more elaborate and fantastic than any we have yet had occasion to notice. The simple caul of gold net, the elegant chaplet of natural flowers, or of imitative goldsmiths' work,-are superseded by sumptuous monstrosities, of which engravings. alone can give a tolerable idea. They have been called by modern antiquaries the reticulated and heart-shaped head-dresses; and, in the reign of Henry V., the horned head-dress makes its appearance, beside which all similar absurdities sink into insignificance. The ordinary robe or gown of a lady of the reign of Henry V. (if we except the preposterously long sleeves, which, like those of the men, literally trailed on the ground) was not inelegant. It was made high in the neck, and its

Vide Effigy of Beatrice Countess of Arundel, in Arundel church, and Royal MS., xv. D 3. in Brit. Mus.

folds were confined at the waist by a simple band and buckle as at the present day. The cote hardi and the singular sleeveless robe of the past century, with the facings and borders of fur or jewellery, were still worn, with or without a mantle, on state occasions.

The armour of the time of Henry IV. offers no particular variation, but his son's reign introduces some of the most important changes we are called upon to remark during the history of this subject. The monumental effigies now begin to present us with complete suits of plate, occasionally uncovered by either jupon or surcoat, although both were as yet generally worn; the camail is superseded by the haussecol, or steel gorget, and the petticoat or apron of chain by a succession of long horizontal plates of steel, called taces or tassets, forming a sort

FEMALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF HENRY V.
Royal MS. 15 D 3.

of skirt to the breast and back-plates, and extending from the waist to about the middle of the thigh: the arm-pits were protected by circular plates of steel called palettes, which were attached by straps or points, as they were termed, with tags or aiguilettes at the end. The visored bascinet was alone worn for war, the helmet being appropriated solely to the tournament. Upon the latter only

was placed the crest of the knight; but the apex of the bascinet was now furnished with a small pipe, into which was inserted, for the first time, that most elegant of chivalric ornaments, the pennache or plume of feathers. Knights are said to have worn three, the king's esquires were limited to two, and all other esquires to a single feather.* Another marking peculiarity of the armour of the reign of Henry V. is the curious fashion of wearing long sleeves of cloth, silk, or rich stuffs, with escalloped edges, with or without the surcoat or jupon over the pauldrons or shoulder-plates. Sometimes a cloak with such sleeves was worn over the armour.† The tournament helmet of Henry V. is suspended over his tomb in Westminster Abbey, with his shield and

This common assertion is not borne out, however, by the authorities, the number of feathers varying, apparently, according to the wearer's fancy. See for armour of the commencement of the reign of Henry V. our wood-cut at p. 456 of vol. i., representing the murder of Becket, from a painting on board, of this period, suspended at the head of the tomb of Henry IV. at Canterbury. One of the knights wears a plume of fire feathers. It may be that regulations existed on this point, but were as little regarded as the sumptuary laws respecting clothing.

+ See for this and other peculiarities of the military costume of this reign the illumination given at p. 210, from the Harleian MS. 4826, of Lydgate presenting his poem of the Pilgrim to the Earl of Salisbury (i. e., Thomas de Montacute, who held the earldom from 1409 till his death in 1428, not the famous king-maker, as stated by mistake under the cut); the figure of Robert Chamberlayne, esquire to Henry V., in Cotton MS. Nero, D7; the monumental effigies of Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, in Wingfield Church, and of Sir Robert Grushill, Hoveringham Church, Notts, &c.

TOURNAMENT OR TILTING HELMETS IN THE TIME OF HENRY V. Cobham Church, Kent,

MALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF HENRY VI. Harleian MS, 2278.

Lydgate's Life of St. Edmund, Harleian MS. 2278, and the illuminated Froissart, marked 4880 in the same collection, from the multiplicity and variety of their miniatures, almost bewilder us with authorities. We have the long toes longer than ever, the hoods with tippets or liripipes reaching to the ground,-the pocketing sleeves, called pokys (pokes) by the Monk of Evesham, "shaped like a bagpipe," and all the other absurdities of the times of Richard II., Henry IV., and Henry V., with the introduction of high caps with single feathers behind, enormously high-padded shoulders to the short jackets and long gowns, loose robes with arm-holes, guiltless of sleeves; and, again, both jackets and gowns with long hanging sleeves trimmed with fur, which could be worn on the arm or flung behind at pleasure. Henry VI. himself must not be considered guilty of having encouraged these enormities. Blackman, a Carthusian monk, who had much intercourse with him, testifies to the plainness of his attire and to the fact that he would not wear the up-pointed horn-like toes then in fashion.*

The practice of slitting the doublets at the elbows so as to show the shirt through appears during the reign of Edward IV., and gradually leads to the slashing and puffing of the whole suit in the following century. The toes of the shoes and boots suddenly took a fancy to expand instead of to elongate, and a sumptuary law was passed limiting the breadth at the toe to six inches. The Collect. printed by Hearne at the end of his Otterbourne, pp. 288, 302.

MALE COSTUME IN THE TIME OF EDWARD IV.
Cotton MS. Nero, D 9, and Royal MS. 15 E 2.

long toes were not, however, totally abandoned till after the accession of Henry VII., although "cursing by the clergy" was added to the other pains and penalties to which the makers of such articles were subjected by the law.* The hair, which was worn so closely cropped from the commencement of the century, was now again suffered to hang over the ears in large thick masses, called

At Shirbecksluice, near Boston, Lincolnshire, a smith's forge was discovered some few years back, buried about sixteen feet deep, with the remains, also, of several ancient tan-vats, besides a great quantity of horns and some shoe-soles of a very unusual form, being aharp pointed in the fashion of those worn from the reign of Richard IL to that of Richard III.

A strait band hath the hose,-languent a corpore crura.

They may not, I suppose,-curvare genu sine

cura.

When others kneel,-pro Christo vota ferentes. They stand on their heels,-sed non curvare volentes.

For hurting of their hose,-non inclinare laborant.

I trow for their long toes,-dum stant ferialiter. orant."*

In the twenty-sixth Coventry Pageant occurs the

Harleian MS. 536. We have modernised the spelling of the English. The Latin words at the end of each line seem to be quotations from, or burlesques upon, the church service.