Drets of the Laborers. 75 



iruences as soon ts the service in the chapel 

 is over. The men had with them their lays. 



appear to be an ill-adapted implement 

 lor taking up potatoes. 



It is difficult to conjecture where the Irish 

 have borrowed their present dress : the pride of 

 manhood, and the liope of youth, is the trusty 

 resembling a box-coat. This is the first object 

 of their ambition ; and though cumbersome, 

 unwieldly, and an impediment to every exertion, 

 it is with difliculty they are persuaded to lay it 

 aside; for with their own inclination the men 

 would always work in it, regardless of its weight 

 and incumbrance ; this covers a waistcoat or 

 jacket with sleeves ; and be the wearer ever so 

 stout or athletic, he is lost in the size of his 

 trusty. 



The present style of dress is so different from 

 that which Spencer is at so much pains to re- 

 probate, that it excites a desire to trace how 

 such a preposterous habit should have become 

 so generally adopted. 



Moryson observes, " I cannot deny that (the 



mantle) was anciently common in north coun- 



tries, and got disused and laid away. But in 



the latter ages of the world, since the decay of 



6 



