Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/333

 afid Sentiments. 3^3 neceflary. Chaucer defcribes the Wife of Bath as wearuig fpurs, and as enveloped in a " foot-mantle :" — Uppon an ambler e ejely fche fat, Wymplid fid ivil, and on Aire heed an hat Ai brood as is a buc/er, or a targe ; A foot-mantel aboute hire hupes (hips) large. And on hire feet a paire of f pores fcharpe. — Cant. Tales, 1. 471. Travelling on horfeback was now more common than at an earlier period, and this was not unfrequently a fubjeft of popular complaint. In No. 2IO. Ladies Ridtno fatl, men who rode on horfeback confidered themfelves much above the pedeftrians ; they often went in companies, and were generally accom- panied with grooms, and other riotous followers, who committed all forts of depredations and violence on the peafantry in their way. A fatirical fong of the latter end of the reign of Edward I., reprefents our Saviour as difcouraging the pra6tice of riding. "While God was on earth," fays the writer, " and wandered wide, what was the reafon he would not ride ? Becaufe he would not have a groom to go by his fide, nor the grudging (or difcontent) of any gadling to jaw or to chide :" — Wh'il God luas on erthe And ivondrede ivyde, 14-liet ives the refoun Why he nolde ryde ? s s For