that the
Spaniard differed from the Englishman as observed by this observant one.
Even in our own days we may catch something of those national fashions.
The Spaniard may no longer walk with his long sword, his ruff and
gartered hose, but he keeps his fancy for sombre blacks, and so do the
citizens of those Netherlands which he once ruled. (O. BA.)

III. NATIONAL AND CLASS COSTUME

Costume, as readers of Carlyle's _Sartor Resartus_ know, always has a
significance deeper than the mere whims of fashion. In the cosmopolitan
society of modern times dress everywhere tends to become assimilated to
a common model, and this assimilation, however regrettable from the
picturesque point of view, is one of the most potent forces in the
break-down of the traditional social distinctions. In the middle ages in
Europe, and indeed down to the French Revolution, the various classes of
the community were clearly differentiated by their dress. Everywhere, of
course, it happened that occasionally jackdaws strutted in peacock's
feathers; but even in England, where class distinctions were early less
clearly marked than on the continent of Europe, the assumption of a
laced coat and a sword marked the development of a citizen into a
"gentleman" (q.v.). Nothing has more powerfully contributed to the
social amalgamation of the "upper-middle" and the "upper" classes in
England than the fashion, introduced in the 19th century, of extreme
simplicity in the costume of men. But, apart from the properties of
richness in material or decoration as a symbol of class distinction--at
one time enforced by sumptuary laws--there have been, and still are,
innumerable varieties of costume more or less traditional as proper to
certain nationalities or certain classes within those nationalities. Of
national costumes properly so called the best known to the
English-speaking world is that of the Highlands of Scotland. This is,
indeed no longer generally worn, being usually confined to gentlemen of
birth and their dependents, but it remains a national dress and is
officially recognized as such by the English court and in the uniforms
of the Highland regiments in the British army. The chief peculiarity of
this costume, distinguishing it from any others, is the tartan, an
arrangement of a prevailing colour with more or less narrow checks of
other colours, by which the various clans or septs of the same race can
be distinguished, while a certain general uniformi