ith short sleeves, or sleeves long and full. For
winter wear, it covered the form entirely and terminated in a hood.
These mantles were often of the finest imported textiles, embroidered
in elegant figures and with richly wrought borders, and were lined
throughout with costly furs.

The kerchief, like the mantle, quite lost its conventional style in
the period we are describing, and was often omitted altogether. It
was usually worn over the head, and hanging down to the right breast,
while the end on the left side was gathered about the neck and thrown
over the right shoulder. Sometimes it was gathered in fulness upon
the head and bound there by a diadem, though otherwise worn as just
described. Toward the end of the twelfth century it became much
smaller, and was tied under the chin, looking very much like an
infant's cap. The women's shoes were very much the same as those
worn by the Anglo-Saxons. It is quite likely that the stockings were
close-fitting and short, as was the style among the men.

There were different ways of wearing the hair, but the most usual was
to have it parted in front and flowing loosely down the back, with a
lock on either side falling over the shoulders and upon the breast;
this was the style for young girls especially. Another fashion was
to have it fall down the back in two masses, where it was wrapped by
ribbons and so bound into tails. Young girls never wore a headdress of
any sort. On reaching maturity, it was usual for the women to enclose
their hair in a net, with a kerchief cap drawn tightly over it.

The ornaments in use need no particular description, because of
their similarity to those worn during the Anglo-Saxon period. Crowns
were, of course, the chief adornments of queens on state occasions;
circlets of gold, elegantly patterned, formed the diadems of the noble
ladies; and half-circlets of gold, connected behind, constituted
the distinctive headdress of women of wealth. Rings, armlets, and
necklaces, as well as the generally serviceable brooch, were in use.

Turning from the fashions of the wealthy to the condition of the poor,
what a difference appears! The age was one of sharp contrasts;
for while gayety reigned in the high circles of court and castle,
wretchedness was more usual in the hovels with their mud walls and
thatched roofs, to which nature may have added the gracious garniture
of herbs, mosses, and lichens. But it would be too much to assume that
the persons of