CLOTHING COSTUME. 



Christ's Hospital ; and their blue coat and yellow 

 stockings are such as were worn by the London 

 apprentices at the date of the foundation of the 

 hospital by the youthful Edward. The gown of 

 the wealthier classes was furred with sables in 

 front and round the broad sleeves. Philip, on his 

 marriage with Mary, brought into England a 

 richer style of dress for the men, particularly the 

 close ruff ; the doublet, which fitted exactly under 

 the chin, and the short Spanish cloak all of 

 which remained for a considerable time in fashion, 

 The preposterously large stocks, or trunk-hose, 

 continued to be worn, but the broad-toed shoes 

 were discarded. The armour continued nearly 

 the same as in the preceding reign. To female 

 costume the chief addition was the farthingale, an 

 immense hooped petticoat, introduced from Spain 

 under Queen Mary. The entire dress was worn 

 very close, so as to conceal the person as much as 

 possible. 



Queen Elizabeth's fondness for dress is well 

 known ; she is stated to have left three thousand 

 different habits in her wardrobe. This great 

 number is explained by the royal affectation of 

 wearing by turns the costume of all the nations of 

 Europe, which may be traced to the use of foreign 

 materials made up by foreigners. Bohun tells us 

 that ' when she appeared in public she was richly 

 adorned with the most valuable clothes, set off 

 again with much gold and jewels of inestimable 

 value ; and on such occasions she even wore high 

 shoes, that she might seem taller than indeed she 

 was. The first day of the parliament she would 

 appear in a robe embroidered with pearls, and 

 tipon her head she had a small crown. She was 

 dressed in white silk, bordered with pearls of the 

 size of beans, and over it a mantle of black silk, 

 shot with silver threads. Her train was very long. 

 Instead of a chain, she had an oblong collar of 

 gold and jewels.' 



But the glory of the Elizabethan era of female 

 costume, as well as its most remarkable charac- 

 teristic in the sixteenth century, was the ruff 

 of plaited linen or cambric, which now became 

 superb, and rose from the front of the shoulders 

 behind the head nearly to its full height ; from 

 the bosom descended a huge stomacher, on each 

 side of which projected the immense farthingale. 

 In this characteristic costume Elizabeth went to 

 St Paul's Cathedral to return thanks for the defeat 

 of the Spanish Armada; though, besides the 

 magnificent ruff, the queen wore a mantle with a 

 large wing-like collar, her hair intertwined with 

 pearls, large pendent jewels on the neck, and a 

 superb lattice-work of pearls over the entire dress. 



The ruff must, however, be further noticed : no 

 sooner had its material been changed from hoi- 

 land to lawn or cambric, than a difficulty arose as 

 to starching or stiffening it, instead of the clumsy 

 mode of supporting it by poking-sticks of ivory, 

 wood, or gilt metal. At length the art of starching 

 was brought from Flanders, and taught in London 

 for a fee of four or five pounds. The fashion next 

 lay in the colour of the starch, of which there were 

 five varieties. 



Stockings, which we find mentioned as foreign 

 rarities in the wardrobe accounts of Henry VI 1 1. 

 and Edward VI. became common of home manu- 

 facture in the reign of Elizabeth. In the third 

 year a pair of black knit silk stockings, made in 

 England, was presented to her majesty, who 



was so pleased with the article, that she would 

 never after wear cloth hose. This resolution has 

 been attributed to Elizabeth's desire to encourage 

 English manufactures by her own example, and 

 may be taken as some set-off to her extreme fond- 

 ness for foreign materials and fashions of dress. 

 Soon after this, a City apprentice, having borrowed 

 a pair of knit worsted stockings brought from 

 Mantua, made a pair like them, which he pre- 

 sented to the Earl of Pembroke ; and these are 

 the first worsted stockings known to have been knit 

 in England. Mary Queen of Scots, at her execu- 

 tion, wore stockings of blue worsted, clocked and 

 topped with silver, and under them another pair 

 of white ; and the stockings of this time generally 

 consisted of silkjarnsey, worsted, crewel, fine yarn, 

 thread, or cloth, of all colours, and with clocks, 

 open seams, &c. The invention of the stocking- 

 frame by Lee at Calverton, near Nottingham, in 

 1599, must have brought stockings into general 

 use: he or his brother is said to have worked 

 for Queen Elizabeth ; but he was driven by the 

 jealousy of the other stocking-manufacturers into 

 France, where he died of a broken heart an end 

 by no means uncommon in the lives of inventors. 



The garters of this age were very costly, some- 

 times of gold or silver, and four or five pounds a 

 pair; they are presumed to have been worn by 

 ladies since the time of Edward II.; but they must 

 not be confounded with the leg-bandages of an 

 earlier date. The ladies wore 'cocked shoes, 

 prisnets, pantofles, or slippers,' which raised them 

 two inches or more from the ground : these were 

 made of black, white, green, or yellow velvet, or 

 Spanish and English leather, embroidered with 

 gold, silver, or silk, and shaped after the right and 

 left foot, like the Anglo-Saxon sandal The Eliza- 

 bethan head-dresses were French hoods, hats, 

 caps, kerchiefs, cauls of net-wire, and lattice caps 

 the last, as well as an ermine bonnet, being 

 forbidden by law to all but 'gentlewomen born, 

 having arms.' In Elizabeth's jewel-box is a long 

 list of wigs, or rather head-dresses, among which 

 are cauls of hair set with seed-pearl and gold 

 buttons. The hair was curled, frizzled, and 

 crisped, and under-propped with pins and wires 

 into the most fantastic forms. The finger-rings, 

 earrings, bracelets, and other jewellery, were very 

 splendid : velvet masks and pocket looking-glasses 

 were carried by fashionables, with fans of ostrich 

 feathers set in gold, silver, or ivory handles the 

 last introduced from Italy, and used by both 

 sexes. 



The male costume in Elizabeth's reign was the 

 large trunk hose, long-waisted doublet, short cloak, 

 hat, band, and feather, shoes with roses, and t he- 

 large ruff; but the great breeches, 'stuffed with 

 hair like woolsacks,' after the separation of the 

 hose into this garment and stockings, appc.i 

 have been worn throughout the reign : they were 

 made of silk, velvet, sat ; n, and damask. The 

 doublets were still more costly, and quilted and 

 stuffed, 'slashed, jagged, pinched, and laced ;' and 

 over these were worn coats and jerkins in as many 

 varieties as there are days in the year. The 

 cloaks were of the Spanish, French, and Dutch 

 cuts, of cloth, silk, velvet, and taffeta of all 

 colours, trimmed with gold, silver, and silk lace 

 and glass bugles, inside and outside equally 

 superb. The stockings, shoes, slippers, and ruffs 



resembled those of the ladies. 



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