bath as did the Romans, wore the white
woollen toga and the linen tunic, his wife having the stole, the pall
and the veil.

[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Old English Dress. From the Benedictional of St
AEthelwold (c. 963-984).]

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--The Blessed Virgin. From the Benedictional of
St AEthelwold (c. 963-984).]

Before the Conquest.

ii. _Old English Dress._--The skill of their artists gives us many
accurate pictures of the dress of the English before the Norman
Conquest, the simple dress of a nation whose men fight, hunt and plough.
The man's chief garment is a sleeved tunic hanging to the knee,
generally open at the side from hip to hem and in front from the throat
to the breast. Sleeves cut loosely above the elbow are close at the
forearm. The legs are in hose like a Highlander's or in long breeches
bandaged or cross-gartered below the knee. A short mantle to the calf is
brooched at the shoulder or breast (fig. 25). There are long gowns and
toga-like cloaks, but these as a rule seem garments for the old man of
rank. In the open air the cloak is often pulled over the head, for hats
and caps are rare, the Phrygian bonnet being the commonest form. Girdles
of folded cloth gather the loose tunic at the waist. Most paintings show
the ankle shoe as black, cut with a pointed tab before and behind, the
soles being sometimes of wood like the sole of the Lancashire clog of
our own days. A nobleman will have his shoes embroidered with silks or
coloured yarns, and the like decoration for the hem and collar of his
tunic. Poor men wear little but the tunic, often going barelegged,
although the hinds in the well-known pictures of the twelve months have
shoes, and the shepherd as he watches his flock covers himself with a
cloak. In every graveyard of the old English we find the brooches,
armlets, rings and pins of a people loving jewelry. Women wore a long
gown covering the feet, the loose sleeves sometimes hanging over the
hands to the knee. Over this there is often a shorter tunic with short
sleeves. Their mantles were short or long, the hood or head rail wrapped
round the chin (fig. 26). In broidery and ornament the women's dress
matched that of the men. The Danes, warriors of the sea, soon took the
English habit, becoming notable for their many changes of gay clothing.

PLATE

[Illustration: _Photo, Walker._

FIG. 21.--GRAVE-STATUE.]

[Illustration: _Photo, Alinari._

FIG. 22.--THE ORATOR (R. ARCH. MUS.