iding and sport the woman was dressed almost exactly as a
man--with houppelande or heavy cloak buttoned on the right
shoulder, hawking-glove on her left hand with a bell or metal ball
depending from it. She wore boots laced up at the side, or long boots
of soft leather fastened with hook and eye; shoes like a man's, but
not so pointed and extreme. Sometimes for riding a big round hat was
worn over a hood.

In many cases the dresses were powdered with the monogram of the
Blessed Virgin, with badges of the family or some small device, or
they were ornamented with a simple flowing pattern, or were plain.

All the fripperies of fashion lay in pins for the wimple, the head
made as a figure of a patron saint; or girdles rich with precious
stones; or mirror-cases on whose ivory fronts were carved the Castle
of Love, or hunting scenes, or Calvary. The clasps of purses were rich
in design, and rings of every kind were worn on every finger and upon
the thumb. Charms against evil were hung about the neck or sewn into
the clothes. No matter who wrote, passed, and practised the many
sumptuary laws, still, one may know it to have been frequent for
persons owning less than L20 a year to wear gold and silver
ornaments, although expressly forbidden, and ladies of a lower estate
than wives of knights-banneret wore cloth of gold and velvet, and
gowns that reached and trailed upon the ground, while their husbands
braved it in ermine and marten-lined sleeves which swept the road.

The custom of wearing crowns was common to all people of rank, as
heraldic distinction of crowns did not commence until the sixteenth
century.

What a magnificent time for colour was this reign!--the rich
houppelandes, the furs, the long-piked shoes with pearls and gold upon
them, the massive chains about men's necks; ladies whose heads shone
with rich caps and cauls of pearl-embroidered gold, the rich-sheathed
baselard stuck in the girdle or hanging from it on a silver chain.
Even the poor begging friar was touched by all this finery, and,
forgetful of the rules of Saint Francis, he made great haste to
convert his alms into a furred cote 'cutted to the knee and quaintly
buttoned, hose in hard weather fastened at the ankle, and buckled
shoes.'

Imagine that amazing woman the Wife of Bath, in her great hat and
pound-weight kerchief; the carpenter's wife in her gored apron, at her
girdle a purse of leather hanging, decorated with silk tassels and
buttons of m