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Very many of the original articles have been added to, and, where necessary, corrected.

The limits of a handbook compel the omission of much that would be desirable; and the selection, rather than the supply, of information, has been the chief difficulty to contend with.

The list of works referred to above will, however, guide the reader who wishes for more information on the subject, to some of the chief sources.

It should be added, that Mr. Fairholt himself left some notes for a future edition, and these have, where necessary, been inserted.

H. A. DILLON.

1885.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

FOURTEEN years have elapsed since the first edition of

this book was printed; from that time to the present I have seen and noted much that has enabled me to make it still more useful as a book of reference. Fifty-six new engravings have been added, many of much curiosity (such as those on pp. 128, 247, and 259), and which are not to be found in any other work on Costume. To the literary portion of the historic part of the book I have added much; and nearly doubled the Glossary, which I have also endeavoured to make, by means of cross-references, a sort of index to the whole.

The favour with which the book has been received demanded thus much at my hands. To me it has been a labour of love.

A knowledge of costume is in some degree inseparable from a right knowledge of history. We can scarcely read its events without in some measure picturing “in the mind's eye" the appearance of the actors; while correct information on this point has become an acknowledged essential to the historical painter. The reign of imaginary costume has reached its close. A conviction of the necessity and value of "truth" in this particular has been the slow growth of the last half-century. A deaf ear was long turned to the urgency of critical antiquaries by whom it had been studied. Assertions were constantly made of the impossibility of accomplishing their desires, and twice the necessary amount of trouble was taken in inventing a heterogeneous costume that would have been required to procure accuracy.

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CHISWICK PRESS :-C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT,

CHANCERY LANE.

LIBRARY

Leland Stanford, Ji.

UNIVERSITY

THE

PREFACE

TO THE REVISED EDITION.

HE second edition of Fairholt's "Costume in England," which appeared in 1860, has now become somewhat scarce. This fact, and the large amount of fresh matter which has since then been placed within our reach by the researches of numerous writers, and the many reprints by different societies, of rare books, are sufficient reasons for the present edition.

The editor has striven to make such corrections and additions as the present state of knowledge of the subject demand. The quotations have been restored to their original spelling; and the portion relating to the Druids, and the remarks on the private character of sovereigns, &c., have been omitted to make room for matters more germane. The additions have in many instances been inserted in footnotes, but in some cases they have been incorporated in the text.

Additional woodcuts, some of them from other works by Mr. Fairholt, and kindly contributed by Messrs. Isbister; with others, selected from drawings from original MS., &c., by the editor, have been inserted.

An index has been added to the historical portion of the work, as well as a list of illustrations, in which the nationality and approximate date of the sources whence derived have been noted.

A short list of works in which costume has been illustrated or described has also been appended for the use of readers.

The Glossary has been enlarged by the addition of about two hundred new headings, and several additional illustrations have been inserted.

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Very many of the original articles have been added to, and, where necessary, corrected.

The limits of a handbook compel the omission of much that would be desirable; and the selection, rather than the supply, of information, has been the chief difficulty to contend with.

The list of works referred to above will, however, guide the reader who wishes for more information on the subject, to some of the chief sources.

It should be added, that Mr. Fairholt himself left some notes for a future edition, and these have, where necessary, been inserted.

H. A. DILLON.

1885.

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