common people when they go out throw over their heads a kind of thick veil, formed of three or four yards of stuff, and the better class of women wear camlet hoods; the latter also wear long cloaks of the same material.

The dress of the men consists of a long jacket, shaped much like those worn by the fishermen in many parts of England, breeches, shoes, and a small, square, flat cap.

The dresses anciently worn in the Netherlands seem to have been very splendid; for we read that when Jane, queen of France, the wife of Philippe le Bel, visited Bruges in the year 1301, she was much struck by the pomp and magnificence displayed by the inhabitants, particularly the ladies, and exclaimed: "What do I see! I thought I alone was queen, but here I find them by whole hundreds !"

The women of Alckmaer (which may almost be called the capital of North Holland) dress in white, and have a singular head-dress, but one that is very characteristic. A bandeau of lace is placed on the forehead, a thin plate of gold confines the hair in a semicircle at the back of the head, and terminates at each temple with a hook, which holds the curls. Over this horse-shoe coiffure is a transparent lace cap, with long lappets, which hang gracefully down the neck.

THE TOILETTE IN ITALY.

CHAPTER XXVII.

HE dress of the higher ranks in Italy is all copied from French models; though living in a land where painting and sculpture have for ages passed produced the chefsd'œuvre of the arts, they are uninfluenced by the

graceful and elegant models that surround them, and prefer following the various and volatile fashions of France.

The Roman peasant's dress is usually of a dark

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colour; the petticoat is long, the boddice laced across the bosom, the sleeves nearly tight from the shoulders to the wrist, a handkerchief pinned across the bosom, immense earrings, and a curious head-dress of white linen, which lies quite flat upon the head, and the ends hanging down upon the shoulders and back. The boddice is frequently gaily ornamented, and usually of some bright colour, different from the robe or petticoat. The hair hangs in long tresses, and the shoes have immense silver buckles.

The love of finery is very great among the Roman

women, and those that can afford

dress of the Trasteverini, who form a large portion of the population of Rome, distinguishes them from the rest of the Romans. Lady Morgan says: "The men wear a silken net on their heads, à l'Espagnole, a jacket of black velvet thrown on their shoulders, a broad crimson sash, and enormous silver shoe-buckles. The women braid their hair in silken nets, and ornament it with

silver bodkins; and in their gala habit appear in vel

vet boddices, laced with gold, silken petticoats, white and coloured (which discover feet shining with large, showy, silver buckles), and scarlet aprons.

The Massari, or rural stewards of the Roman princes, present a very picturesque appearance. The Roman ferrainolo, or mantle, is thrown over their gaunt figures with great effect; their broad hats are flapped over their eyes, and they carry a gun slung at the side, and a hunting-spear in the hand, which give them, according to Lady Morgan, an air rather military than pastoral.

The female peasantry of Terni wear a singular cuffa (a veil of embroidered linen, projected like a shade over the eyes by a piece of whalebone), showy scarlet jackets, and coloured petticoats.

Lady Morgan mentions the great resemblance between the dress of

the peasantry in parts of the pontifical states to that of the common Irish, the men being muffled to their chins in dark and ragged mantles. To use her own words: "It is remarkable that some of the women of this district wear a head-kerchief precisely like that worn in the remote parts of Ireland; and that others had on the Irish mantle, a piece of bias-cut cloth drawn over the head, almost always of a dingy red. The Irish mantle is, in fact, the Roman cloak, so universally worn by all ranks. Another point of

resemblance was that almost all the women were barelegged, and frequently bare-footed."

Evelyn, in his "Diary," mentions that when he visited Rome in 1645, all the Jews who inhabited that city wore yellow hats.

Lady Morgan states that the female peasants in the neighbourhood of Rome wear white Isis-like headdresses.

At Mola di Gaeta the women roll their long tresses, mingled with silken bands, round their heads, with an antique grace; and the vessels with which they are often seen fetching water from the fountain are generally of a graceful Etruscan form, which adds to the elegance of their appearance.

Lady Morgan, speaking of the magnificence of the dresses of Naples, says that they might be supposed to be the "plunder of a sultan's warbrobe."

Swinburn tells us that "At Naples the women are also very splendid on those days of show; but their hair is then bound up in tissue caps and scarlet nets, a fashion much less becoming than their every-day simple method. Citizens and lawyers are plain enough in their apparel, but the female part of their family vies with the first court ladies in expensive dress, and all the vanities of modish fopperies. Luxury has of late advanced with gigantic strides in Naples. Forty years ago the Neapolitan ladies wore nets and ribbons on their heads, as the Spanish women do to this day, and not twenty of them were possessed of a cap; but hair plainly dressed is a mode now confined to the lowest order of inhabitants, and all distinctions of dress between the wife of a nobleman and of a citizen are entirely laid aside. Among the paysannes may be seen almost every mode of hair