The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-11-01

It was q tsilor, not q mantua-make
In the modern sensa of the world, who
brought home Katherine's new gown
| to the house of Petruchio. Nor did the
comparatively simple and becoming
attire of the ladies of feudal times
change by any means 50 often from
| the decorous grace of Its original type
as that of their more tickle lords.
There il less difference. sartorially
speaking, between Queen Eleanor and
Margaret of Anjou, between BeneDga-
ria and Isabel of France, than between
the men of their respective times.
They never made themselves sublime
ly ridiculous, as masculine vanity 90
constantly urged the fOps Of the period
to do. Until we reach the bristling
ruffs and steeple hats of Elizabeth's 3
reign, there is nothing-unless ie he the
fantastic colors brought in by Henry
the Sixth's itnperiOus cOnsOrt--tO pro-
woke smile from the days of the Con-
fessor to those of the Defender Of the
Faith.
ExrRAvAaANCE OF MEN.
But the men of these centuries were
arrayed as superbly as so msny bright
winged butterflies, flashing with rain
bow .tints and powdered with gold. In
every household with Eretension to
rauk, even in thcse of the poorer gen-
try who grOaned over the fashiOner's
charges and haggled smartly with the
chapman who sold the wares, q large
slice of the family income was devoted
to clothing its head. Squire ClsypOle,
worthy man, might usually wear
hoaded gray not better than that Of his
few tensht-, and ride i'm uutanned boots
about the swampy fields of his small
estate; but it was thought incumbent
Oh him, half dozen times year or so,
to come forth like struttiDg peacock,
glorious i'm brave apparel. uD
1t must have Daen grand spectacle.
that ClaypOle toilet, at which wife and
sister, son and daughter, lent all the
aid they could, hovering about the
chamber where the Claypole regnant
was getting ready to confront at least
reflected royalty. With wnat tender
reverence did they lifs from the oaken
chest, where it lay in lavender, his
worship's double.-that dOublet of
Florence satin, quilted with silk, stiff
with embroidery, and sOwn with seed
pearl, which represented q mortgage on
nine corn ricks d cd swine of Brackley
Fen. Those slasheI sleeves, cunniDg-
ly pinked with cloth of silver, had been
the innocent causes of thin ale and
stintAd beef, last winter, at the Hall,
and the broad gold lsces on those hose,
the amber leather of the Cordn, An
boots, bad swallowed up the profit of
all the yarn so painfully spun by the
mistress ard her maidens this twelve
month past. Even that Moloch Of a
hat, which all the establishment fall
down before and do homage TO, with
its jeweled clasp and nodding feather
white as snow, and said to pertain to q
monstrous bird called the estridge or
ostrich. hunted by the Mshound wO--
shippers of Paynim Afric-has cost the
price of load of as good barley as ever
maltster bought
HOSE AND DOUBLET.
The extravagant tightness of the
French hose and doutlet worn under
Lewis the Eleventh-and of which
Charles the Bo DIS towering effigy, as
he stands in stone, larger tEan life, be-
aide the famous chimney piece of
Burges Town hall, is the best example
was succeeded by the ludicrous bulk
of the bombasted garments of France
and bluff Harry of England. Trunk
bose and Flander coats, stuffed out with
hair and wool, with bran or straw, ac-
cording to the llberality of the custo-
mer, was what tailordom then had to
offer to a discerning public; and soon
afterwards the stiff Elizabeth ruff, eX-
cruciatiugly starched, and with its
bristling points as sharp as the spiked
leaves of a holly hedge, began to en-
case the muCh-enduring necks of both
sexes. Then to the brocaded dOublets
and short hose of the originals of the
Vandyke portraits there succeeded the
lace falls, the knee buckles, tapped
coats, fathonlless waistcOats and majes-
tic periwigs of that Augustan age of
which the Caesar held his revels at
Whitehall and spent in q month OF
easy going careless, almost jOyless
prodigslity, the yearly income which
England and the French king SUBJ
scribed for Charles the Second.
THE PURITANS,
Then in every Ia nd becoming form
dable, had far widely different reas ,Ds
and adherence of & differing cOlOrs and
gewgaws, and the don and the precis'
ion between them brought in that Gus
tom of wearing sober black which has
gained ground ever since, until in the
United States it almost rises to the dig
nity of q national uniform.
CALICO SHIRTS,
When the material was first intro
duced by the Merchant Adventures of
India, produced the same effect on the
English draperS and pullers and wool
combers that red rag is supposed to
do on the temper of bull. They
cried out to the Legislature to forbid the
gentry from "faunting" in a cotton
garment made by turbaned unbelievers
at Calicut, while fieeces and English
flax awaited purchasers.
THE HOOP
OF Queen Anne's reign, like the
crinoline of the Second empire, al
though an exotic, found perhaps its
truest devo.ees among the ladies o!
England. The reason of this wide
spread adoption probably was that, in
our country. what is called national
costume had died out among the mil
lion far more rapidly than was the
case elsewhere.