enacted that "no great ruff should be worn; nor any white colour, in doublets or hosen; nor any facing of velvet in gowns, but by such as were of the bench. That no gentlemen should walk in the streets in their cloaks, but in gowns. That no hat, or curled, or long hair, be worn, nor any gowns but such as be of a sad colour."

Dugdale remarks: "During the reign of Elizabeth several statutes were enacted for the regulation of apparel, as well as of beards, but most of them appear to relate to the members of the different inns of court. Thus we find laws against the wearing of cut or pansied hose, or bryches, and of pansied doublets, as well as against the use of light colours, of velvet caps, of scarfs, and of wings to the gowns, white jerkins, buskins, or velvet shoes; double ruffs to the skirts, feathers and ribbons in the caps."

The suit of armour formerly shewn in the Tower as Queen Elizabeth's, was composed of a helmet of Edward the Sixth's time, arm-pieces of the reign of Charles the First, and a breastplate and garde-de-rein of the age of Henry the Eighth; in short, altogether an apocryphal affair.

THE TOILETTE IN ENGLAND.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE reign of James the First is not very fertile in fashions, and that monarch did not introduce a single new one into England. He himself cared not for adorning his person; on the contrary, a love of ease and comfort seems to have banished from his mind all wish for vain attire. His usual costume was a doublet, quilted so thick that it could resist the thrust of a dagger, and his lower garments were plaited and stuffed to the utmost extent. But when out hunting, his favourite dress much resembled modern trousers. The ruff, too, was not forgotten, and he sometimes wore a hat and feather, but was highly incensed when one of his attendants wished him to wear a Spanish hat, and also with the prevailing mode of placing roses on the shoes, which he said made him look like a "ruff-footed dove."

When James I. came to the throne, there was, in the Tower wardrobe, an immense variety of dresses

of the ancient kings, but, to the great regret of persons curious in such matters, they were, on his accession, all given away.

During the reign of this monarch, the beard and whiskers were still worn; silk garters, puffed in great knots, below the knees, yellow stockings, and embroidered cloaks, were also in vogue. Now, too, the immense ruff was sometimes superseded by a wide square collar, wired and stiffened out, but not plaited; it was called a band. These bands, and also the ruffs, were stiffened with yellow starch, which was either invented by Mrs. Turner, or introduced from France under her auspices. She was hanged for murder in a yellow ruff.

The attire of the Princess Elizabeth when she espoused the Prince Palatine was very simple. She was habited in white vestments, her hair hung at full length down her back, and her only ornament was a diadem set in jewels. The author from whom we have obtained this account describes one of the suits intended for the lords sent as ambassadors to the court of France. "The cloak and hose," he says, "were of fine beaver, richly embroidered in silver and gold, particularly the cloak, within and without, nearly to the cape. The doublet was cloth of gold, embroidered so thick that it could not be discerned, and a white beaver hat, suitable, full of embroidery above and below."

Ruffs and farthingales were still much worn, and ladies now began to indulge a great predilection for foreign lace, a passion which has continued for two centuries. The strange fashion, also, of men wearing car-rings, and roses stuck in their ears, was much

followed; and though Shakspeare alludes to the use of ear-rings as if censuring its folly, in one of the portraits supposed to represent him, each ear is adorned with this effeminate ornament.

If dress did not flourish during the reign of James, it resumed all its former ascendancy under Charles the First. Many great changes were now made. The hair was worn low on the forehead, and usually not divided; the king set the fashion of a "love-lock,' which was a curl on the left side, considerably longer than the rest. Nothing in the annals of hair, of wigs, or of periwigs, ever caused such a commotion among quiet, staid people, as did this unfortunate "love-lock." A quarto volume was written against it by Mr. Prynne, called "The Unloveliness of Lovelocks." In it he mentions a nobleman who was dangerously ill, and who, terrified at the prospect of death, declared publicly, after his recovery, his detestation of his "effeminate, fantastic love-lock, which he then sensibly perceived to be but a cord of vanity, by which he had given the devil hold fast to lead him at his pleasure, and who would never resign his prey as long as he nourished this unlovely bush." He, therefore, ordered his barber to cut it off.

It does not appear that the eloquence of Mr. Prynne had much effect, except in this solitary instance; for love-locks were quite the rage for some years, which is, perhaps, the more remarkable, as beards were beginning to go out of fashion.

Ruffs, though worn through part of this reign, were no longer so much admired; and about the time that Vandyke came to England they almost entirely disappeared, and were replaced by falling collars of

rich lace, or embroidered muslin, as may be seen in most of the portraits taken at this period. Doublets were worn slashed, embroidered, and richly ornamented, the sleeves slit open, and puffs of coloured satin let in; the points, too, that formerly hung round the waist, were now worn dangling from the

knees."

But the most extraordinary singularity of dress ever seen, either in this or any other age, was the trunk hose, now first invented. We cannot describe these "bombasted, paned hose," better than by using the words of the "Artificial Changeling." "At the time," says he, "when trunk hose came in fashion,

some young men used to stuff them so with rags and other like things, that you might find some that used such inventions to extend them in compass with certainly as great eagerness as the women of all classes did take pleasure to wear enormous, great, and stately verdingales; for this was the same affectation, being a kind of vertingale hose."

Two very ridiculous stories are told of this fashion. One, that a youth so attired,

and being distended with bran, whilst in deep conversation with some ladies, unluckily caught his sack upon a nail, when instantly all the bran escaped, and the enormous puffs became suddenly flattened. The de