s of linen or
silk, white as a rule; white, in fact, is frequently used for dresses,
both for men and women.

The custom of carrying small posies of flowers comes in, and it is
interesting to see the Queen, in her portrait by Antonio More,
carrying a bunch of violets arranged exactly as the penny bunches
sold now in our streets.

There was, in most dresses, a great profusion of gold buttons, and the
wearing of gold chains was common--in fact, a gold chain about the
neck for a man, and a gold chain girdle for a woman, were part of the
ordinary everyday dress.

[Illustration: {Two types of head-dress for women; two types of
collar}]

You will realize that to one born in the reign of Henry VIII. the
appearance of people now was very different, and, to anyone as far
away as we are now, the intervening reigns of Edward and Mary are
interesting as showing the wonderful quiet change that could take
place in those few years, and alter man's exterior from the appearance
of a playing-card, stiff, square, blob-footed, to the doublet and hose
person with a cart-wheel of a ruff, which recalls to us Elizabethan
dress.

[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF QUEEN MARY (1553-1558)

The habit of wearing flowers in the opening of the dress was
frequent at this time, was, in fact, begun about this reign. One can
easily see in this dress the ground-work of the Elizabethan fashion,
the earliest of which was an exaggeration of this costume.]

ELIZABETH

Reigned 45 years: 1558-1603.

THE MEN

[Illustration: {A man of the time of Elizabeth}]

Here we are in the middle of great discoveries with adventurers, with
Calvin and Michael Angelo, living and dying, and Galileo and
Shakespeare seeing light--in the very centre and heart of these
things, and we and they discussing the relations of the law to linen.
How, they and we ask, are breeches, and slop-hose cut in panes, to be
lined? In such writings we are bound to concern ourselves with the
little things that matter, and in this reign we meet a hundred little
things, little fussy things, the like of which we leave alone to-day.
But this is not quite true. To-day a man, whether he cares to admit
it or no, is for ever choosing patterns, colours, shades, styles to
suit his own peculiar personality. From the cradle to the grave we are
decked with useless ornaments--bibs, sashes, frills, little jackets,
neat ties, different coloured boots, clothes of cere