ory, the minstrel
waiting to take up the theme in song. It is of interest to note that
in this particular miniature the gown of the lady is ornamented with
heraldic devices. By such means we are enabled not only to identify
the person represented--since portraiture, even if there was anything
worthy of the name, was in a very rudimentary condition--and thus
arrive at the approximate date of the picture, but also to verify a
custom, and a stage in social life. It was not until the end of the
twelfth century, when some sort of heraldic system became necessary
owing to the introduction of the closed helmet, that armorial
bearings, hitherto mere personal badges, became attached to noble
families. By the thirteenth century, when the bourgeoisie had become
rich, they were worn by the sumptuously attired wife of the lord to
distinguish her from the equally sumptuously attired wife of the
wealthy burgher.

Such, in mere outline, was the daily life of the mediaeval lady.
Descriptions of the lady herself seem to be mere replicas of an
admired and fixed type, for there is in them such a sameness of
delineation, that we can only imagine that poets sang of qualities
that pleased, and did not attempt to individualise. All are good and
gracious, beautiful, and slight of figure, with delicate hands and
tapering fingers, small feet, fine and glossy hair, and grey eyes,
laughing and bright. Only occasionally are these attractions varied
and enhanced by the telling of beauty unaided by paint and hair dye.

It is hardly necessary to speak, save very generally, of woman's
dress, for much has already been written on the subject. For everyday
use, garments of wool or linen, according to the season, and with much
fur in winter, were worn. At weddings or tournaments, or on any other
kind of fete-day, the ladies vied with each other in rich cloth of
gold and silver, in silks woven with threads of gold and patterned
with conventional design, and in all kinds of iridescent silken
stuffs from the East. From Mosul, on the banks of the Tigris, whence
the material we call muslin takes its name, was brought a fine silk
gossamer, something like our _crepe de Chine_. This was used for the
finely plaited underdress seen at the neck and foot of mediaeval
costume. Perhaps the best representation of this, although stone seems
hardly the most favourable medium for the delineation of so delicate a
fabric, can be seen in the long slim figures of the queenly l