ept the loose boots and straw gaiters, and showed the improvement in
their class by the innovation of gloves made as a thumb with a pouch
for the fingers, and pouches for money of cloth and leather hung on a
leather belt. This proved the peasant to be a man of some substance by
need of his wallet. Everyone wore the chaperon--a cap and cape
combined.

We have now arrived at the reign which made such a difference to the
labourer and workman--such as the blacksmith and miller--and in
consequence altered and improved the character of his clothes. The
poll-tax of 1380 brought the labourer into individual notice for the
first time, and thus arose the free labourer in England and the first
labour pamphlets.

We have two word-pictures of the times of the greatest value, for they
show both sides of the coin: the one by the courtly and comfortable
Chaucer, the other by Long Will--William Langland, or Piers the
Plowman. Picture the two along the Strand--Long Will singing his
dirges for hire, and Chaucer, his hand full of parchments, bustling
past.

One must remember that, as always, many people dressed out of the
fashion; that many men still wore the cotehardie, a well-fitting
garment reaching half-way down the thigh, with tight sleeves coming
over the hand, decorated with buttons under the sleeve from the elbow
to the little finger. This garment had a belt, which was placed round
the hips; and this was adorned in many ways: principally it was
composed of square pieces of metal joined together, either of silver,
or enamel in copper, or of gold set with precious stones.

[Illustration: {A cotehardie; hose}]

[Illustration: {Three types of footwear; a coat}]

The cotehardie was generally made of a pied cloth in horizontal or
diagonal bars, in silk or other rich fabric. With this garment the
chaperon (to be more fully described) was worn as a hood; the legs
were in tights, and the feet in pointed shoes a little longer than the
foot. A pouch or wallet depended from the belt, and a sheath
containing two daggers, an anelace, and a misericorde. The pouch was a
very rich affair, often of stamped gilded leather or sewn
velvet--ornamented, in fact, according to the purse of the wearer. In
winter such a man as he of the cotehardie would wear an overcoat with
an attached hood. This coat was made in various forms: one form with
wide sleeves the same width all the way down, under which were slits
in the coat to enable the wearer to