VII.

a

BOOK hand, for a Saxon law calls that the gold finger;

and we find a right hand was once cut off on account of this ornament.

In some of the stately apparel of the male sex, we see that fondness for gorgeous finery which their sturdier character might have been expected to have disdained. We read of silk garments woven with golden eagles 20: so a king's coronation garment was of silk, woven with gold flowers; and his cloak is mentioned, distinguished by its costly workmanship, and its gold and gems. 22 Such was the avidity for these distinctions, that Elfric, in his canons, found it necessary to exhort the clergy not to be ranc, that is, proud, with their rings, and not to have their garments made too ranclike. 23

They had silk, linen, and woollen garments. A bishop gave, in the eighth century, as a present to one abroad, a woollen tunic, and another of linen, adding, “as it was the custom of the AngloSaxons to wear it.” 24 The use of linen was not uncommon ; for it is remarked, as a peculiarity of a nun, that she rarely wore linen, but chiefly wool. len garments. 25

SILK, from its cost, cannot have been common; but it was often used by the great and wealthy. Ethelbert, king of Kent, gave a silken part of dress, called an armilcasia.26 Bede mentions two silken pallia of incomparable workmanship. 27 His own

20 Ingulf, p. 61. 21 Ibid. p. 61. 22 3 Gale Script. 494.

23 Wilk. Leg. Sax. 153. Ranc and ranclike originally meant proud and gorgeous. The words have now become appropriated to express dignity of situation. 24 16 Mag. Bib. p. 82.

25 Bede, lib. iv. c. 19. The interior tunic of St. Neot is described to have been ex panno villoso, in the Irish manner. Dugd. Mon. 368.

26 Dugd. Mon. 24.

27 Bede, p. 297. A pallia holoserica is mentioned as a present, in Mag. Bib. xvi. p. 97.

V.;

remains were inclosed in silk.28 It often adorned the CHAP. altars of the church ; and we read of a present to a West-Saxon bishop, of a casula, expressed to be not entirely of silk, but mixed with goats' wool.29

The delineations of the Saxon manuscripts almost universally represent the hair of the men as divided from the crown to the forehead, and combed down the sides of the head in waving ringlets. Their beards were continuations of their whiskers on each side, meeting the hair from the chin, but there dividing, and ending in two forked points. Young men usually, and sometimes servants, are represented without beards. The heads of the soldiers are covered; but workmen, and even nobles, are frequently represented, as in the open air, without any hats or caps.30

To have a beard was forbidden to the clergy. 31 But the historian of Malmsbury informs us, that in the time of Harold the Second, the English laity shaved their beards, but allowed the hair of their upper lip a full growth. The tapestry of Bayeux displays this costume: Harold, and most of the figures, have their mustachios, but no beards; King Edward, however, has his full beard. In the drawings of the Evangelists, in the fine Cotton MS. <3, Mark and John have neither beards nor mustachios, but Matthew and Luke have both.

They had shoes, or scoh, with thongs. Bede's account of Cuthbert is curious : he says, when the saint had washed the feet of those who came to him, they compelled him to take off his own shoes, that his feet might also be made clean; for so little

1

a

32

VII.

BOOK did he attend to his bodily appearance, that he

often kept his shoes, which were of leather, on his feet for several months together, frequently from Easter to Easter, without taking them off. 34 From this anecdote we may infer, that they had not stockings. Sometimes, however, the legs of the men appear in the drawings as covered half way up with a kind of bandage wound round, or else with a tight stocking reaching above the knee. 35

The Anglo-Saxons, represented in the Bayeux tapestry, are dressed in this manner; both the great and their inferiors have caps or bonnets on their heads, which are kept on even in the presence of the king, sitting with his sceptre on the throne. The steersman of one of the ships has a hat on, with a projecting flap turning upwards. Most of the figures have close coats, with sleeves to the wrists. They are girded round them with a belt, and have loose skirts like kelts, but not reaching quite to the knee. Harold on horseback, with his falcon, has breeches which do not cover his knee, and a cloak flowing behind him.

His knights have breeches covering the knees; and cloaks, which, like Harold's, are buttoned on the right shoulder. 37 One of those standing before the king has a cloak, or sagum, which falls down to its full length, and reaches just below the bend of the

36

34 Bede Vit. Cuthb. p. 243. In the life of St. Neot, he is said to have lost his scoh: he saw a fox having the thwanges of his shoe in his mouth. Vesp. D. xiv. p. 144.

35 Strutt, Hord. Ang. p.47. In St. Benedict's rule, MS. Tib. A.3. socks (soccas) and stockings (hosan) are mentioned ; also two other coverings for the legs and feet, called meon and fiand reaf fota, and the earm slife for the upper part of the body.

36 Strutt has given a complete drawing of a Saxon close coat, in Tab. 15. It appears to have been put over the head like a shirt.

37 For a description of this clasp or button, see Strutt, p. 46.

knee. 38

.

V.

39

Harold, when he is about to go into the CHAP. ship, wears a sort of jacket with small flaps. In the ship he appears with his cloak and the surrounding skirts, which are exhibited with a border; but when he takes the oath to William, he has a cloak or robe reaching nearly to his heels, and buttoned on the breast. They have always belts on. Most of them have shoes, which seem close round the ancle; others, even the great men, sometimes have none.

In the history of the Lombards, the Anglo-Saxon garments are stated to have been loose and flowing, and chiefly made of linen, adorned with broad borders, woven or embroidered with various colours. 40 In the MSS. of the Saxon Gospels, Nero, D. 4., the four Evangelists are drawn in colours, and the garments in which they are represented may be considered as specimens of the Anglo-Saxon dress.

Matthew has a purple under-gown, or vest, rather close, coming down to the wrists, with a yellow border at the neck, wrists, and the bottom. His upper robe is green, with red stripes, much

a

38 It was probably of cloaks like these, that Charlemagne exclaimed, “ Of what use are these little cloaks? We cannot be covered by them in bed. When I am on horseback, they cannot defend me from the wind and rain; and when we retire for other occasions, I am starved with cold in my legs.” St. Gall. ap. Bouquet Recueil, tom. vii.

39 Strutt remarks, from the drawings, that the kings and nobles, when in their state dress, were habited in a loose coat, which reached down to the ancles, and had over that a long robe, fastened, over both shoulders, on the middle of the breast, with a clasp or buckle. He adds, that the edges and bottoms of their coats, as well as of their robes, were often trimmed with a broad gold edging, or else flowered with different colours. The soldiers and common people wore close coats, reaching only to the knee, and a short cloak over their left shoulder, which buckled on the right. The kings and nobles were habited in common in a dress similar to this, but richer and more elegant. Strutt, Hord. Ang. i. p. 46.

VII.

BOOK looser than the other. His feet have no shoes, but a lacing, as for sandals. There is a brown curtain,

a with rings, and a yellow bottom. His stool has a brown cushion, but no back. He writes on his knee.

MARK wears a purple robe, striped with blue, buttoned at the neck, where it opens, and shows an under garment of light blue, striped with red. His cushion is blue: he has a footstool and a small round table.

Luke's under-dress is a sort of lilac, with light green stripes ; over this is a purple robe with red stripes. The arm is of the colour of the vest, and comes through the robe. His wrist and neck have a border.

John's under-garment is a pea-green with red stripes; his upper robe is purple with blue stripes; this is very loose, and, opening at the breast, shows the dress beneath. These pictures show, what many passages also imply, that our ancestors were fond of many colours. 41

.

The council in 785 ordered the clergy not to wear the tinctured colours of India, nor precious garments. The clergy, whose garments were thus compulsorily simplified, endeavoured to extend their fashion to those of the laity. Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary, in his letter to the archbishop of Canterbury, inveighs against luxuries of dress, and declares, that those garments which are adorned with very broad studs, and images of worms, announce

42

41 Bede mentions, that in Saint Cuthbert's monastery they used clothing of the natural wool, and not of varied or precious colours, p. 242. Two cloaks are mentioned among the letters of Boniface, one of which is said to be of very artful workmanship, the other of a tinctured colour.

47 Spel. Concil. p. 294.