nouncement to his girls which the father of Dinah made to that now celebrated and unhappy young lady,—namely, the necessity of decking themselves in their most seductive array, as there was a lover on the road who would dine with them that day. Now, if the morning was fine, there was also an eager and a nipping air abroad; but the elder of the two damsels, disregarding the temperature, and thinking only how best to display her slender waist and graceful shape, put on a "cote hardie;" and in this closefitting garment, without an inch of fur to lend it warmth, she accompanied her sister to the portal, to bid welcome to the lover, looking for a lady of his love. But that sister was attired with reference to the condition of the thermometer, if her father had one, which is exceedingly doubtful. She was warmly clad; and if her figure was concealed by her mantle, the result of such covering was, that her young blood, in circulating, left a rose upon her cheeks, and did not fix itself, in obstinate stagnation, as in her more airy sister's case, on the tip of the nose.

Now a red nose is not fascinating; and the knight's choice was soon made. He gave his hand to the maiden who had shown most sense in the choice of attire, and a very merry wedding was the speedy consequence. As for what turned up in the way of further results, it was, I believe, chiefly the nose of the unsuccessful candidate, which became "retroussé en permanence." The moral of the tale is respectfully recommended to the notice of all young ladies who seek to catch ardent knights on wintry mornings.

If the men in the days of Edward III. wore "tails behind," as well as beards before, the ladies were not behind them in extravagance-in tails; and indeed in other matters. For a lady to ride on a palfrey, and not on a charger, would have been considered as derogatory as for a bridesmaid, in our days, to "spoil her prospects" by going to a

wedding in a one-horse fly. The damsels of this age very much affected the dress of the men, and we have seen the same affectation in our own time; and this fashion was pushed to such an extreme, that they even carried two tiny daggers in the pouches of their embroidered zones. Their head-dress still lingers among the female peasantry of Normandy, and may be recognized in the species of mitre cap, of enormous height, from the summit of which streamers float in the air like pennants from the masts of some "tall amiral." It may be added, that if, in many respects, the dresses of the women resembled those of the men, their deeds, too, were like theirs; and these were often (like the dresses) none of the cleanest.

We will discuss the progress of these matters in a new chapter.

ADONIS AT HOME AND ABROAD.

PART II.

"La modestie, la plus touchante des vertus, est encore la plus séduisante des parures."-MAD. COTTIN: Mathilde.

THE Jews were undoubtedly an ill-fated people. In London, in the olden time, whenever any class had a grievance, the work of redress was commenced by slaying the Hebrews. In the reign of Henry III. the municipality of London and a portion of the nobility were dreadfully incensed against Queen Eleanor; and to show their indignation, they not only plundered and murdered scores of common Israelites, but the City Marshal and Baron FitzJohn repaired to the residence of Kok ben Abraham, the wealthiest Hebrew in the city, where the noble lord ran his sword through the body of the child of the synagogue, laughing the while as if the jest were a good one. Certainly, this was a strange method of showing a political bias; and it would be no jest now if Lord Winchelsea, for instance, angry at the desire of the Crown to admit Jews into Parliament, were to rush down to the city and plunge his paper-cutter into the diaphragm of poor Baron Rothschild.

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In the case above alluded to, not only were some four hundred of the devoted race robbed and killed, but the mob, satiated with savagery, determined to wind their well-spent evening with a frolic. Accordingly they turned out of their beds all the Jews, of various ages and both sexes, and compelled them to walk the streets throughout

the entire night, with nothing on but their "bed-gowns." This was scant dress enough in those times, and there was no active police to afford the victims protection. I notice this incident, because it comes fairly under the head of costume. I think, moreover, that all the police in the city at the present time would be puzzled what to do, were the last night of an election, returning "Sir Solomon" at the head of the poll, to be signalized by a riot, the climax of which presented all the Levys, Goldschmidts, Isaacs, and Marx, of "Simmery Axe,"-wives and husbands, sons and daughters, compulsorily parading through Cheapside in their night-gear. Between the blushes of Miss Tryphena Levy, and the indignation of Mr. Penuel Isaacs her admirer, the gallant and loud-laughing Division X. would hardly know which victim to succour first. Such a cortége however would probably bring into fashion the "bonnets de nuit à la Juive."

Our gallant knights of old thought it no degradation to receive clothes at the hands of the king. When Henry IV. dubbed some four dozen the day before his coronation, he made presents to all of long green coats, with tight sleeves, furred, and verdant hoods: the cavaliers must have looked like cucumbers. The sumptuary laws of this reign had this additional severity in them, that they decreed imprisonment during the King's pleasure against any tailor who should dare to make for a commoner a costume above his degree. The tailors, like wise men, did not ask their customers whether they were gentle or simple; and burghers dressed as before, more splendidly than barons.

There was this difference between the two wretched monarchs, John and Richard III. John was curious about his wife's dress, and careless touching his own; whereas Richard (who was not half so bad as history and Mr. C. Kean represent him), was perhaps the most superbly royal dandy that ever sat on an English throne: George IV. was

the mere Dandini to that Prince Ramiro. Henry VII., again, was utterly void of taste, and seems to have wanted a nurse more than a valet.

The author of the 'Boke of Kervynge' says to the "proper officer" of this king, in a sort of advice to servants, "Warme your soveregne his petticotte, his doublet, and his stomacher, and then put on hys hozen, and then hys schose or slyppers; then stryten up hys hozen mannerly, tye them up, and lace his doublet hole by hole.”

We have an illustration of the national feeling with regard to dress in Henry VIII.'s time, in the story of Drake, the cordwainer.

John Drake, the Norwich shoemaker, was resolved to dress, for once, like a knight; and accordingly he betook himself to Sir Philip Calthrop's tailor, and seeing some fine French tawney cloth lying there, which the cavalier had sent to have made into a gown,-gentlemen then, as now, it seems, sometimes found "their own materials," - the aspiring Crispin ordered a gown of the same stuff and fashion. The knight, on calling at the tailor's, saw the two parcels of "materials," and inquired as to the proprietary of the second. "The stuff," said the master, "is John Drake's, the Norwich shoemaker, who will have a gown of the same fashion as your valiant worship." "Will he so?" asked proud Sir Philip; "then fashion mine as full of cuts as thy shears can make it, and let the two be alike, as ordered." He was obeyed; but when John Drake looked wonderingly upon his aristocratic garment, and saw the peculiar mode thereof, and was moreover told the reason therefor, he rubbed his bullet-head vexedly, and remarked, "By my latchet, an it be so John Drake will never ask for gentleman's fashion again.”

I have spoken in my 'Table Traits' of how a French knight gained a livelihood by making salads; I may notice here that a Flemish frau, Dingham van der Plafze, did the same