d before some of the owner's mood and personality about them.
These hoods worn by the women, these wide sleeves to the gowns, these
hanging sleeves to the overcoats, the velvet slip of under-dress, all,
in their time, became falsified into ready-made articles. With the
hoods you can see for yourselves how they lend themselves by their
shape to personal taste; they were made up, all ready sewn; where pins
had been used, the folds of velvet at the back were made steadfast,
the crimp of the white linen was determined, the angle of the
side-flap ruled by some unwritten law of mode. In the end, by a
process of evolution, the diamond shape disappeared, and the cap was
placed further back on the head, the contour being circular where it
had previously been pointed. The velvet hanging-piece remained at the
back of the head, but was smaller, in one piece, and was never pinned
up, and the entire shape gradually altered towards, and finally into,
the well-known Mary Queen of Scots head-dress, with which every reader
must be familiar.

[Illustration: {Two women of the time of Henry VIII.}]

It has often occurred to me while writing this book that the absolute
history of one such head-dress would be of more help than these
isolated remarks, which have to be dropped only to be taken up in
another reign, but I have felt that, after all, the arrangement is
best as it stands, because we can follow, if we are willing, the
complete wardrobe of one reign into the next, without mixing the two
up. It is difficult to keep two interests running together, but I
myself have felt, when reading other works on the subject, that the
way in which the various articles of clothing are mixed up is more
disturbing than useful.

The wide sleeve to the gown, once part and parcel of the gown, was at
last made separate from it--as a cuff more than a sleeve naturally
widening--and in the next reign, among the most fashionable, left out
altogether. The upper part of the dress, once cut low and square to
show the under-dress, or a vest of other stuff, was now made, towards
the end of the reign, with a false top of other stuff, so replacing
the under-dress.

Lacing was carried to extremes, so that the body was pinched into the
hard roll-like appearance always identified with this time; on the
other hand, many, wiser women I should say, were this the place for
morals, preferred to lace loose, and show, beneath the lacing, the
colour of the under-dress.