The chequered trews, and belted plaid,
And varying notes the war-pipes brayed
To every varying clan;

Wild through their red, or sable hair,
Looked out their eyes, with savage stare,

On Marmion as he passed;

Their legs above the knee were bare;
Their frame was sinewy, short, and spare,
And hardened to the blast;

Of taller race, the chiefs they own
Were by the eagle's plumage known.
The hunted red deer's undressed hide
Their hairy buskins well supplied;
The graceful bonnet decked their head;

Back from their shoulders hung the plaid."

The dress of the unfortunate Mary queen of Scots is thus described in a letter to Lord Burghley: "Hir borrowed haire borne hir attire on hir head, was on this manner: she had a dressing of lawne, edged with bone lace; a pomander chaine, with an Agnus Dei about the neck; a crucifix in her hand; a payer of beads at her girdle, with a goulding crosse at the end of it; a vaile of lawne fastened to her carole, with a bowed out wire, and edged round about with a bone lace; hir gowne of black sattin prynted, with a trayne and long sleffes to the gownd, set with a range of buttons, of jett trimed with pearle, and short sleffes of purple velvet hole under them; her kirtle hole of figured sattin black; her pettycote upper body, unlaced in the back, of crymsen satten; her pettycote scirtes of crymson velvett; hir shooes of Spanysh lether, with the rough side outward; a payer of green silk garters; her nether stockings worsted coloured water set, clocked with silver; and next her legg a payer of Jarsey hose whit."

The attachment of the Highlanders to their national costume rendered it a bond of union, often dangerous to the government, and many efforts were made by the legislature after the rebellion in 1715, to disarm and oblige them to conform to Lowland dresses. Shoe-buckles were unknown among them till within the last 150 years; neckcloths, also, have only latterly been adopted, and they still retain a great affection for the ancient attire of their country.

THE

TOILETTE IN IRELAND.

CHAPTER XIV.

HE ancient dress of the Irish appears to be but little known till the twelfth century, when it is said to have been much the same as that worn by the southern Britons. After the garments of skins were discarded, the Irish adopted breeches, a cota, and a mantle, fastened, as usual, with a brooch or bodkin. Armillæ and torques were favourite ornaments among them. Giraldus Cambriensis says of the Irish in the twelfth century:

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They wear their woollen clothes mostly black, because the sheep in Ireland are in general of that colour; the dress itself is of a barbarous fashion. They

.

wear moderate close-hooded or cowled mantles, which

spread over their shoulders and reach down to the elbow, composed of small pieces of cloth, of different kinds and colours, for the most part sewed together; beneath which they have woollen phalinges, instead of a cloak, or breeches and stockings in one piece, and these generally dyed of some colour."

The mantle and brogues are two well known parts of an Irish costume. Froissart, in Richard the Second's reign, mentions

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the four Irish kings who swore allegiance to that monarch, and says that linen drawers were ordered to be made for them, and houpelands of silk, trimmed with miniver and gris. For," adds the chronicler, "formerly these Irish kings were thought to be well dressed if wrapped up in an Irish mantle." The dress of the females up to this time is but little known, but it is supposed that they wore mantles, bodkins in their hair, and various ornaments of jewels; they are said to have been very partial to long hair, and allowed it to grow lank and rough and to fall over their ears.

Fine cloth, silks, and cloth of gold, it is said, were worn by the higher ranks in the sixteenth century, and worsted and canvas materials by the lower orders. In the reign of Henry the Eighth an act was passed to prevent the Irish wearing clothes dyed of their favourite

colour, saffron; the number of yards also allowed for their garments is specified, and women are ordered not to wear dresses of the Irish fashion. This edict leads us to suppose that they had a form and shape for their garments peculiar to themselves. The yellow, or saffron colour, is often mentioned as being a very favourite hue, and one which they usually employed in dyeing their habits.

Spenser greatly censured the ancient Irish dress. He considered the cloak "a fit house for an outlaw, a meet bed for a rebel, and an apt cloke for a thief.” He also strongly objects to the custom of women wearing mantles, and mentions several articles of their dress "a linen roll which they sometimes wear upon their heads, a thick linen shirt, a long-sleeved smock, a half-sleeved coat, and silken fillet." And Camden informs us that when in Queen Elizabeth's reign the Prince of Ulster came to the English court, with his attendants, they all wore "their hair flowing in long locks upon their shoulders, and had shirts dyed with saffron; their sleeves were large, their tunics short, and their mantles jagged."

A writer of the reign of James I. says:— "Touching the mean or wild Irish, it may be truly said of them, which of old was spoken of the Germans, namely, that they wander slovenly and naked. The gentlemen, or lords of counties, wear close breeches and stockings, of the same piece of cloth, of red, or such light colour, and a loose coat, and a cloak, or a three-cornered mantle, of coarse light stuff, made at home, and their linen is coarse; and," adds the writer, "their shirts, before the last rebellion, were made of twenty or thirty ells, folded in