nt costume, to which bells were
attached at all points.

So was much good cloth wasted in vanity, and much excellent time
spent upon superfluities, to the harm of the people; perhaps useful
enough to please the eye, which must have been regaled with all these
men in wonderful colours, strutting peacockwise.

[Illustration: {Simpler clothing, hat and hood, and bags of peasants}]

The poor peasant, who found cloth becoming very dear, cared not one
jot or tittle for the feast of the eye, feeling a certain unreasonable
hunger elsewhere.

And so over the wardrobe of Dandy Richard stepped Henry, backed by the
people.

THE WOMEN

If ever women were led by the nose by the demon of fashion it was at
this time. Not only were their clothes ill-suited to them, but they
abused that crowning glory, their hair.

No doubt a charming woman is always charming, be she dressed by woad
or worth; but to be captivating with your eyebrows plucked out, and
with the hair that grows so prettily low on the back of the neck
shaved away--was it possible? I expect it was.

[Illustration: {Two types of head-dress for women, showing different
views and a detail}]

The days of high hennins was yet to come; the day of simple
hair-dressing was nearly dead, and in the interval were all the arts
of the cunning devoted to the guimpe, the gorgieres, the mentonnieres,
the voluminous escoffions.

[Illustration: {Two types of head-dress for women, showing different
views and a detail}]

At this time the lady wore her hair long and hanging freely over her
shoulders; her brows were encircled by a chaplet, or chapel of
flowers, real or artificial, or by a crown or plain circlet of gold;
or she tucked all her hair away under a tight caul, a bag of gold net
enriched with precious stones. To dress hair in this manner it was
first necessary to plait it in tight plaits and bind them round the
head, then to cover this with a wimple, which fell over the back of
the neck, and over this to place the caul, or, as it was sometimes
called, the dorelet. Now and again the caul was worn without the
wimple, and this left the back of the neck exposed; from this all the
hair was plucked.

[Illustration: {Three types of head-dress for women}]

For outdoor exercises the lady would wear the chaperon (explained in
the previous chapter), and upon this the peaked hat.

The poorer woman wore always the hood, the wimple tied under the chin,
or plain