Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/261

 z$6 THE HISTORY^ /BookL to their conquerors the Saxons of Englaiid/ And the Briton* muft have kept their antient trowfcrs,, as they afterwards comr municated to the Saxons their own appellation of Brages or Breeches for them. But the Britons mull have certainly bor- rowed fome additions to their native drefs from the fuller ward^ robe of the Romans. They muft how have worne that interior garment which the Romans called Subucula ajid the Britons de-r nominated a Sguird Skirt or Shirt * This at the beginning. of the Roman relidence among us was not compofed of the foft iinooth fubftance of linen, but was merely a white jacket of •flannel z And this muft have been generally worne in the na- tion, as it remains to this day the fhirt of fome peafants in the more northerly parts of England, But as the Roman ladies al* ways wore (ubucukc of linen % their conduct .would naturally t>e followed at laft by the gentlemen ; and a garment fo pro- motive of bodily elegance, and fo productive of bodily comply cencies, would be common to both. The, gentlemen at Rome had accordingly adopted it before the clofe of the third century, and at the commencement of the fourth it was become univer* idV And familiar in Britain before the departure of the Romans, it was retained by the Britons of the tenth century and com- municated to the Saxons and to us *'. Stockens are alio another article in the drefs of the Britons which muft have been derived from the Romans. The ufe of ftockens was introduced among the Romans about the conclusion of the commonwealth, and Auguftus is the firft peribn that is mentioned to have worne them * It was late before that ufeful and agreeable habit was originally contrived, and it was long before it was univerfally adopted. But it muft have been adopted by the Romans in -Britain, and it muft have been copied by the Roman-Britons, as it was denominated by the latter both Stoka and Hofan, and as it was communicated to the Saxons under the Britifh appella- tion of Stockens or Hofen * 9. And in confequence of this intro- duction of ftockens the brages muft have been greatly abridged, of their cuftomary length, and have beejn naturally reduced to the form of our prefent breeches 3 °, But the ftockens muft not have