welled
brooch stuck in it; some wear the sugar-bag cap, which falls to one
side; some are hooded, others wear peaked hats. One hears, 'By
halidom!' I wonder if all the many, many people who have hastily
written historical novels of this age, and have peppered them with 'By
halidoms,' knew that 'By halidom' means 'By the relics of the saints,'
and that an 'harlote' means a man who was a buffoon who told ribald
stories?

[Illustration: The Turban.]

Still, among all these gentlemen, clothed, as it were, second-hand, we
have the fine fellow, the dandy--he to whom dress is a religion, to
whom stuffs are sonnets, cuts are lyrical, and tailors are the poets
of their age. Such a man will have his tunic neatly pleated, rejecting
the chance folds of the easy-fitting houppelande, the folds of which
were determined by the buckling of the belt. His folds will be regular
and precise, his collar will be very stiff, with a rolled top; his
hose will be of two colours, one to each leg, or parti-coloured. His
shoes will match his hose, and be of two colours; his turban hat will
be cocked at a jaunty angle; his sleeves will be of a monstrous length
and width. He will hang a chain about his neck, and load his
fingers with rings. A fellow to him, one of his own kidney, will wear
the skirt of his tunic a little longer, and will cause it to be cut up
the middle; his sleeves will not be pendant, like drooping wings, but
will be swollen like full-blown bagpipes. An inner sleeve, very finely
embroidered, will peep under the upper cuff. His collar is done away
with, but he wears a little hood with cut edges about his neck; his
hair is cropped in the new manner, like a priest's without a tonsure;
his hat is of the queer sugar-bag shape, and it flops in a drowsy
elegance over the stuffed brim. As for his shoes, they are two fingers
long beyond his toes.

[Illustration: A MAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY V. (1413-1422)

Notice the bag cap with a jewel stuck in it.]

We shall see the fashions of the two past reigns hopelessly garbled,
cobbled, and stitched together; a sleeve from one, a skirt from
another. Men-at-arms in short tunics of leather and quilted waistcoats
to wear under their half-armour; beggars in fashions dating from the
eleventh century; a great mass of people in undistinguishable attire,
looking mostly like voluminous cloaks on spindle legs, or mere bundles
of drapery; here and there a sober gentleman in a houppelande of the
simp