lady decides to discard
her close and uncomfortable head-covering. She lets her plaits hang
over her shoulders, and so appears in public. Contempt of other ladies
who have fine heads of hair for the thinness of her plaits;
competition in thick and long hair; anger of ladies whose hair is not
thick and long; enormous demand for artificial hair; failure of the
supply to meet the ever-increasing demand; invention of silken cases
filled with a substitute for hair, these cases attached to the end of
the plaits to elongate them--in this manner do many fashions arrive
and flourish, until such time as the common people find means of
copying them, and then my lady wonders how she could ever have worn
such a common affair.

The gowns of these ladies remained much the same, except that the
loose gown, without any show of the figure, was in great favour; this
gown was confined by a long girdle.

The girdle was a long rope of silk or wool, which was placed simply
round the waist and loosely knotted; or it was wound round above the
waist once, crossed behind, and then knotted in front, and the ends
allowed to hang down. The ends of the girdle had tassels and knots
depending from them.

The silk cases into which the hair was placed were often made of silk
of variegated colours, and these cases had metal ends or tassels.

The girdles sometimes were broad bands of silk diapered with gold
thread, of which manufacture specimens remain to us.

[Illustration: A WOMAN OF THE TIME OF HENRY I. (1100-1135)

This shows the pendant sleeve with an embroidered hem. The long
plaits of hair ended with metal, or silk, tags. At the neck and
wrists the white chemise shows.]

The sleeves of the gowns had now altered in shape, and had acquired a
sort of pendulent cuff, which hung down about two hands' breadth from
the wrist. The border was, as usual, richly ornamented.

[Illustration: {A woman of the time of Henry I.}]

Then we have a new invention, the pelisse. It is a loose silk coat,
which is brooched at the waist, or buttoned into a silk loop. The
sleeves are long--that is, they gradually increase in size from the
underarm to the wrist, and sometimes are knotted at the ends, and so
are unlike the other gown sleeves, which grow suddenly long near to
the wrist.

This pelisse reaches to the knees, and is well open in front. The idea
was evidently brought back from the East after the knights arrived
back from the First Crusade, as i