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eft is employed in making facks and other frong cloths for carrying grain or feeds. Of the fineft is made bed, table, and body linen. The peasants in feveral places ufe no other, for they are unacquainted with the culture of hemp or flax, their foil being too dry and ! too barren for railing them. The cloth made with the thread of the broom is very afeful; it is as foft as that made of hemp; and it would perhaps look as well as that made of flax if it was more carefully fpun. It becomes white in proportion as it is fteeped. The price of the fineft thread when it is fold, which feldom happens, is generally about a fhilling a pound.

The ftalks, after the fibrous part has been peeled off, are tied together in fmall faggots, and fold for the kindling of fires: the faggot generally confifts of four. They alfo make matches of them, but these are not equal to thofe made of hemp, although they make a brifker fire.

The second and principal use received from the culture of this broom, is its ferving for food in Winter to fheep and goats. These animals, from November to April, have hardly any other for age in the mountains of lover Languedoc than the leaves of trees preferved for the purpose. The branches of the broom are, therefore, a refource the more precious that it is the only fresh nourishment which at that feason the flocks can procure, and they prefer it at all times to every other plant.

In fine weather the sheep are led out to feed on the broom where it grows; but in bad weather the fhepherds cut the branches and bring them to the sheep-folds

Sheep fed on this plant are sometimes subject to a disease, the principal character of which is an inflammation of the urinary paffages; it proceeds from having eaten of the plant too abundantly, and may be prevented by mixing it with fome other. Sheep are particularly subject to the disease when they have eaten the feeds of the broom; and therefore it is most prevalent when the plant is in fruit. The pernicious quality of the feeds is indicated by a heavy fmell, which exhales from them when in a heap.

But these inconveniencies may be easily prevented, and therefore should be no obftacle to the ufe of a plant so valuable as this for the nourishment of fheep; and efpecially as the cure of the difeafe is fimple, confifting merely in cooling drink, or a change of

food.

Sheep are not allowed to enter a fhrubbery of this broom the first nor the second year after it is fown; but they are permitted to brouze upon it after the third year. The ftumps that have been eaten at the extremities are cut off with a hook; and at the end of fix years it is neceffary to cut the ftock it Gent. Mag. Jan. 1788.

felf, that it may push out fresh fhoots. By this means the broom lafts a very long time, and furnishes pretty long branches every year.

A fandy or ftony foil, as I have already obferved, agrees exceedingly well with this fhrub; and therefore the culture of it ought to be confidered as very beneficial, as it furnifhes a means of turning to account the most barren and unprofitable spots where no other plant could profper.

It may likewife be multiplied in particular inclosures, which may ferve in winter as places for feeding deer or even rabbits. Wafte places that are fit for nothing else may be chofen for this purpose, especially as we fee that the culture of the fhrub is attended with little expence, and almoft no trouble.

The culture of the broom was formerly confined to a few villages about Lodeve, but is now extended over almost all the mountains of lower Languedoc.

It is, perhaps, needless to say that it differs much from the broom that is common every where in the North of Europe, though this too in many places is ufed for food to cattle. Both of them produce flowers that are very much reforted to by bees, as they contain a deal of the honey juice they are lo fond of. And this fhould be another inducement to the cultivation of the Spanish Broom.

Extraordinary Account of Richard Carroll, commonly called Blind Dick

IT is fomething remarkable, that the pa

rents of this unfortunate person were tranfported during his infancy; by which means he was put into St. Luke's workhouse. His playing upon a fife at that place attracted the notice of one of the overfeers so far, that he procured an able mafter to teach him the violin; but not liking confinement, he foon eloped from his patron, and fubfifted by playing in Moorfields, and at public houses. His firft adventure as a marauder was as fingular as any other trait of his character; as he actually, in concert with a lame man, robbed the workhoufe where he had been brought up, of feveral beds, &c. that hd been put out to air in the yard. He foon afterwards ran a race with another perfon that had loft his fight, named blind Job, which he won by a confiderable distance. A habit of betting and gaming had fo far initiated him to attend the fkittle-grounds, at which he was fuch an adept, that he could tell, by the found of the pins, how many had fallen, &c. He once, after fidling with a bunter's garland, He allo kept decamped with the box. company with a blind girl, till, by the quickness of his ear, he difcovered a rival in the room by hearing him breathe. He was afterwards a cicefbeo to a body of eafy virtue

C

near

near St. Catharine's, he was detected in packing up the houfhold furniture for a removal. In February, 1782, he was detected in cutting the velvet out of a loom belonging to a weaver near Moorfields, for which he was capitally convicted, but received his majefty's clemency on condition of being imprifoned three years in Newgate. Near the expiration of this period, in confequence of fome wanton provocation, he flabbed one of the prifoners in the belly, for which he was again imprisoned two years. It is alfo fingular, that he procured an affluent fubfiftence in Newgate, by taking pledges of wearing apparel, &c. of which he was a competent judge by mere feeling, and was frequently employed by the prisoners in better circumftances, to play Macpherson's and other flash tunes, of which he was a tolerable performer.

Obfervations on the Female Drefs of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries.

From Mr. Gough's "". Sepulchral Monuments,”

I'

lately published.

N the earlier periods the treffes were left to their natural flow, as thofe of Queen Matilda before mentioned. The coeffure of the thirteenth century concealed the hair entirely. In the middle of the fourteenth century, a clofer head-drefs was introduced; the hair was fhewn only in curls on the forehead, and covered with a vest, as on Joan de Cobham, 1354 (a).

What objection the ladies had to the difplay of the hair (the greateft ornament of the human face) is hard to fay: it was certainly more becoming, however formal, than either the fashions which foon fucceeded, or perhaps obtained at the fame time (the end of the fourteenth century) of muffling up the head and almoft the face in drapery, or of purfing up the hair in protuberant nets, which covered the ears, or, which was ftill more ugly, was raised above them. This latter fashion appears at the beginning of the fifteenth century.

The reticulated head-drefs appears firft on our monuments and thofe on the continent about the middle of the fourteenth century. Perhaps it was introduced into England by Queen Philippa, who died in 1639, and has it on her monument (b).

Lady Berkeley at Berkeley, 1630, has the long clofe head-drefs, adorned with net work of quatrefoils, a strait robe reaching up to her chin, and parting juft below it; a Lorder with a cordon (c). It continued with as late as the beginning of the 15th centu N O TE S. (b) Pl. XLIX.

(a) I'. XXXIX.

(c) Pl. XLIV.

ry, as appears on the brass of Joan wife of Richard fon of Robert Lord Poynings, in St. Helen's church, Bishopfgate, 1420, whofe veil folds over it in front of the head in form of a furbaft arch, like that of the lady of Judge Gaifcoign, near the fame time, in Harwood church, Yorkshire, who has alfo the reticulation. John of Gaunt's duchefs in Old St. Paul's had the reticulation with the pediment.

The Queen of Rene of Anjou, and Joan de Dreux lady of Seirant, 1356, have the close reticulated head-drefs. The latter with her husband, are reprefented kneeling on a monument of the 16th century, in St. George's abbey, near Angers.

It is not faithfully reprefented in the engravings of Mary wife of Frank van Halen lord of Lillo 1415, in the metropolitan church of Malines in the Theatre de Brabant (d) ; and Matilda countess of Spanheim, at Hemenrode, 1357, who has also the long buttoned fleeves (e).

The hair of Cecilia Kerdeften (ƒ) is richly dreft in three rows. That of Maud de Cobham, in the fame plate, fig. 2. in one mass of ziggag work, in five rows, which appears again at the bottom of the tresses. She has a fingle row of jewelry on her forehead. That of Catherine wife of Sir John Harfik, who died 1384, has the plaited or braided hair only at the fides of the face, it being left ålanature on the crown, anda ftudded fillet on the forehead. Joan, duchefs of Burgundy, firft wife of Philip de Valoife, who died 1384, has the fame head-dress (g). The wife of Sir Miles Stapleton fhews the fame plaiting at the ears, while her hair on her forehead curling naturally is encircled by a ftudded fillet. Sir Thomas Chaucer's lady as Ewelme wears a veil covering the whole of her head. In all or most of these cafes I doubt whether the hair be enclosed in net work, as the Spaniards of both fexes do up their in filken redenillas, over which the women throw a veil, or gathered up in fome kind of cloth, as feems to be the cafe on lady Beauchamp's figure at Warwick (b), in which fuch plaits as thefe evidently appear to come round and finish in a facing of that fort; and on that of Isabel duchefs of Clarence, about 1477, at Tewbury, it is more ftrongly marked. These were the ancient covercheffs, in after times called kerchiefs.

One of the Marmion ladies at Tanfield, about the reign of Henry III. or Edward I. N O TE S. (c) I. 48. Acta Theod. Palat. III. p. 49. (g) Pl. XXXIX. 3.

(d) Pl. XLIV.

(b) Montf. II. XLIX. 4. Les cheveux treffez d'une maniere particuliere.

has

1788 Obfervations on Female Drefs, from the 13th to the 16th Century. 19

has a close short cap shewing her ears, but no hair.

Late, ladies dreffed their hair closer, with a narrow ftudded fillet: the gown plaited, large loose fleeves, mittens, and girdle. A little figure in Chefhunt church age unknown, has close braided hair, with the close headdrefs and fillet, her ears left uncovered: the wears a kind of loofe gown or frock, with bag fleeves close at the wrift, a standing cape or collar, and mittens on her hands.

We fee the head-dreffes of the 14th century rickt and frounced in proportion as much as in Drayton's time (i)."

With dreffing, braiding, frouncing, flowering,

All your jewels on me pouring. Or as Spenser describes (k).

When Ifabel of Bavaria, the vain voluptuous confort of Charles VI. of France, kept her court at Vicennes, 1416, it was found neceffary to make all the doors of the palace both higher and wider, to admit the headdreffes of the queen and her ladies (r). Her rich drefs and train may be seen in Montfau con, who adds, we have not yet feen a queen fo fet off as the ().

The high head-drefs was however in fafhion fifty years before; as we fee by the duchess of Bretagne, 1341 (?)

To fupport the breadth of thefe dreffes, they had a kind of artificial horn on cach tide of the head, bending upwards, on which many folds of ribbon and other ornaments were fufpended. From the top of the horn on the right fide a ftreamer of filk, or fome

Some frounce (1) their curled hair in other light fabrick, was hung, which was

courtly guise,

Some praunche their rufflesThe female head-drefs of the 14th century appears by the picture of Ifabel queen of Edward II. before cited, in a MS. of Froiffart, in the king of France's library (m), to have been of the fugar-loaf or conical form, very high, with lace floating in the air: a fashion which Montfaucon obferves continued in France near two centuries, to the end of the fifteenth. A lady in Mr. Walpole's picture of Henry VI. whom he takes for Jaquelina duchefs of Bedford, in a widow's habit, has the fame-drefs.

So have feveral ladies in Montfaucon, who calls it a conic ornament, which continued in fashion near two centuries, and on Mary of Burgundy, wife of the Emperor Maximilian, appears of an extraordinary length, having fastened on the top a very long gauze, which hangs down on both fides to the ground ("). This is the origin of our lappets. lfabel de Bourbon wife of Charles duke of Burgundy, has the fame head-drefs which Montfaucon there calls a fugar-loaf, from the form, whence falls a gauze fo fine and loofe, that though it covers her eyes and the greatest part of her face, her features are feen diftinctly through (o). Ifabel de Maille wife of John de Brie wears that great pointed head-drefs which continued near two centuries, and lafted till near the end of the fifteenth (p). See alfo Margaret of Scotland, who married the Dauphin of France, fon of Charles VII. 1436 (4):

N

(i) Pl. L.

E S.

fometimes allowed to fly loofe, and fom times brought over the bofom, and wraptabout the left arm (u). Thefe horned headdreffes, imperfectly reprefented by Mr. Strutt (v) from illuminated MSS. are what are otherwise called mitred, and feem to have been introduced about the reign of Richard II.

The head-drefs defcribed by Rofs as before cited as " tiara alta et cornuta," and known to antiquaries by the name of mitred, is not fo common on foreign as on English monuments, though frequent in illuminations in Montfaucon's tome III. Mr. Pennant (zu) calls it a remarkable mitre-fhaped cap, defcribing the monument of Sir Thomas and lady Boteler, in Warrington church, about the time of Edward I. I am led to diftruft my own conjecture on the monuments affigned to the Fitz Walter family Dunmow, where the knight had plated armour, and

N

T

(r) Ib. III. xxxvIII.

S.

Jouvenal des Urfins gives this curious account of them: "Et quelque guerre qu'il y eut, tempêtes et daindiffelles menoient grands & exceflifs etats, et cornes merveilleufes, hautes et longuns, et avoient de chacun coté, en lieu de bourlees, deux grandes oreilles fi longes que quand ils vouloient pafler l'huis d'une chambre il falloit qu'elles fe tournassent de coté et baisfassent, ou elles n'euffent pu paffer." Brantome fays, “Ou donne le las a la reyne Ifabelle de Baviere, femme de roi Charles VI. d'avoir apporté en France le Pompes & les gorgiafetez pour bien habiller fuperbement et gorgieusement les

(4) Nov. Elyf. Nymph. II. vol. IV. p. dames." Hift de la Reine Marguerite.

6.

(1) F. Q.L. IV. 14.

(m) From froncer, Fr. to curl.

a) Montf. II. XLII. p. 233.

Montf. IV. vi. p. 59.

(p) III. Lxvi. 2.

(7) Ib. III. p. 166. Pl. LIV.

Villaret, XIII. 423. Monftrelet, f. 39.
col. 2. Pafquiere, p. 578. Henry's
Hift. of England, V. 557

(t) III. xxv. p. 888.
(u) II. xLv. p. 256.
(v) Montf. II. pl. VI.

(w) II. xlv.

the lady the mitred head-drefs; both which were not introduced till two centuries later. I can only plead the tradition of the place, fupported by the register of the house, and fuppofe the monuments made fo long after the time of the present death, that no regard was paid to the drefs of the time when they lived. Compare my print to this monument with that in Antiq. Repert. III. p. 17. Matilda has what Montfaucon would call the Mortier, the mantle, the ftrait-bodied, longfleeved tunic, a collar of SS. and a profufion of jewels and rings. No figure like hers is to be found in the Monumens de la Monarchie François.

The head-drefs of lady Say, 1473, in Broxborn church, refembles a cylinder with hoops, having wires at the end to buoy out the flowing veil. She has a kind of falling double cape of fur and lace, and a jacket under her furtout reaching to the knee. Joan de Bokenham, in Great Livermore church, Suffolk, and a lady at Long Melford in the fame county, about 1425, has fuch an headdrefs.

The head-drefs was fometimes pointed at top like a pediment. So Aubrey defcribes the wife of one of the Mortimers earl of March, in the time of Edward III. in Maule church, c. Hereford. He fays it was made of velvet or cloth embroidered. Henry the Seventh's Queen, in a picture by Holbein, at Whitehall, is fuch. Such is Anne Bulleyn's reputed portrait at Hever Castle, at Knoll, &c.

Margaret countess of Salisbury, daughter of the king maker earl of Warwick, behead ed 1541, has this kind of head-drefs like fo many on tombs (x) It came in about the reign of Henry VII. and is very common on ftone figures, braffes, and pictures. I have not found one inftance of it out of this coun

try.

Inftances of this divided head-drefs not fo high are to be found among the houfe of Bourbon in the middle of the 15th century, on Mary wife of Peter d'Orgemont, 1470 () and two other ladies of the reign of Louis XII. (z), on which laft Muntfaucon obferves (a), that they are dreft in the habit of the times, and their head-dress is extraordinary, and both dreft alike. See also two ladies about the middle of the 14th century (6); and the two peaks gradually diminifhed almoft to a concave form in the monument of the fucceeding age. On the ladies of the Funtayne family at Narford, c. N Ο T E S. (x) Voyage to the Hebrides, p. 10. (See Ant. Report. IV. 169. (z) Montf. IV. 11. 5. (a) Ib. Pl. after xxviii. 2. 3. (6) IV. p. 146.

Norfolk, 1453 (c), these peaks appear to the veil, which on one of the wives is flat, as on lady Harcourt about 1470.

:

In the reign of Edward IV. female apparel affumed a more coftly form. The firft wife of Thomas Payton, at Ifelham, is habited in the richest flowered filk (d), and a fancy necklace of precious ftones; her veil flies behind her head, but fhews very little hair, and in the coif under the veil is an infcription, which feems "Lorde Jefu, mercy!" On her wrifts the has fomething like the ftiff turned back ruffles of fucceeding times her feet are concealed under the folds of her robe. The fecond wife who appears older, has the fame kind of head-drefs. the fame necklaces and ruffles; but these last are of fur, with which her breaft and shoulders are covered, and her robe trimmed at bottom. Both thefe ladies have very flender shapes, and are girded with broad beltlike girdles. The dress of the French ladies was very different at this time, and had lefs departed from the ancient fashion (e). The furcoat was not left off in 148r (ƒ).`

In the middle of the 15th century female drefs made great approaches to that worn in the fucceeding one; the long fleeves were left off entirely, the mantle exchanged for a flowing gown, tightened more indeed round the waift, but training in the fkirts like modern drefs. The head-drefs floated more at cafe with veil-like lappets ftretched on wires, and fupported by a ftiffened cawl; or if at all confined it was in the pediment form before mentioned, of which we have innumerable inftances on braffes. A lady at Eafton in Suffolk, retains the long mitten fleeves, with a tighter gown, which feems to reach only to the knees, and fhew a petticoat; her girdle drops fo low that her purfe is at her knees. This is one of the laft inftances of a cushion under the head. The wife of Thomas Broke ferjeant at arms to Henry VIII. 1518, in Broxborne church, has the pediment head-drefs with very long lappets before and behind, while other ladies have only the lappet in front, and a kind of hood or clofe veil behind. She has alfo a belt reaching to her feet. About 1546 we come to ruffs round the neck and wrifts, puffed N O TE S. (c) III. liv. 8, 9.

(d) Blomef. III. 522.

(e) Such I fuppofe as Stowe defcribing Sheriff Lion's gown, 1381. (fee page 137.) calls "branched damafk wrought with the likeness of flowers," like Milton's flowery kirtled Naiades (Comus 254.) See alfo Mary of Burgundy, Montf. IV. vi.

(f) See Montf. III. p. liv. xlvi. (s) lb. IV. vi.

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fleeves with oiellet holes, large falling hoods and jewels in front, ftiff stays, laced apron, long petticoats, as Benet wife of Richard Dering, 1546.

fhoulders a fquare white kerchief, as on the monument of John Oneby and wife in Hinckley church, engraved in Mr. Nichols's Hiftory of that town, pl. vi. and worn by the mother and daughters. The hufband was a barrifter of Gray's Inn, and steward of the court of records at Leicester, is in the dress of his profeffion, with a coif and large band.

Letter from a Gentleman in America to his
Friend in England. ̧

In the reign of Elizabeth and James I. the ftay or boddice was not fo ftraitly laced, the fleeves at the fhoulders were fet in with raised and puffed work, the gown and petticoat and apron were distinct, the ruff confined to the neck, but enlarged (g). In James's Dr. Henry, who has given a fhort view reign the women wore heavy fhoes like men's, of the drefs of each reign at the end of his and high crowned hats with ribbands or hiftory of each reign, is rather too tender of bands. Even the youngest daughters retain his cotemporaries, when he says, " Upon the mother's habit, but fometimes have a fly the whole I am fully perfuaded, that we cap. Such a cap is worn by Mary Payton have no good reafon to pay any compliof Ifelham, about the end of the fixteenth ments to our ancestors of this period at the century. She has a ftanding cape to her expence of our cotemporaries, either for the gown, a ruff round her neck, her fleeves tied frugality, elegance, or decency of their with ribbands from the shoulder to the wrift, dreis." and her gown opening in front difcovers a rich embroidered petticoat. Radcliffe wife to Themas Wingfield of Eafton, Suffolk, 1607, has a clofe cap, hair drawn up high and fliff in front, ftanding ruff, puffit fleeves, with falling laced ruffles, very narrow pointed boddice, gown puckered up over fardingale, and fhewing a rich embroidered peticoat. Elizabeth Lady Culpeper, in Ardingley church, Suffex, 1633, has an almost Van dyck head-drefs, a mantle wrapt round her, pufit and corded fleeves, with pinked ruffles, à falling band or ruff, and an embroidered petticoat. A young lady of this family, in the fame church, 1634, is dreffed fomewhat like her, except the mantle, and has a taf. fel to her girdic. In the middle of this century we see the veil falling over a black hood tied under the chin, and over the neck and N T E.

(b) In France at this time the fleeve was long to the wrist, and puffed at the fhoulders, the gown open fometimes in front, fometimes faftened with bows: the ruff small; the gloves fhort early in the fixteenth century: fee alfo later Catherine of Medicis, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry II. Margaret, daughter of Francis I. (Montf. V. pl. v. ix. xi. xii.) Margaret de Bourbon has a tucker without a kerchief; Diane de France, natural daughter of Henry II. has a handfome laced kerchief and larger ruff. Ib. pl. xii. 3, 6. The kerchief of Elizabeth queen of Charles IX. is of fur, Ib. pl. xxiv. Magdalen de Corbie, fo late as 1562, has the old fashioned clofe fleeve buttoned at the fides, and ifluing out of larger, and terminating in a kind of ruffle. lb. xv. 2. The hair of Frances princefs of Conde, pl. xxvii. is divided at top mitrefashion. That great piece of stuff, as Montfaucon calls it, (V. p. 63.) rifing up over the Thoulders, at the neck and head, appears in moft of the portraits of Catherine de Medicis. Ruffles appear as early as 1503, and long fur cuffs, pl. xxvii.

SIR,
HE

peculiar cuftoms of every country appear to strangers fingular and abfurd; but the inhabitants confider thofe very cuftoms as highly proper, and even indifpenfably neceffary. Long habit impofes on the understanding any thing that is not in itfelf immediately deftructive or pernicious. The religion of a country is fcarcely held in greater fanctity than its cftablished cuftoms; and it is almoft as fruitless to attempt the alterations in the one as in the other. Any interference of government to reform national cuftoms, however trivial and abfurd, never fails to produce the greateft difcontents, and fometimes dangerous convulfions; of this there are frequent inftances in hiftory. Bad cuftoms can only be removed by the fame means that established them, viz. by imperceptible gradations, and the constant example and influence of the higher clafs of people. We are apt to conclude, that the fashions and customs of our own country are the moft rational and proper, because the eye and the understanding have long fince been reconciled to them; and yet the foreigner will defend his national habits with full as much plaufibility as we can our own. The truth is, that reafon has very little to do in the matter, and nature lefs. All cuftoms are arbitrary, and one nation hath as undoubted a right to fix its peculiarities as another. It is in vain to talk of convenience as a standard; for every thing becoines convenient by practice and habit.

I have read fomewhere of a nation, in Africa, (I think) which is governed by twelve counfellors.-When thefe counfellors are to meet on public business, twelve large earthen jars are fet in two rows and filled with water; the counfellors one after another, enter stark nake Beach leap

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