epast about two o'clock, sup at five; and
their last meal is made just before they retire to bed. The labourers
and peasants in France have preserved this custom, and make three meals;
one at nine, another at three, and the last at the setting of the sun.

The Marquis of Mirabeau, in "L'Ami des Hommes," Vol. I. p. 261, gives a
striking representation of the singular industry of the French citizens
of that age. He had learnt from several ancient citizens of Paris, that
if in their youth a workman did not work two hours by candle-light,
either in the morning or evening, he even adds in the longest days, he
would have been noticed as an idler, and would not have found persons
to employ him. On the 12th of May, 1588, when Henry III. ordered his
troops to occupy various posts at Paris, Davila writes that the
inhabitants, warned by the noise of the drums, began to shut their doors
and shops, which, according to the customs of that town to work before
daybreak, were already opened. This must have been, taking it at the
latest, about four in the morning. "In 1750," adds the ingenious writer,
"I walked on that day through Paris at full six in the morning; I passed
through the most busy and populous part of the city, and I only saw open
some stalls of the vendors of brandy!"

To the article, "Anecdotes of Fashions," (see Vol. I., p. 216) we may
add, that in England a taste for splendid dress existed in the reign of
Henry VII.; as is observable by the following description of Nicholas
Lord Vaux. "In the 17th of that reign, at the marriage of Prince Arthur,
the brave young Vaux appeared in a gown of purple velvet, adorned with
pieces of gold so thick, and massive, that, exclusive of the silk and
furs, it was valued at a thousand pounds. About his neck he wore a
collar of SS, weighing eight hundred pounds in nobles. In those days it
not only required great bodily strength to support the weight of their
cumbersome armour; their very luxury of apparel for the drawing-room
would oppress a system of modern muscles."

In the following reign, according to the monarch's and Wolsey's
magnificent taste, their dress was, perhaps, more generally sumptuous.
We then find the following rich ornaments in vogue. Shirts and shifts
were embroidered with gold, and bordered with lace. Strutt notices also
perfumed gloves lined with white velvet, and splendidly worked with
embroidery and gold buttons. Not only gloves, but various other parts of
their h