wolde deserve my blessing; and as thaire can na thing happen unto you quhairof ye will not finde the generall grounde thairin, if not the verrie particulaire pointe touched, sa mon ye levell everie mannis opinions or advyces unto you as ye finde thaime agree or discorde with the reulis thaire sett doun, allouing and following thaire advyces that agrees with the same, mistrusting and frouning upon thaime that advyses you to the contraire. Be diligent and earnist in your studdies, that at your meiting with me, I maye praise you for youre progresse in learning. Be obedient to youre maister, for rounded by the collar and jewel of St. Andrew, with this motto below, In my defence God me defend.' The borders of the cover were formerly adorned with thistles in gold, two or three only of which are now remaining. "Prefixed to the Manuscript is the following Sonnet to Prince Henry; different from that which appears in front of the Work as printed. "SONETT. Loe heir my Sone a mirror viue and fair Quhilk schawis the schadow of a vorthie King; youre awin weill, and to procure my thankis; for in reverencing him ye obeye me, and hoFairuell. noure yourselfe. "Youre loving Father "JAMES R." DRESS of the different ORDERS OF SOCIETY in England and Scotland, during the Reigns of Henry VII. and VIII*. THE dress of the nobility during the reigns of Richard and Henry VII. was grotesque and fantastical, such as renders it difficult at first to distinguish the sex. Over the breeches was worn a petticoat; the doublet was laced, like the stays of a pregnant woman, across a stomacher, and a gown or mantle with wide sleeves descended over the doublet and petticoat down to the ankles. Commoners were satisfied, instead of a gown, with a frock or tunic, shaped like a shirt, gathered at the middle, and fastened round the loins by a girdle, from which a short dagger was generally suspended. But the petticoat was rejected after the accession of Henry VIII. when the trauses or light breeches, that displayed the minute symmetry of the limbs, were revived, and the length of the doublet and mantle diminished. * From the Antiquary's Portfolio, by J. S. FORSYTH. The fashions which the great have discarded are often retained by the lower orders, and the form of the tunic, a Saxon garment, may still be discovered in the waggoner's frock; of the trause, and perhaps of the petticoat, in the different trowsers that are worn by seamen. These habits were again diversified by minute decorations and changes of fashion from an opinion that corpulence contributes to dignity, the doublet was puckered, stuffed, and distended around the body; the sleeves were swelled into large ruffs, and the breeches bolstered about the hips; but how are we to describe an artificial protuberance, gross and indecent in the age of Henry VIII. if we judge from his and the portraits of others, a familiar appurtenance to the dress of the sovereign, the knight, and mechanic, at a future period retained in comedy as a favourite theme of licentious merriment? The doublet and breeches were sometimes slashed, and with the addition of a short cloak, to which a stiffened cap was peculiar, resembled the national dress of the Spaniards. The doublet is now transformed into a waistcoat, and the cloak or mantle, to which the sleeves of the doublet were transferred, has been converted gradually into a modern coat; but the dress of the age was justly censured as inconvenient and clumsy. "Men's servants,' to whom the fashions had descended with the 66 clothes of their masters, "have suche pleytes," says Fitzherbert, " upon theyr brestes, and ruffes uppon theyr sleves above theyr elbowes, that yf their mayster or theym selfe hadde never so greatte neede, they coulde not shoote one shote to hurte theyr ennemyes, till they had caste of theyr coats, or cut of theyr sleves." The dress of the peasantry was similar, but more convenient, consisting generally of trunk hose and a doublet of coarse and durable fustian. The materials employed in dress were rich and expensive; cloth of gold, furs, silks, and velvet, profusely embroidered. The habits of Henry VIII. and his queen, in their procession to the tower previous to their coronation, are described by Hall, an historian delighting in shows and spectacles. "His grace wared in his uppermost apparell a robe of crimsyn velvet, furred with armyns; his jacket or cote of raised gold; the placard embroidered with diamonds, rubies, emeraudes, greate pearles, and other riche stones; a greate baudeuke about his necke of large balasses. The quene was apparelled in white satyn embroidered, her haire hangying down to her backe, of a very great length, bewteful and goodly to behold, and on her hedde a coronall, set with many riche orient stones." The attire of females was becoming and decent, similar in its fashion to their present dress, but less subject to change and caprice. The large and fantastic head-dresses of the former age were superseded by coifs and velvet bonnets, beneath which the matron gathered her locks into tuffs or tussocks; but the virgin's head was uncovered and her hair braided and fastened with ribbons. Among gentlemen long hair was fashionable through Europe, till the Emperor Charles, during a voyage, devoted his locks for his health or safety, and in England, Henry, a tyrant even in taste, gave efficacy to the fashion by a peremptory order for his attendants and courtiers to poll their heads. The same spirit induced him, probably by sumptuary laws, to regulate the dress of his subjects. Cloth of gold or tissue was reserved for the dukes and marquesses; if of a purple colour, for the royal family. Silks and velvets were restricted to commoners of wealth or distinction; but embroidery was interdicted from all beneath the degree of an earl. Cuffs for the sleeves, and bands and ruffs for the neck, were the invention of this period; but felt hats were of earlier origin; and were still coarser and cheaper than caps or bonnets. Pockets, a convenience known to the ancients, are perhaps the latest real improvement in dress; but instead of pockets, a loose pouch seems to have been sometimes suspended from the girdle. The Scottish was apparently the same with the English dress, the bonnet excepted, peculiar |