he old loose robe
was easy of cut; it afforded no outlet for his craft; it cut into a
lot of material, was easily made at home--it was, in fact, a baggy
affair that fitted nowhere. Now, is it not possible that some
tailor-artist, working upon the vanity of a lordling who was proud of
his figure, showed how he could present this figure to its best
advantage in a body-tight garment which should reach only to his hips?

[Illustration: {A man of the time of Edward II.}]

Take the hot summer. You may or may not know that a hot summer some
years ago suddenly transformed the City of London from a place of
top-hats and black coats into a place of flannel jackets and hats of
straw, so that it is now possible for a man to arrive at his City
office clad according to the thermometer, without incurring the severe
displeasure of the Fathers of the City.

It seems that somewhere midway between 1307 and 1327 men suddenly
dropped their long robes, loosely tied at the waist, and appeared in
what looked uncommonly like vests, and went by the name of
'cotehardies.'

It must have been surprising to men who remembered England clothed in
long and decorous robes to see in their stead these gay, debonair,
tight vests of pied cloth or parti-coloured silk.

Piers Gaveston, the gay, the graceless but graceful favourite, clever
at the tournament, warlike and vain, may have instituted this complete
revolution in clothes with the aid of the weak King.

[Illustration: {Two types of cotehardie}]

[Illustration: {Two types of tunic; two types of collar}]

Sufficient, perhaps, to say that, although long robes continued to be
worn, cotehardies were all the fashion.

There was a general tendency to exaggeration. The hood was attacked by
the dandies, and, instead of its modest peak, they caused to be added
a long pipe of the material, which they called a 'liripipe.'

Every quaint thought and invention for tying up this liripipe was
used: they wound it about their heads, and tucked the end into the
coil; they put it about their necks, and left the end dangling; they
rolled it on to the top of their heads.

[Illustration: {Four types of shoe; two types of hat}]

The countryman, not behindhand in quaint ideas, copied the form of a
Bishop's hood, and appeared with his cloth hood divided into two
peaks, one on either side of his head.

[Illustration: {Four types of hood}]

This new cotehardie was cut in several ways. Strictly speaking,