63 
Furs from Russia. 
1 0 thou dissembling cub ! what wilt thou be 
When Time hath sow’d a grizzle on thy case ? 
Or will not else thy craft so quickly grow, 
That thine own trip shall be thine overthrow ? ” 
(Twelfth Night , v. 1, 167.) 
At the period of which we write dress was regulated 
by strict sumptuary laws, according to the Furs i n 
rank or profession of the wearer. Lawyers Aii ’ ess ' 
were prohibited from wearing any fur except fox or 
lamb skin. Shakspeare has an allusion to this regula¬ 
tion,— 
“ J Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the merriest was 
put down, and the worser allowed by order of law a furred gown to 
keep him warm; and furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, 
that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.” 
{Measure for Measure , iii. 2, 10.) 
Fur was largely used as an ornament in dress by all 
classes, so much so that the importation of skins threat¬ 
ened to interfere with cloth and woollen manufacture in 
England. To encourage the sale of materials of home 
growth, restrictions were placed upon the use of foreign 
furs. According to a law passed in the reign of Queen 
Mary, no one below the rank of an earl was allowed to wear 
sable; fur of black genet, or luserne, was prohibited to 
all under the degree of knight, and no one was permitted 
to wear any fur, “whereof the like groweth not within the 
queenes dominions, except foynes, gray jenet, calaber, 
budge, outlandish hare, or fox, except he have 100 marks 
by the year.” 
Dr. Giles Fletcher was sent to Kussia as ambassador 
from Queen Elizabeth to the Czar Yasilievitch, and in 
1591 he published a full account of the manners and 
customs, commodities and government of the country. 
The internal arrangements of Russia were not sufficiently 
satisfactory to be thus exposed to the common gaze, and 
the Government despatched a remonstrance to the English 
