CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



on the back of the hand. Throwing down a glove 

 became a challenge of defiance to single combat, 

 according to the etiquette of these partially bar- 

 barous ages. From being worn only by kings, 

 archbishops, courtiers, and knights, gloves made 

 of various material? gradually became a portion of 

 ordinary dress. 



In the course of the thirteenth century, the 

 sumptuousness of apparel increased ; rich silks 

 woven with gold, embroidered and fringed, and 

 French velvets, were much used ; and a rich stuff 

 manufactured in the Cyclades was made into a 

 dalmatica or super-tunic, called Cyclas, which was 

 worn by both sexes. The furs of ermines, martens, 

 squirrels, the vair, and the minevair or minever, 

 were added to the list of furs for winter garments. 



The general male dress consisted of the cyclas 

 just mentioned, and the tunic ; but the principal 

 novelty is the super-totus, or Qverall, worn like 

 the mantle or cloak, and consisting of a kind of 

 large-sleeved shirt, with a capuchon. Long-toed 

 shoes and boots were resumed, with embroidery 



and colours. 

 The female 



costume differed in fashion and 



name, rather than in form, from that of the twelfth 

 century. The veils were of gold tissue or superbly 

 embroidered silk, and over them was worn a 

 diadem, circlet, or garland, or a caplike coronet, 

 by persons of rank, and sometimes a round hat. 

 The head-dresses were very numerous. The 

 wimple covered the head and shoulders, and was 

 fastened under the chin ; and the hair was worn 

 in a net or caul of gold-thread, which continued 

 in fashion for the next two centuries. A very 

 ugly kind of wimple, called the gorget, appeared 

 in the thirteenth century ; it was a neck-covering, 

 poked up by pins above the ears. The long 

 robe was also worn trailing on the ground ; the 

 cloth stockings were embroidered with gold ; and 

 trinkets of gold, as buckles, rings, ear-rings, and 

 chaplets, and jewels, were much worn. In this 

 century, too, we first meet with the surcol, which 

 Strutt calls a corset, bodice, or stays, worn over 

 the rest of the dress, which enlarged in the skirt, 

 and spread into a train ; it was made high in the 

 neck, and had long tight sleeves. 



The dress of the working-classes may be sup- 

 posed to have been improved about this period by 

 the introduction of the worsted manufacture : it is 

 stated to have been brought to the country by a 

 colony of Flemings, who in the reign of Henry II. 

 settled at Worsted, a village in Norfolk ; hence 

 the name of the fabric. 



Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. 



We now come to the fourteenth century, in 

 which Edward III. and his queen Philippa led the 

 fashion in apparel As seen from the effigy on 

 his tomb, the costume of Edward is characterised 

 by its dignified simplicity. The dalmatica is low 

 in the neck, falls in straight folds to the feet, 

 and is open in front nearly half its height, being 

 embroidered at the edges of the aperture; the 

 sleeves of the under-tunic have at each wrist a 

 row of buttons, a fashion of the reign of Edward 

 III.; the mantle, embroidered at the edges, is 

 worn over the shoulders, and confined by a 

 jewelled band across the breast; the shoes or 

 buskins are also embroidered, and the hair and 

 beard are patriarchal ; the crown has been re- 

 moved or lost. The effigv of Queen Philippa, also 



792 



at Westminster, is equally distinguished by 

 simplicity ; the skirt is long and full, the bodice 

 closely fitting, the waist-belt jewelled, and the 

 mantle ornamented on the shoulders, and con- 

 fined by a diagonal band across the breast ; and 

 upon the head is a low crown, jewelled, and from 

 it depends a kind of draped ornament half-way 

 down the cheek. The costume of the nobles in this 

 reign was, however, far less simple than that of the 

 sovereign. In place of the long robe and tunic, 

 was worn a close-fitting body-garment (jupon), 

 superbly embroidered, reaching to the middle of 

 the thigh, and confined across the hips by a splen- 

 did belt ; from the sleeves of this garment hung 

 long slips of cloth, called tirippes (tippets) ; and 

 over the whole was occasionally worn a long 

 mantle, fastened by buttons upon the right shoulder. 

 This dress was, however, the extreme of foppery. 

 The caps were of various shapes, and among them 

 we find the knight's chapeau, nearly in the form 

 now used in heraldry. Beaver hats were also 

 worn ; but the greatest novelty was a single feather 

 in the front of the cap. The golden chaplets, by 

 the addition of leaves, now assumed the form of 

 coronets. The gay tournaments of this period led 

 to the introduction of many costly foreign fashions ; 

 so that, in 1363, expensive dress, beyond the in- 

 come or rank of the wearer, was forbidden by law ; 

 furs of ermine and pearl ornaments (except for 

 head-dress) were forbidden to all but the royal 

 family and the wealthiest nobles ; cloths of gold 

 and silver were permitted only to the next in for- 

 tune ; and persons of small income were forbid- 

 den to wear silks, embroidery, or trinkets. But 

 the ladies dressed still more sumptuously, as in 

 the engraving, where the gown fits close in the 

 bodice, and the train is so long in the front as 

 to be held up, and thus display the embroidered 

 under-dress ; the sleeveless jacket worn over the 

 gown is also embroidered and trimmed with fur ; 

 the hair is worn long, and the cap is low, and 

 resembles a coronet. Tippets from short sleeves, 

 and the jupon, were also worn by ladies as well 

 as by gentlemen ; and both sexes wore daggers 

 stuck through pouches in their rich girdles. In 

 this reign, mourning habits appear to have been 

 first worn, the colours being black and brown. 



The reign of Richard II. must have been the 

 high carnival of coxcombry. The sovereign him- 

 self, according to Holinshed, had a coat or robe 

 which cost 30,000 merks. Party-coloured dresses 

 were universally worn ; and even the hose were of 

 two colours, so as to render the term a. pair inap- 

 plicable : the colours of the king and his court 

 were white and red. Men and women alike wore 

 hoods set with jewels ; and their tippets were 

 jagged, and reached to the heels ; and the long- 

 peaked shoes, called crackowes (from Cracow, in 

 Poland), were fastened to the knees with gold and 

 silver chains. The following engraving shews a 

 gentleman of this period, with shoes and hose all 

 in one, the mantle cut into the shape of leaves at 

 the edges, a belt and pouch, and a fantastically 

 turbaned head-covering. Chaucer has left us the 

 costume of several ranks at this period : his squire 

 wears a short gown, 'with sleeves long and wide ;' 

 his yeoman, ' a cote and hoode of grene ;' his 

 merchant, many colours, with a forked beard, and 

 a ' Flaundrish beaver hat,' and clasped boots ; the 

 reeve or steward, a long surcoat and rusty sword, 

 his beard and head shaven and shorn ; the miller 



its 



