ng over their faces, like pendices or vailes, with glass
windows on every side, there is laide great wreathes of gold and
silver, curiously wrought, and cunningly applied toe the temples of
their heads; and, for feare of lacking anything to set forth their
pride withal, at their hair thus wreathed and crested, are hanged
bugles, I dare not say bables, ouches, ringes of gold, silver,
glasses, and such other gew-gawes, which I, being unskillful in
woman's tearmes, cannot easily recompt." He then discusses the
"capital ornaments" upon the "toppes of these stately turrets," which
he informs us consisted of a French hood, hat, cap, kerchief, and such
like. He laments the fact that to such excesses did the fashions
go, and so widely were the women influenced by them, "that every
artificer's wife almost will not stike to goe in her hat of velvet
every day; every merchant's wife, and meane gentlewoman, in their
French hoods; and every poor cottager's daughter's daughter in her
taffeta hat, or else wool at least, well lined with silk, velvet, or
taffeta." He adds that they had other ornaments for the head, "made
net-wise," and which he says he believes were termed "cawles," the
object of this tinsel being to have the head with its ornaments
glisten and shine like a mass of gold. He then dismisses with a word
the "forked cappes" and "such like apish toyes of infinite variety."

Face painting, which came in direct derivation from the tattooing of
the ancient Britons, is a practice that at the time of which we are
writing was very prevalent in England. It came under as vigorous
arraignment by the writers of the fifteenth century as did the
ridiculous forms of hair dress. The cosmetics in use were of many
sorts, and were usually injurious to the skin of the user.

The dress of the women also fell under censure and satire, although
that of the men was even more strongly reprobated by contemporary
writers. It does not do to accept too readily the strictures passed
upon the dress of any age without considering the source of the
criticism. Throughout the Middle Ages, the clergy found dress a
convenient topic for their moralizing, and there is no doubt that the
strictures were often excessive, although the activity with which the
matter was discussed indicates the importance in which it then was
held and also makes it an important subject for our investigation as
a determining element in the study of the manners and customs of the
peri