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DRESS of the different ORDERS OF SOCIETY in England and Scotland, during the reigns of Henry the Seventh and Eighth.

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 trowsers or light breeches, that displayed the minute symmetry of the limbs, was revived, and the length of the doublet and mantle diminished.

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 round 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 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 coude 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 velvets, profusely embroidered. The habits of Henry VIII. and his queen, on 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 banderike about his necke, of large bolasses. The quene was apparelled in white satyn embrodered, 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 both in its colour and form. The masks and trains, and superfluous finery of female apparel, had been uniformly prohibited; but fashion is superior to human laws, and we learn from the satirical invectives of poets, that the ladies still persisted in retaining their finery, and muzzling their faces.

MANNERS, VIRTUES, VICES, REMARKABLE CUSTOMS, &C. DURING THE REIGNS OF HENRY VII. AND VIII. AMONG nations whose government is monarchical, the supreme magistrate is exalted to a prince, and invoked by titles scarcely compatible with human nature; while the people, from whom his autho

rity originates, and on whose breath his existence depends, are in history regarded only as subservient to him. Their annals are adjusted and marked by his reign, filled with his public transactions or secret policy; and as every achievement is ascribed to his auspices, it is his life rather than their history that is recorded for the benefit of succeeding generations. From the public transactions, or the dark and dishonest intrigues of princes, the transition to the private character of the people is grateful; yet there our attention is still irresistibly attached to the sovereign, whose example either extends to society, or whose court is an index to the manners, customs, and taste of the age.

The National Spirit, &c.—Manners, &c.

It is observable that the spirit of a nation is subject to frequent and sudden vicissitudes; that it passes from the extremes of religious phrenzy, or civil discord, to a state of inactive or cold indifference. The English, after a long interruption, obtained by the union of the rival roses the blessings of a permanent government and domestic concord, and were unwilling to forfeit these by the rash renewal of their former troubles. The power of the nobles was broken, and their numbers diminished; the policy of the crown had suppressed their retainers; war, or the progress of society, had either destroyed or enfranchised their bondsmen; nor were armies ready to start, as formerly,