FASHIONS OF HENRY VIII.'S TIME.-1509-1547.

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remain, objects of admiration to lovers of relics of antiquity. Many were given to laymen, who converted them into dwelling-houses.

2. Some of these still preserve much of their original monastic appearance. Others retain only the name. Woburn Abbey is one of these, where nothing of the establishment remains, except, perhaps, the old oaks, one of which is pointed out as the tree upon which the last abbot was hung, for refusing to give up his house to the king's commissioners.

3. Henry bestowed many of the religious houses on his personal attendants. One was rewarded with some abbey lands for having wheeled his chair further from the fire, and a lady had a monastery given to her for making the king a dish of puddings which he liked. Many of the larger ones were converted to purposes of public utility. St. Stephen's Chapel was appropriated by Edward VI. to the meetings of the House of Commons, for which purpose it was used till its destruction by fire in 1834.

4. Bethlehem Priory was converted into a hospital for lunatics, and its name corrupted into Bedlam Hospital. Another old religious house was converted into a school by Edward VI., and is now known as Christ's Hospital. Here more than one thousand orphan boys are maintained and educated; the blue coats and petticoats, and yellow stockings of the boys, still show the dress worn by children in the reign of the founder.

5. The fashion of the dress of the men of this age is retained to this date by the yeomen of the guard, or king's beef-eaters, as they are vulgarly called. Some antiquaries suppose this name to be a corruption of buffetiers, because it was part of their duty to guard the silver on the buffet or sideboard. Others derive it from the circumstance of there having been maintained for them a long oaken table, whereon roast beef, plum pudding, and other good cheer were to be daily seen smoking at one o'clock. The dress is scarlet; the coat like a modern frock-coat, with yellow stripes.

6. About the middle of the last century, in consequence of some jokes which were cut at the expense of the corps, whom some wag compared to boiled lobsters, the king ordered them to wear white stockings. But George IV., who loved splendor and had a good taste, renewed the red hose, which, with the adoption of the white ruff, and large white gauntlets, or gloves, restored to the guard its ancient showy splendor. As Henry VIII. was a fat, burly man, the courtiers stuffed out their clothes, to make themselves look as big as he did; though the rest of the dress was wide and baggy, the sleeves were made so tight, that some of the fine gentlemen had them sewed up every time they put them on.

7. One would think that so troublesome a fashion must have been confined to the rich, who had plenty of time to waste upon trifles. But that the fashions of the courtiers were aped by people of much lower degree, is clear from the following story. John Drakes, a shoemaker, was a great admirer of Sir Philip Calthorp's style of

CXXXVI.-1. What became of the monasteries and nunneries? 3, 4. Mention some that were appropriated to public uses. What of Christ's Hospital? 5. By what body is the fashion of dress of this period still retained? 6. What of the fashions of Henry

250

DUDLEY, DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND.

dress, and prevailed with his tailor to make him some clotnes which should be exactly like that gentleman's.

8. Sir Philip having ordered a new cloak, the fellow to it was accordingly made for John Drakes, which the knight nearing of, gave directions to the tailor to cut little slits all over his cloak. As the shoemaker's cloak was to be exactly like Sir Philip's, the tailor cut it also in the same way; and this, as the story goes, completely cured John Drakes of aping Sir Philip Calthorp.

9. The convenience of ladies' dress was very much assisted about this time by the invention of pins. Before this, there were a variety of contrivances for fastening clothes; buttons, hooks and eyes, laces and loops; and ladies used even wooden skewers to keep their dress in its proper place. Needles were not known till the reign of Mary, when a Moor came to London and made some there; but, as he refused to discover his art, they were not manufactured in any considerable quantity till some time after.

10. In the place of the large and fantastical head-dresses, which had been the vogue, ladies now wore coifs and velvet bonnets. Among gentlemen, long hair remained fashionable, through Europe, till the Emperor Charles devoted his locks for his health; and Henry VIII., a tyrant even in matters of taste, gave efficacy to the fashion by a peremptory order for his attendants and courtiers to poll their heads.

11. The same spirit induced him to regulate the dress of his subjects. Cloth of gold or tissue was reserved for dukes and marquises, and that of a purple color for the royal family. Silks and velvets were restricted to persons of wealth and distinction, and embroidery was forbidden to all beneath the dignity of an earl. Cuffs for the sleeves, and ruffs for the neck, were also the invention of Henry's reign.

CHAPTER CXXXVII.

Dudley marries his Son to Lady Jane Grey, whom Edward appoints to be his Successor.-Death of Edward VI.-Lady Jane Grey proclaimed Queen by Dudley. Her claims not acknowledged by the People, and she yields to Mary.—Character of Lady Jane.

1. THE young king was now completely in the power of Dudley, who was created Duke of Northumberland, and endowed with the vast possessions which had belonged to the former earl, and which had been forfeited to the crown.

2. Having attained to this height of power and wealth, his ambi

VIII.'s time? 8. What invention assisted the toilet of the ladies? 9. How were clothes fastened before this time? 10. What change in the head-dress? 11. What regulations tor dress?

CXXXVII.-1. What of the ambition of Dudley? 2. To what did he try to persuade

DEATH OF EDWARD VI.-1553.

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tion soared still higher, and he formed the project of raising one of his sons to the throne. He began by persuading Edward that the declaration of his sister's incapacity to succeed him was irreversible, and that, consequently, as the Duchess of Suffolk had no sons, her eldest daughter, the Duchess of Dorset, was the undoubted heir to the crown.

3. The duchess, who had no son, was willing to resign her claim to her daughter, Lady Jane Grey, and Northumberland married her to his son, Gilbert Dudley. Edward felt no scruple about depriving Mary of her birthright, fearing that her bigotry would be hurtful to the Protestant cause.

4. But he felt many regrets in regard to Elizabeth, whom he affectionately loved, and used to call "his dear sister Temperance." He, however, consented to settle the succession upon Lady Jane Grey. The instrument of settlement was to be signed by all the great officers of state; when some of them hesitated to do so, Northumberland violently declared that he would fight anybody in his shirt, in so just a cause as that of Lady Jane's succession.

5. Cranmer only yielded his consent to the pathetic entreaties of the king, and Sir James Hales, one of the judges, positively refused. From this time the king's health, which had before begun to decline, grew rapidly worse. Northumberland affected an anxious concern for him, waited on him with the most assiduous zeal, and dismissing his physicians, put him under the care of an ignorant old woman, who pretended to have a specific for his disease.

6. Edward was so far from receiving benefit from her treatment, that he soon after died, on the 6th of July, 1553, in the sixteenth

the king? 3. To whom did Dudley marry his son? What relation was Lady Jane Grey to Edward? 4. Did Edward yield to his persuasions? 5, 6. Relate the remaining par

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LADY JANE GREY.-1553.

year of his age, and the seventh of his reign. His disease was probably consumption; but the suspicions of the people attributed his death to slow poison, given to him by the Dudleys; for it was remarked that his health had been declining from the time that Lord Robert Dudley was placed in close attendance upon his person. Robert was the son of the Duke of Northumberland, of whom we shall hear more under the title of Earl of Leicester.

7. Northumberland did not at once proclaim the king's death, for he had not yet secured the persons of the two princesses. But they, having received intimation of their danger, put themselves in places of safety. The reason for secrecy being thus removed, Northumberland proceeded in state to the residence of Lady Jane Grey, and saluted her as queen.

8. She had been kept in a great measure ignorant of the duke's transactions, and now received intelligence of them with grief and surprise. She entreated that the dignity might not be forced upon her, and pleaded the superior claims of the two princesses.

9. But the duke had gone too far to be stopped in his career by the scruples of a girl of sixteen; and Lady Jane, who was of a timid and gentle disposition, was soon overborne by the entreaties of her father and father-in-law, and suffered herself to be proclaimed ; and, in compliance with custom, removed to the Tower to pass the first days of her reign.

10. She had not long to endure the cares of royalty, for Northumberland found few supporters in his scheme, and, after a joyless reign of ten days, Lady Jane returned to the privacy of her own house, and the Princess Mary took possession of the royal apartments in the Tower, amidst the loudest acclamations of the people, who dreaded the unprincipled character of the duke more than the stern bigotry of the Princess Mary.

11. Lady Jane Grey was a singularly excellent woman. Being of the same age with the late king, she had received all her education with him, and seemed to possess even greater facility in acquiring knowledge. She had attained a familiar acquaintance with the Greek and Latin languages, beside modern tongues.

12. Roger Ascham, tutor to the Princess Elizabeth, having one day paid her a visit, found her employed in reading Plato, while the rest of the family were engaged in a party of hunting in the park; and on his admiring the singularity of her choice, she told him that "she received more pleasure from that author than the others could reap from all their sports and gayety."

13. In one version of the story it is added that she told Ascham that she applied to study as a refuge from the severity of her

parents, who used to " so sharply taunt her, and give her pinches, nips, and bobs," if she displeased them in the slightest degree, that she was in constant misery in their presence.

ticulars of Edward's life. When did he die? In what year of his age? of his reign? What of Robert Dudley? 7. Why did Dudley seek to conceal the king's death? Whom did he proclaim sovereign? 8. What were Lady Jane Grey's feelings? 10. Did she retain the sovereignty? 11. What was her character?

THE MANNERS OF QUEEN MARY'S TIME.-1553-1558. 253

CHAPTER CXXXVIII.

The Manners of Queen Mary's Time..

The Houses of the Nobles. Some Particulars of the Mode of Housekeeping.

1. FROM the observation at the close of the preceding chapter, we may conjecture that the treatment of children by their parents was quite different from that adopted at the present day. The harshness of the English towards their offspring excited formerly the surprise and condemnation of foreigners.

2. Erasmus says that the English were like schoolmasters to their children; and that the schoolmasters were like overseers of houses of correction. Children trembled at the sight of their parents, and the sons, even when they were forty years old, stood bareheaded before their fathers, and did not dare to speak without permission.

3. The grown-up daughters never sat down in their mother's presence, but stood in respectful silence at the farther end of the room, and when weary of standing, were perhaps allowed to kneel on a cushion. It was a privilege to be admitted to their presence at all, and it was only granted during short and stated periods of the day.

4. The ladies in Queen Mary's reign carried fans with handles a yard long. The use of these handles one would hardly guess; for

CXXXVIII-1, 2, 3. How were children treated formerly in England? 4. What were