on by the regular minstrels as so contemptible, that one of them declares the encouragement given to this inelegant music marked a decadence in public taste and manners, which could only portend the end of the world, or the coming of Antichrist?

The wooden-legged beggar, fig. 146, from Royal MS. 15 E 2, may serve as a sample of the plainest costume of the age. Long hair being no expense to him, he appears to rival a gentleman in the quantity he exhibits; independently of this, his dress is simplicity itself, and, like the crutch and cradle for his leg, more adapted for use than ornament.

The ladies during the whole of this period adhered with an obstinate pertinacity to their abominable head-dresses, in spite of all that could be said by satirist, preacher, or moralist. Their horns became exalted, and shot forth more luxuriantly than ever; witness the lady engraved in fig. 147, from Royal MS. 15 Fig. 146. E 4, dated 1483. They were, however, generally superseded by the tall steeple-cap, as worn by the lady beside her, and which lingers even now among the peasantry of Normandy. The form of the dress is different from that worn in the reign preceding, being open from the neck to the waist in front, and having a turn-over collar, generally of a dark colour, surrounding it. The gowns are frequently bordered with fur to a considerable depth, and are so capacious as to be generally carried over the arm in walking. Their great amplitude will be best seen by the fig. 148, taken from the manuscript History of Thebes alluded to, p. 183. The lady is in this instance seated, and her dress is spread around her on all sides; the tall steeple-cap is covered with a gauze veil which partly shades the face; and the arrangement of the open gown above the waist is very clearly depicted. The waist is bound by a very broad band, a fashionable feature frequently displayed in drawings of the fifteenth century. The cuffs of her sleeves are very wide, and

reach to the base of the fingers. A very broad edge or band runs round her dress, the fashionable colour adopted for it was white; dark-blue, or brown, was the common tint of the gown, and these broad edges were constantly worn. The lady's shoes are in this instance hidden, but in the other figures they are seen; they were made with very long narrow-pointed toes, that sometimes peep forth like the sheath of a dagger. Very low dresses appear to have been worn by young women in the latter half of the 15th century, and numerous instances of this fashion occur in

Fig. 148.

brasses. Examples may be seen in those of Elizabeth Echyngton, 1452, and Agnes Oxenbrigg, 1480, both given in Haine's "Manual of Brasses."

Among the middle classes, who could not afford the extravagant head-dresses indulged in by the aristocracy, we find a hood worn with projecting sides "like an ape's ears," having the old pendant tippet, or liripipe, attached, which hung down the back, and gave a peculiarly grotesque appearance to the figure when viewed behind, as the reader may judge from fig. 149.

Monstrelet, in the fifty-third chapter of his "Chronicles," relates a long and edifying story of a perambulating preaching friar, one Thomas Conecte by name, who commenced so determined a crusade against the steeple head

dresses of the ladies in France, that none dared appear in them in his presence, “exciting the little boys to torment and plague them, giving them certain days of pardon for so doing, and which he said he had the power of granting.” These young rascals were probably in no great need of so powerful an excitement to impudent mischief, and, stimulated by the circumstance, "endeavoured to pull down these monstrous headdresses, so that the ladies were forced to seek shelter in places of safety;" and many were the tumults between the ladies' servants, the boys, and their other persecutors. In the end the holy father triumphed, and at a grand auto da fé he sacrificed all the head-gear that the ladies would bring, in a fire before his

Fig. 149.

Fig. 150.

pulpit in the principal square. "But this re

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form lasted not long," says the chronicler; 'for, like as snails, when any one passes by them, draw in their horns, and when all danger seems over put them forth again, so these ladies, shortly after the preacher had quitted their country, forgetful of his doctrine and abuse, began to resume their former head-dresses, and wore them even higher than before.'

Fig. 150 is from the margin of the British Museum Froissart, and is one of many caricatures of the fashion sometimes called the chimney head-dress (Harl. 4379, 4380).

These volumes of Froissart's "Chronicles," which have already supplied us with specimens of the head-dresses of gentlemen, furnish us, fig. 151, with examples of those worn by the ladies of this

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period. The first and fourth are varieties of the horned head-dresses of an earlier time, so fashionable throughout Europe. The central figures show the steeple caps of dark cloth, and light ornamented silk or embroidery, also worn at this period. The second figure wears a dark gorget, closely pinned round her head, and entirely covering the breast. A contrast of tints seems to have been studied by the ladies in all instances: thus, when the black cap, gorget, collar, and cuffs were worn, the gown was light in its tint; and the use of black in giving brilliancy to other colours seems to have been generally acknowledged and acted on.

A plain country woman, with her distaff and spindle, is given, fig. 152, from Royal MS. 15 E 4. In the original this figure rises from the bowl of a flower, in the richly foliated border of one of the pages. She wears a rayed or striped gown of gay colours; and her head is enveloped in a close hood or kerchief. Her cuffs are turned over and plaited, like those worn by the fashionables of Elizabeth's time. There is much simplicity in the entire figure. A figure of

A magnificent example of such a jewelled head-dress as this occurs in the full-length portrait of Margaret of Scotland, executed about 1482, and recently removed from Hampton Court to Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh. It is very carefully engraved in Shaw's "Dresses and Decorations."

a husbandman with a bill in his hand, from the same MS., is seen in fig. 153, showing the same rayed material for dress.

Fig. 154, of a carpenter, is from the list of benefactors of St. Alban's Abbey, as also is fig. 155, in which last the hood of cloth of ray is shown.

The short reign of Richard III. presents no striking novelty in costume, unless we except the very general adoption of another fashion of head-dress for of the ladies, which an example

is given, fig. 156, from Mr. Waller's very accurate and beautiful work on Monumental Brasses. It is from the effigy of Lady Say, in Broxbourn Church, Hertfordshire, A.D. 1473, the thirteenth year of Edward IV.'s reign, about which time the fashion became usual, and throughout that of Richard was pretty generally adopted. For other examples, see the brasses of Eliz. Wakehurst, 1464, in Ardingly Church; Lady Playters, 1479, in Sotherby Church (Cotman); Lady Peyton, 1484, in Isleham Church;