By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



275 



nineteenth century — at perfect liberty to insist that the costume 

 which he is ordering, shall, at all events bear a comfortable pro- 

 portion to his person : shall allow ample space and verge enough, 

 for sitting down and rising up. If he is not a " stout party :" 

 still, if he prefers to let the world suppose that he is, and thinks 

 it more graceful or more ornamental to envelope a slender form in 

 extravagant and voluminous habiliments, the " Liberty of the 

 Subject " allows him to do so. 



These are our modern notions : but it was not so always : and in 

 the records of the Corporation, there is a document which shows 

 that in former days, the Crown thought it not beneath its notice 

 actually to interfere in such matters. It forbade " Outrageous 

 Hose." 



The document alluded to is one by which a tailor in Chip- 

 penham was bound in 1566, in a penalty of £20, not to make 

 gentlemen's hose beyond a certain size. 



Before you can understand precisely what that means, it is 

 necessary to explain what the hose of that reign was. 



We know of course pretty well what we mean by hose now-a- 

 days. We mean that particular article of covering which helps to 

 make our walking apparatus comfortable. We have long hose and 

 short hose, silk, cotton, and worsted hose, lamb's wool, Shetland, 

 and all the rest of it. 



In former days, hose meant a great deal more. What we 

 now call pantaloons (or trowsers), and stockings, were all in one: 

 either woven, or made of cloth, or other material. But from the 

 waist down to the feet, the two (pantaloons and stockings) formed 

 one close fitting dress: such for instance (barring colours) as Har- 

 lequin appears in on the stage. How they got into such things we 

 may perhaps imagine. But how they got out again, especially after 

 a soaking rain; well, — that was their business, not ours. 



[A drawing was here exhibited of a gentleman in the long close- 

 fitting hose of the reign of King Edw. IV-] 



But this fashion changed. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth — 

 perhaps before that time, but certainly in that reign, this long 

 body-and-leg hose underwent a change. It was divided: the legs 



VOL. XII. NO. XXXVI. X 



