweller in Paris, were pronounced by him to be real 

 diamonds!! ! A M. Delatour stated that he had also produced 

 the diamond by a different process. 



DRESS OF THE INHABITANTS OF ENGLAND AT 

 THE CLOSE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 



THE habits of fashionable people, at the close of the fifteenth age, 

 were truly fantastical . A petticoat hung over the loins ; a long 

 doublet, laced over a stomacher, covered the fore part of the body : 

 and the wide sleeved mantle, like a woman's gown, fell over the 

 petticoat and descended to the ancles. The materials of which these 

 dresses were composed, were gay and costly, (such as silks and vel- 

 vets, cloth of gold and silver, &c. ;) and there seems to have been a 

 real difficulty in knowing the well dressed man from the woman. 

 This puzzle was, however, completely done away by a most absurd 

 and ludicrous fashion, imported from the continent, soon after the 

 accession of Henry VIII., a fashion which characterized the gross 

 and indecent buffoon, the monarch and the labourer, the judge and 

 the watchman. At the same time the doublet and the mantle be- 

 came shorter; and long breeches came into use, instead of the 

 petticoat. 



Some time after, the monarch increasing in dimension, the loyalty 

 of the age prescribed corpulency to the subject, and every part of 

 the male dress was stuffed with cotton or wool, that the wearer 

 might emulate the bulk of the sovereign. 



The fantastic variety of habits in the sixteenth century, was hu- 

 mourously satirized by Dr. Andrew Borde, a burlesque poet of that 

 period. 



