"Yester-year"; ten centuries of toilette from the French of A. Robida

Then suddenly, at the dawn of the thirteenth century, when a new era was emerging from the twilight of ancient barbarism, the new fashions declafcd tliciiisulves, i'raukly aiul plainly.

Tills was tlie actnal biitli of Fnaioli fashion, of costume purely French, like the ogival art in architecture that sprang from our soil, and discarded all that was imitated, or borrowed, in short every reminder of Rome and Byzantium.

The statuary, the stained glass, and the tapestry of the Middle Ages, will now supply us with the very best of documents. Those figures carved in full dress upon their tombs, an actual resuscitation of the noble chatelaines of the period, are extremely remarkable portraits, with all the details of attire, the garments, and the head-dress clearly indicated, and in some instances still bearing traces of painting which give us the colours of the costume.

The stained glass is still more interesting, for it represents all classes of society, from the noble lady to the woman of the people; in memorial windows, in the windows of seigneurial chapels, or the chapels of city corporations, in the great compositions with portraits of the donors beneath the storied windows, the noble dames in rich attire kneeling opposite to the good knights in armour, the ricli 'city madams' opposite to the worthy aldermen or 'notables' their spouses.

Tapestries are not entirely trustworthy as veritable records, for the artist sometimes introduces decorative fancies into his compositions ; nevertheless, we find many figures in them which afford precise indications, corroborate the testimony of the statuary and the glass, and may be added to the innumerable and marvellous illustrations of the manuscripts of the time.

Above the under-dress, the petticoat, or 'cotta,' the women of the eleventh century wore the ' bliaud ' or ' bliaut,' an ornamented robe of fine stuff, held in to the figure by a girdle. The 'bliaud,' which was at first made of merely goffered stuff, was soon enriched with designs atid ornaments in very good style.

Th.e transformations of the 'bliaud ' and the ' cotta ' are endless. The under-dress became the

ROl'.i; F.T lIOUPPHLAXDr- HISTOID l-RS XV^' siHc;[.n.

' cotte hardie,' and the ' bliaud ' was supplanted by the surcoat. This under-dress, which fitted very tightly, was laced in front and at the back, and showed the outlines and shape of the body.

In the full-dress costume a ' garde-corps,' or bodice-front of fur, was added to the surcoat and lent it additional richness. The general form, however, was subject to a number of particular arrangements, cottas and surcoats varied in all manner of ways, following the fashion of the day, the taste of individuals, and the mode in the provinces, or in the small princely or ducal courts, which were isolated by circumstances or situation.

How superb they were, those belles of the Middle Ages, with their long clinginfy gowns, covered with regularly repeated designs of rose-form, and alternate squares of different colours, making a kind of chessboard of the whole body, or flowers and foliage in large groups, frequently woven in gold or silver. These stuffs took grand folds, and draped themselves naturally in statuesque lines; from samples

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YESTER-YEAR.

of them which still exist in museums, we may judge of the effect they must have produced when made up into stately trailing gowns.

A noble Châtelaine.

Armorial bearings, which came into existence with the earliest social organizations, with the first heads of clans or warrior-chiefs, but were regulated at a later period, appeared upon the ladies' gowns, which were stamped like their husbands' shields with symmetrically arranged escutcheons.

This custom found favour, the fashion ' took,' as we should now say, and very soon heraldic designs were displayed more fully upon the gowns called ' cottes historiées.'

Let us summon up a vision of these noble dames at Court, or on festive occasions in their castles, in those vast halls now open to all tlie winds that blow, and inhabited only by crows, —always the last dwellers amid feudal ruins— let us fancy them seated at the tables of state, between the lofty fire-places and the musicians' gallery, or else on the platforms or ' eschaffaux ' alongside of the lists stricken for the famous tournaments. There they are, arrayed in robes emblazoned through all their length with the arms of their husbands or their families, displaying, like living standards, every invention of the heraldic art, portraying all the beasts of its menagerie, lions and leopai'ds.

wyvems and griffins, wolves and stags, swans and crows, sirens and dragons, fishes and unicorns, all of them of fantastic aspect, all winged, nailed, clawed, horned, and toothed, issuant, passant, and rampant on glittering fields, gules, vert, and azure.

And the non-heraldic robes, strewn with great curving flowers, or highly-decorative designs, are not less rich or less brilliant.