sted
doublets with loose sleeves slashed open at the sides, the short and
wide petticoat breeches, their lining lower than the petticoat edge and
tied below the knee, and the hose whose tops bagged over the garter,
were in England before King Charles returned. He added to the breeches
the rows of looped ribbons, gave falling ruffles to the knees of the
hose and many feathers to the hat. The long, narrow-bladed rapier hung
in a broad, embroidered belt, passed over the right shoulder, and the
high-heeled shoes and knots of ribbons. Lely painted the women of this
court in a studied negligence, but many pictures show us the loose
sleeves turned up to the elbow with bows of ribbon, the close bodice
ending in a loose gown worn over a full skirted petticoat, a wide collar
covering the shoulders.

[Illustration: FIG. 42.--A Squire of a Knight of the Bath at the
Crowning of Charles II.]

Pepys is our chief authority for the remarkable resolution of Charles to
change the fashion of his dress to one which he would never alter, a
decision which the king communicated to his council in October 1666. On
the 15th of that month the diarist noted that "this day the king begins
to put on his vest, and I did see several persons of the House of Lords
and Commons too, great courtiers, who are in it; being a long cassocke
close to the body, of black cloth and pinked with white silk under it,
and a coat over it, and the legs ruffled with black riband like a
pigeon's leg ... a very fine and handsome garment." Rugge's diary
records the same change to "a close coat of cloth pinkt, with a white
taffety under the cutts. This in length reached the calf of the leg, and
upon that a sercoatt cutt at the breast, which hung loose and shorter
than the vest six inches. The breeches the Spanish cut, and buskins,
some of cloth, some of leather, but of the same colour as the vest or
garment." Says Evelyn, "a comely and manly habit, too good to hold."
Later in the same month Pepys saw the court "all full of vests, only my
Lord St Albans not pinked, but plain black; and they say the king says
the pinking upon whites makes them look too much like magpies, and
therefore hath bespoke one of plain velvet." The change, although the
court was fickle, is of the first importance in the history of costume,
for we have here the coat and waistcoat in a form from which our own
coats and waistcoats derive without a break. Another important change
affects dress for a centu