Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/228

208 Court, he held aloof from those amusements and pursuits which he felt were dragging his country to ruin. He cut his hair close round his head, thus earning the nickname of Roundhead as opposed to the long-haired Cavalier, for long hair was to him a luxury and a temptation to vanity. He disliked the soft brimmed hat of the Cavalier, with its graceful ease, wearing instead a stiff, high-crowned, broad-brimmed hat at once severe and forbidding. His doublet and hose were of dark coarse cloth, and his stockings of thick worsted. He wore no bright colours, no lace, no jewels, no ruff; round his neck was a broad folded band of linen. Here were no slashings, no "rustle of silks, no waving of plumes, no clink of golden spurs."

The Puritan lady dressed likewise in sombre hues. She wore a plain silk gown of grey with a folded white handkerchief, or cape with long close sleeves and a plain hood tied under the chin, or a broad-brimmed felt hat with a high crown. All was neat and plain and picturesque, a contrast to the Court beauty and to her gay courtier in his graceful clothes. His doublet was of silk or satin with loose, slashed sleeves, his wide collar of fine lace high up round the throat and turned