s costly than
gentlemen's, for he murmurs over his outlay of about L12 for Mrs. Pepys
and L55 for himself. The country people, however, were attired more
plainly and less expensively, while many, probably--

"Shook their heads at folks in London,"

and wondered at the follies of their superiors.

The arms and military accoutrements of the period have already been
mentioned incidentally, and are illustrated by the different costumes in
our engravings, which Mr. Doyle has rendered with the minutest accuracy
of detail. This subject, if treated at all, would require space which we
cannot afford to give it. The Life Guards were embodied by Charles II,
in 1681, in imitation of the French "Gardes des Corps." The Coldstream
were embodied by General Monk, in 1660, at the town from whence they
obtained their name.

From an account in the Hamilton MSS., published in the _Ulster_
_Archaeological Journal_, it would appear that it was usual, or, at least
not uncommon, for young men of rank to go abroad for some time, attended
by a tutor, to perfect themselves in continental languages. It need
scarcely be said that travelling was equally tedious and expensive. A
journey from Dublin to Cork occupied several days; postchaises are a
comparatively modern invention; and Sir William Petty astonished the
good people of Dublin, in the seventeenth century, by inventing some
kind of carriage which could be drawn by horses. With his description of
the condition of the lower classes in Ireland at this period, I shall
conclude this chapter. The accompanying figure represents the costume of
the Irish peasant about the fifteenth century. The dress was found on
the body of a male skeleton, in the year 1824, which was preserved so
perfectly, that a coroner was called to hold an inquest on it. The
remains were taken from a bog in the parish of Killery, co. Sligo. The
cloak was composed of soft brown cloth; the coat of the same material,
but of finer texture. The buttons are ingeniously formed of the cloth.
The trowsers consists of two distinct parts, of different colours and
textures; the upper part is thick, coarse, yellowish-brown cloth; the
lower, a brown and yellow plaid.

[Illustration]

"The diet of these people is milk, sweet and sour, thick and thin; but
tobacco, taken in short pipes seldom burned, seems the pleasure of their
lives. Their food is bread in cakes, whereof a penny serves a week for
each; potatoes from August till May; m