artridges of antiquarianism. I cannot
convey the triple-curved crown, the ear buttress, the magnet-shaped
roll in adequate language, but I can draw them for you.

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

I will attempt the most popular of the roll head-dresses and the
simpler of the stiff-wired box. Take a roll, stuffed with hemp or tow,
of some rich material and twist it into the form of a heart in front
and a V shape behind, where join the ends, or, better, make a circle
or hoop of your rolled stuff and bend it in this way. Then make a cap
that will fit the head and come over the ears, and make it so that
this cap shall join the heart-shaped roll at all points and cause it
to appear without any open spaces between the head and the roll; the
point of the heart in front will be round, and will come over the
centre of the face. By joining cap and roll you will have one complete
affair; over this you may brooch a linen wimple or a fine piece of
jagged silk. In fact, you may twist your circle of stuff in any
manner, providing you keep a vague U shape in front and completely
cover the hair behind.

For the box pattern it is necessary to make a box, let us say of
octagonal shape, flat before and behind, or slightly curved; cut away
the side under the face, or leave but a thin strip of it to go under
the chin. Now stuff your box on either side of the face and cut away
the central square, except for 3 inches at the top, on the forehead;
here, in this cut-away piece, the face shows. You will have made your
box of buckram and stuffed the wings of it with tow; now you must fit
your box to a head and sew linen between the sides of the head and the
tow to hold it firm and make it good to wear. You have now finished
the rough shape, and you must ornament it. Take a piece of thin gold
web and cover your box, then get some gold braid and make a diaper or
criss-cross pattern all over the box, leaving fair sized lozenges; in
these put, at regular intervals as a plain check, small squares of
crimson silk so that they fit across the lozenge and so make a double
pattern. Now take some gold wire or brass wire and knot it at neat
intervals, and then stitch it on to the edges of the gold braid, after
which pearl beads may be arranged on the crimson squares and at the
cross of the braid; then you will have your box-patterned head-dress
complete.

It remains for you to enlarge upon this, if you wish, in the following
manner: