INTRODUCTION 



from the East. From Mosul, on the banks of 

 the Tigris, whence the material we call muslin 

 takes its name, was brought a fine silk gossamer, 

 something like our crepe de Chine. This was 

 used for the finely plaited underdress seen at the 

 neck and foot of mediaeval costume. Perhaps 

 the best representation of this, although stone 

 seems hardly the most favourable medium for 

 the delineation of so delicate a fabric, can be 

 seen in the long slim figures of the queenly ladies 

 standing in the niches on either side of the west 

 door of Chartres Cathedral. 



But when we have contemplated this gorgeous 

 and dainty apparel, and all the other personal 

 luxury that accompanied it, such as enamelled 

 and jewelled gold circlets for the head, jewelled 

 girdles with each jewel chosen for its own special 

 virtue, carved ivory combs, tablets and hand- 

 mirrors, and the like, we are forced to wonder 

 how all this refinement and beauty could go 

 hand in hand with so much that is unpleasing. 

 If we turn to consider the manners of the men, 

 we find the same contrasts on the one hand 

 the maximum of gallantry and courtesy, and on 

 the other a corresponding churlishness and 

 brutality. Metaphorically and actually, the 

 lance and the battle-axe were still rivalling each 

 other in the warfare of daily life. Although 

 the battle-axe must eventually yield to the lance, 



XXVll 



