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of the Church of England waxed raging wroth, and violent weretheir pulpit invectives.

“Fashion,” emphatically preached John King , 6 Bishop ofLondon, “ has brought in deep ruffs 6 and shallow ruffs, thick ruffsand thin ruffs, double ruffs and no ruffs. When the Judge ofquick and dead shall appear, He will not know those who have sodefaced the fashion He hath created.” The Bishop of Exeter, too,Joseph Hall, a good man, but no prophet, little wotting how lace-making would furnish bread and comfort to the women of his owndiocese for centuries to come, in a sermon preached at the Spitel,after a long vituperation against its profaneness, concludes withthese words : “ But if none of our persuasions can prevail, hearthis ye garish popinjays of our time, if ye will not be ashamed toclothe yourselves after this shameless fashion, Heaven shall clotheyou with shame and confusion. Hear this, ye plaister-facedJezabels, if ye will not leave your daubs and your washes, Heavenwill one day wash them off with fire and brimstone.” Whetherthese denunciations had the effect of lessening the ruffs, we knownot; probably it only rendered them more exaggerated.

Of these offending adjuncts to the toilet of both sexes, we havefine illustrations in the paintings of the day, as well as in themonuments of our cathedrals and churches . 7 They were composedof the finest geometric lace, such as we see portrayed in the worksof Yinciolo and others. The artists of the day took particularpleasure in depicting them with the most exquisite minuteness.

These ruffs must have proved expensive to the wearer, thoughin James I.’s time, as Ben Jonson has it, men thought little of“ turning four or five hundred acres of their best land into twoor three trunks of apparel .” 8 According to the wardrobe

8 Called by James I., “the King ofPreachers.” Ob. 1621.

8 In the “Dumb Knight,” 1608, awoman, speaking of her ruff, says:—

“This is but shallow, I bare aruff is a quarter deep, measured by theyard.”

’ See the portraits, in the NationalPortrait Gallery, of Sir Dudley and Lady

Carleton, by Cornelius Janssens, of theQueen of Bohemia, by Mirevelt, and ofthe Countess of Pembroke, by MarkGeerards. In Westminster Abbey theeffigies of Queen Elizabeth and MaryQueen of Scots, on their tombs.

8 “ Every Man Out of His Humour,”1599.

Again, in his “Silent Woman,” hesays:—

“ She must have that

Rich gown for such a great day, a new one

For the next, a richer for the third; have the chamber filled withA succession of grooms, footmen, ushers, [And