A fine specimen of the military costume of this age is ex hibited in the whole length portrait of Sir NICHOLAS CRISPE*, engraved in Lysons's Environs of London, vol. ii. p. 409, from an original picture in the possession of the marquis of Townsend.

The best portrait of the costume of citizens of this period, is exhibited in the statue of Sir Thomas Gresham in the Royal Exchange.

Long coats were only worn by boys till they were seven or eight years of age. Bishop Fell, in his Life of Dr. Hammond, tells us that the latter divine, who was born in 1605, was in long coats when he was sent to Eton College.

The ladies made very little alteration in their dresses during this reign, on account of the small encouragenfent which they met with at court.

Enormous head dresses, highly toupeed, and loaded with diamonds, very much prevailed; the Countess of Essex, however, after her divorce, appeared at court, "dressed as a virgin, with her hair hanging to her feet." The princess Elizabeth, with much more propriety, wore hers in the same manner, when she went to be married to the Prince Palatine+.

The ladies began to indulge a strong passion for foreign laces in the reign of James, which rather increased than abated in succeeding generations.

The ruff and farthingale still continued to be worn; yellow starch for ruffs, first invented by the French, and adapted to the sallow complexions of that people, was introduced by Mrs. Turner, a physician's widow, who had a principal hand in poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury. This vain and infamous woman, who went to be hanged in a ruff of that colour, helped to support the fashion as long as she was able. It be gan to decline upon her execution. I

From the reign of Edward VI. to that of Elizabeth, it is recorded, that "dukes' daughters wore gowns of satin of Bridges (Bruges), upon solenin days; cushions, and window pillows of velvet, and damask, &c. were only used in the houses of the chief princes and peers of the land; but in the latter end of this reign, those ornaments of estate, and other princely furniture, were very plentiful in the houses of citi zens, and those of lower rank."

The knowledge of, and wearing lawn and cambric were introduced into England about the year 1562, and then only

*An ample account of this loyal and active citizen is given in vol. iii. p. 187, et seq.

+ Weldon's Court and Character of James. Granger.

Worn

worn by the queen; there were norfe who could tell how to starch them, till a Dutchwoman, the wife of Guyliam Boonen, introduced starching; which was improved two years afterwards by Mrs. Dinghen, daughter of a Flemish knight, who had sought protection in this country from the persecution of the duke of Alva. She professed herself a starcher; and some of the principal English ladies observing the neatness of the Dutch, particularly in the whiteness of their linen, sent for Mrs. Dinghen, and caused her to make them ruffs of lawn starched. The lawn was considered at this time a manufacture so strange, that it became a general scoff; the people declaring that presently they would make ruffs of spiders' webs." The prices which this lady had for teaching to starch was 57. and for shewing how to boil it 20 shillings. Before this period ruffs were made of Holland cloth.*

A peculiar office was attached to the court of James's queen, Anne of Denmark. The lady of Sir Robert Carey, afterwards earl of Monmouth, was mistress of the sweet coffers, answerable at present to mistress of the robes.

CHARLES I. wore a falling band, a short green doublet, the arm-parts, towards the shoulder wide and slashed; zig zag turned-up ruffles; very long green breeches (like a Dutchman) tied far below knee, with long yellow ribbands, red stockings, great shoe roses, and a short red cloak lined with blue, with the star of the order of the Garter on the shoulder f. Though the large fantastic ruff maintained its power for a considerable time after the commencement of this reign 1, the arrival of Vandyke produced a very material change; the elegant pointed falling collars of lace were adopted by both sexes, and continued till the gloomy period of the civil wars. The conic hats took place of the broad ones of the last reign;

*The Dutch merchants, who only at that time sold lawn and cambric, cut and retailed those commodities by ells, yards, and in smaller quantities, for not one shopkeeper in forty durst venture at the purchase of a whole piece. At that time there was not so much lawn or cambric in all the merchants' houses in Loudon, as afterwards could be obtained in a single shop; a few years, however, produced a wonderful change; the nobility had ruffs a quarter of a yard deep and twelve lengths in a ruff. This was called in London " the French fashion;" but when the English visited Paris, it was considered such an extraordinary innovation, that the Parisians called it "The English monster." Howe's Continualibu of Stow's Chronicle, p. 869.

+ Peck's Desiderata Curiosa.

A medal of Charles I. in page 104 of Evelyn's "Numismata," represents him with a ruff; another, p. 108, with a falling band. The ,author observes that the bishops and the judges were the last that lay the ruff aside. Granger.

VOL. IV, No. 101.

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the brims, however, were of a reasonable breadth. The hair was worn low on the forehead, and generally unparted; some wore it very long, others of a moderate length. The king, and consequently many others, wore a love lock on the left side, which was considerably longer than the rest of the hair. The unseemliness of this fashion, occasioned Mr. Prynne to write a book in quarto Against Love Locks.

The beard dwindled very gradually under the two Charles', till it was reduced to a slender pair of whiskers. It became quite extinct in the reign of James II. as if its fatality bad been connected with that of the house of Stuart *.

Slashed doublets, doublets with slit sleeves, and cloaks were much in fashion. Trunk breeches, one of the most monstrous singularities of dress in this or any other age, were worn in the reigns of James and Charles I.

The points or tags which formerly used to be seen hanging about the waist, dangled at the knees of the beaus of this period. Little flimsy Spanish leather boots, and spurs were much worn by gentlemen of fashion. It was usual for the beaus in England and France to call for their boots, and some think their spurs too, when they were going to a ball, as they very rarely wore the one without the other.

"The dress of religion gave the highest offence to some gloomy zealots in this reign, who were determined to strip her of her white robe +, to ravish the ring from her finger, to despoil her of every ornament, and cloath her only in black."

The costume of queen HENRIETTA MARIA was very grace. ful and costly; she dressed like a sovereign, without forgetting the due attention to propriety. The ponderous beadtire diminished to beautiful ringlets, ornamented with rich jewellery, and braided behind. Her bosom and shouklers were set off by a rich Vandyke point handkerchief, whilst

* Granger.

The surplice, which was in derision called "a rag of popery," gave great offence to many women of nice modesty and tender consciences, who thought it highly indecent that a man should wear "a shirt upon his cloaths." The devout women in these days seem to have regarded this vestment with different eyes from those of an honest country girl at Christ Church in Oxford, who, upon seeing the students returning from prayers in their surplices, "blessed herself," and in my hearing, says Mr. Granger, said with an extatic emphasis, "that they looked like so many angels in white." The matrimonial ring and the square cap were by the puritans held in equal detestation with the surplice, the liturgy, and church music. The device on the standard of colonel Cook, a parliamentarian of Gloucester, was a man in armour, cutting off the corner of a square cap with a sword. His motte was-Mute quaarato rotundis, alluding to the well known appellation of the puritan party.

the