e he cried out, "you--how
long has the king worn boots of so paltry a price? Go, and bring me a
pair worth a mark of silver." He went, and bringing him a much
cheaper pair, told him falsely that they cost as much as he had
ordered: "Ay," said the king, "these are suitable to royal majesty."

This is merely a specimen of the monarch's shallow-headed
extravagance; but the costume of his time and that immediately
preceding it was infinitely superior in grace and dignity to that of
the fantastical period we have been describing. The English at this
period were admired by all other nations, and especially _by the
French_, from whom in subsequent periods _we_ have copied so
servilely, for the richness and elegance of their attire. With a tunic
simply confined at the waist, over this, when occasion required, a
full and flowing mantle, with a veil confined to the back of the head
with a golden circlet, her dark hair simply braided over her beautiful
and intelligent brow and waving on her fair throat, the wife of the
Conqueror looked every inch a queen, and what was more, she looked a
modest, a dignified, and a beautiful woman.

The male attire was of the same flowing and majestic description: and
the "brutal" Anglo-Saxons and the "barbarous" Normans had more
delicacy than to display every division of limb or muscle which nature
formed, and more taste than to invent divisions where, Heaven knows,
nature never meant them to be. The simple _coiffure_ required little
care and attendance, but if a fastening did happen to give way, the
Anglo-Norman lady could raise her hand to fasten it if she chose. The
arm was not pinioned by the fiat of a _modiste_.

And the material of a dress of those days was as rich as the mode was
elegant. Silk indeed was not common; the first that was seen in the
country was in 780, when Charlemagne sent Offa, King of Mercia, a belt
and two vests of that beautiful material; but from the particular
record made of silk mantles worn by two ladies at a ball at Kenilworth
in 1286, we may fairly infer that till this period silk was not often
used but as

"------a robe pontifical,
Ne'er seen but wonder'd at."

Occasionally indeed it was used, but only by persons of the highest
rank and wealth. But the woollens were of beautiful texture, and
Britain was early famous in the art of producing the richest dyes. The
Welsh are still remarkable for extracting beautiful tints from the
commonest plants, such m