66 
The Animal-Lore of ShaJcspeare’s Time. 
The laws that regulated the costume of both ladies 
and gentlemen at this period were so arbitrary, 
iettice. . ,, r , .„. , l { 
that even in matters so trining as the spots 
on their fur no scope was allowed for the fancy of the 
wearer. It was ordered that none should appear in an 
ermine, or lettice-bonnet, unless she were a gentlewoman 
born, having the right to bear arms. 
u Item, a gentleman’s wife, she being a gentlewoman horn, shall 
wear an ermine or Iettice bonnet, having one powdering to the top. 
And if she be of honourable stock, to have two powderings, one before 
another in the top. Item, an esquire’s wife to have two powderings.” 
(S. Pegge, Curialia Miscellania , 1818, p. 313.) 
In other articles of dress the numbers of spots varied 
according to the wearer’s rank. A knight’s wife might 
wear seven powderings or spots, a baron’s wife thirteen, a 
viscount’s wife eighteen, a countess twenty-four, and after 
that estate as many as convenient. On the occasion of 
Anne Boleyn’s coronation the queen was followed by 
ladies— 
“ being lordes wives, which had circotes of sca^et, with narrow 
sleeves, the breast all Iettice, with barres of pouders, according to their 
degrees.” (Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elizabeth , vol. i. p. 12.) 
The word Lettice has been variously explained. By 
some authors it is considered to mean lattice, or network. 
Mr. Planche, in his Cyclopaedia of British Costume , adopts 
the explanation of Cotgrave, that it was the fur of a small 
animal of a whitish grey colour. It evidently resembled 
ermine, but it is impossible that ermines could be supplied 
in sufficient quantities for ornamenting robes on state 
occasions. In the account given in Wriothesley’s Chro¬ 
nicle of the procession of Henry VIII. to open Parliament 
in 1536, we find that the bishops were attired in— 
“ robes of scarlett furred with white lettis with hoodes of the same. 
Then my Lord Chauncelor of Englande, in his perliament robe of scar- 
