this word is thus given by Minshieu: "Partlet, or Neckerchief, quod portelet, circa collum quod gestetur." It is difficult to point out clearly its specific difference from the gorget, which is supposed to have preceded it, or from the tippet, which is of about coeval origin. The partlet came into fashion towards the close of the fifteenth century, and, if this be that article of dress, which is thus worn by John Halle, I can only say, that it assimilates very closely with the tippet, as worn by the female in modern days. It is made to cover the breast, and shoulders; it appears to be of black satin, or velvet, and to be embroidered with gold thread around both its upper and lower edges, between which are worked a double row of trefoil leaves, and it is surrounded with a border of fur. It is handsome, but not gorgeous in its appearance, nor ill-suited to the wear of the affluent merchant. The partlet, I should imagine, was not a very general article of dress. On referring to the coeval suit of the "Galante" I perceive, that he is not so arrayed, but has merely the collar of his doublet drawn together by an encircling double gold chain. The partlet seems to have been more in fashion about the time of Henry, the Eighth, and several are mentioned in the inventory of his wardrobe, and in other inventories; they were generally, as in this instance, embroidered with gold thread. In days of yore, the ladies busied themselves more in the domestic concerns than in the present days; housekeepers, and upper servants (unless, perhaps, in the establishment of the affluent Baron or Knight)

66

were a race little known, and-as little wanted. To the young ladies of the family the pleasing hum of the wheel was often music to their ears; the piano, and even the virginal (the venerable ancestor of the piano) was not then invented, and the deleterious novel was unheard of. There were then, I ween, no pastry-cooks, and confectioners; and the ladies, we may presume, employed themselves in preparing the greater delicacies of the table, and in the making of hippocras, and comfits, &c. Following the example of Andromache, the wife of Hector, they spun, and made the household linen, (from hence the ladies, who have not taken the honourable degree of matrimony, are ycleped Spinsters" even unto this very day,) and, in their yet spare time, they amused themselves occasionally with embroidery. I have no doubt, that the partlet of John Halle was embroidered by the hands of his fair daughter, Chrystian. I must here beg leave to refer to the celebrated, and interesting Paston Letters (9), which are a delightful record of the times, in which they were written the fifteenth century-the days of John Halle. Agnes Paston writes from Norwich to her "worshepeful housbond," then in London, and, at the close of her letter, she gives him this important commission, (which he, I ween, did not forget to execute :) "I pray you do byen for me ij (two) pypys of gold" (that is -skeins of gold thread run in pipes.) I trow,

Hippocras was a delicious beverage, far superior to the liqueurs of the modern times, and only inferior to nectar itself.

gentle reader, that this excellent wife was about to embroider his partlet.

In the above lines I have mentioned the wheel. Spinning was a great pas-time in nunneries. Their inmates, alas! having forsaken the world-unaccustomed to prepare the delicate cates of the table-wanting not the embroidered vest, and-disengaged from the endearing solace of husbands, and of children-had little to do, but-to pray, and to spin. "Below the wood

on the other side of the Rivulet," (says Aubrey in his "Collections for North Wilts," when speaking of the Priory of St. Maries in the parish of Kington St. Michael,) is a little meadow, called the Minchin, which word in old English is a Nunne: So Mincing Lane, in London, where was a Nunnery. On the east side of the house is a ground facing the east, and the delightfull prospect on the south east, called the Nymph-hay. Here old Jaques (who lived on the other side) would say, he hath seen 40 or 50 nunnes, in a morning, spinning, with their Rocks and Wheeles and bobbin; he said the number of them was often 70: he might not be mistaken perhaps in the number of women: for there might be as many lay sisters and pensioners as Nunnes; but Nunnes not so many." Aubrey was a native of that parish, and old Jaques, his living informant, was, most probably, a very aged man, whose memory might have carried him beyond the dissolution of the small Priory of St. Maries. The greater religious houses were dissolved by Henry, the Eighth, but the smaller ones were not suppressed till the time of Edward, the Sixth.

The tippet appears to have been of about coeval introduction with the partlet, but was more various, as to its form, in the earliest time; it is stated, that "it was sometimes large, and long, like a mantle; at other times it was narrow, and scarcely covered the top of the shoulders." The latter form, we may presume, was somewhat similar to that of the modern boa. It has now more generally, and decidedly, taken the shape borne by the partlet of John Halle.

In 1508, William Water, Vicar of the parish church of New Church, leaves to William Marshall, parson of the parish of Warehorn, his "velvett tippet."

I am strongly inclined to believe, that tippet is the generic word, and signifies, in reality, the top, or upper, covering; and that the partelet, or partlet, is, more strictly, the embroidered tippet, which our ancestors may not have been thus accustomed to ornament, unless, when the article of dress was more confined to the covering of the breast, and shoulders alone.

Having thus imparted my imperfect opinions as to this minor, yet ornamental, habiliment, let us now pass on to the consideration of

The Doublet,

Which is a most important part of the dress of John Halle, and of this word Minshieu gives the following etymology: "A Doublet, ita dici* Testamenta Vetusta, Vol. 2, p. 486.

tur, quod sit vestis duplicata, a doubled, and lined garment. Lat. Diplois, genus vestis militaris, à Gr. dindoïs, quod duplicem amictum significat."

In the more early part of the middle ages the principal article in the male costume was a tunic of greater, or lesser length, according to the fancy of the wearer; but, in the process of time, this was superseded by the adoption of the gown and the doublet. In the revolutions of dress, so gradual were oftentimes its changes -so repeatedly did it happen, that the article of dress of the prior date was for a length of time simultaneously, and interchangeably worn with that, by which it was wholly superseded, that it is rendered impossible to affix precise dates. Thus the tunic and the gown were for a period of coeval wear; as were more subsequently the gown and the doublet. The exact origin of the latter is involved in much mystery, and it has been considered to have arisen from the change of the military to the domestic costume. It is said, that it was the gambeson, wambois, or pourpoint, which was usually made of cloth, or leather, doubled, and stuffed with wool, tow, &c., and was worn beneath the armour for this two-fold purpose-to prevent it from chafing the body, and--to protect it from the thrust of the pointed weapon through the interstices of the armour. In its original use it also bore the denomination of the jupon, or gyppon. Thus Chaucer, in the “ Canterbury Tales," tells us, that the Knight wore beneath his body armour a doublet made of