Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/199

Rh Then, as now, the Court was the model for fashion. Queen Elizabeth had a pale complexion, hence the ladies of the realm swallowed "gravel, ashes, and tallow," and one has but little doubt that they successfully achieved their object. The Queen had a variety of new ostrich feather fans, hence no well dressed lady could be seen without one suspended by a gold chain from her wrist "to flit away the flisking flies." The Queen also wore silk stockings with clocks instead of the old cloth hose; she wore high-heeled shoes or Venetian "chopines"; she also carried a pocket-handkerchief too richly trimmed with gold and silver to be of much use; she had gloves "trimmed with tufts of rose coloured silk," and "sweet as damask roses" from perfume. Gloves for women were quite an innovation; hitherto they had been a distinctive feature of men's dress.

But not everybody might copy the Queen's toilet. By the sumptuary laws of the period, only the nobility might wear woollen goods made out of England; only those with an income of £200 a year might wear velvet or embroidery ornamented with gold and silver; none but those receiving over £100 might wear satin, damask, silk, or taffeta. The size of men's breeches, the texture of their