Page:British costume (IA britishcostumeco00planuoft).djvu/37



Julius Agricola, being appointed to the command in Britain 78, succeeded in perfectly establishing the Roman dominion, and introducing the Roman manners and language; and, before the close of the first century, the ancient British habit began to be disesteemed by the chiefs, and regarded as a badge of barbarism. " The sons of the British chieftains," says Tacitus, " began to affect our dress ."

The braccæ were abandoned by the southern and eastern Britons, and the Roman tunic, reaching to the knee, with the cloak or mantle, still however called the sagum, became the general habit of the better classes.

The change in the female garb was little, if any; as it had originally been similar to that of the Roman women. The coins of Carausius and the columns of Trajan and Antonine exhibit the Celtic females in two tunics; the lower one reaching to the ancles, and the upper about half-way down the thigh, with loose sleeves, extending only to the elbows, like those of the German women described by Tacitus This upper garment was sometimes confined by a girdle, and was called in British gwn, the gunacum of Varro, and the origin of our word gown.

The hair of both sexes was cut and dressed after the Roman fashion.

In the armoury at Goodrich Court is a most interesting relic of this period. It is the metal coating of a shield, such as the Britons fabricated after they had been induced to imitate the Roman fashions. It is modelled upon the scutum and was called, in consequence, ysgwyd, pronounced esgooyd. It appears originally to have been gilt, a practice con-