_To the Editor._
Dear sir,--Dr. Whitaker, in his “History of Craven,” makes several
extracts from the Compotus of Bolton in Craven, a folio of a thousand
pages, kept by the monastery; which book begins in 1290 and ends in
1325. On one item, “In fururâ de Buget, v_s._,” the doctor has the
following note, which may be interesting to others besides the lovers of
the delightful science of heraldry.
“_In Fururâ de Buget._ In the middle ages, _fur_ of different species
formed an elegant and comfortable appendage, not only to professional
habits, but to the ordinary dress of both sexes, from the sovereign to
the private gentleman. Beneath the latter rank, none but the coarsest
kinds were ever in use, which _they_ certainly wore; for Chaucer, who
intended to clothe his personification of Avarice in the garb of
Poverty, allows her, notwithstanding, ‘a burnette cote, furred with no
_meniveere_, but with a furre rough of lambe skynnes, hevy and blacke.’
(_Rom. Ros._) The different sorts enumerated in the Compotus are, the
_buget_, or _budge_, _gris_, _de ventre leporino_, the white fur of the
hare’s belly, and _de pellibus agninis_, or lambs’ skins. The last of
these, which still forms the lining of the hoods of the bachelors of
arts at Cambridge, was anciently worn both by bishops and noblemen. For
the first, see Mr. Warton’s note on ‘Comus,’ edit. i. p. 146; and the
inventory of the wardrope of the second earl of Cumberland in that
volume. With respect to _budge_, or _buget_, it is understood by Mr.
Warton (note on Comus, line 709) to be fur in general; but this
interpretation is negatived by the terms of the present article, _fururâ
de buget_. Whatever _budge_ may have been, it is unknown to Du Cange,
who has, with immense labour and erudition, collected every thing known
on the subject in the middle ages. It was certainly scarce and
expensive, being used for the lining of the prior’s (Bolton) hood alone.
After all, I suspect it to have been the skin of the Lithuanian
weasel.[323] Even as late as Dr. Caiius’s time, the hoods of the regent
masters of arts of Cambridge were lined ‘pelle arminâ seu Lituana
candidâ.’ _Lituan_ is sometimes used by the old writers on heraldry as
synonymous with ermine. If I am right in my conjecture, therefore,
_budge_ so nearly resembled ermine, that either skin might be used
indifferently as a badge of the same academical rank. And this accounts
for Milton’s epithet ‘budge,’ as applied to doctors, whose congregation
robes at Cambridge are still faced with ermine. _Gris_, I think, was the
skin of the grey, or badger.[324] The sleeves of Chaucer’s monk, ‘a
fayre prelate,’ who was gayly and expensively habited, were ‘purfited
with _gris_:’ and in the head of a bishop in painted glass, I have a
fine specimen of this fur in the form of a tippet about the neck.
“It seems that, in the middle ages, ecclesiastics were apt to luxuriate
in the use of beautiful and costly furs: ‘Ovium itaque et agnorum
despiciuntur exuviæ; ermelini, gibelini (_sables_) martores exquiruntur
et vulpes.’ This vanity was checked by an English sumptuary
law--‘Statutum est ne quis escarleto, in Anglorum gente, sabelino,
vario, vel grisèo uteretur,’ Brompton, Anno 1188. Again, in two MSS.
quoted by Du Cange, to whom I am also indebted for the foregoing
passage, the expensive furs are enumerated thus,
‘Vairs et gris, et ermines, et sables de rosie:’
and again,
‘Sables, ermines, et vair, et gris.’
_Vair_ was the skin of the Mus Ponticus, a kind of weasel, the same
animal with the ermine, but in a different state, i. e. killed in summer
when the belly was white and the back brown, whence it obtained the name
of ‘Varia.’ The ancient _mineveere_ was ‘minuta varia,’ or fur composed
of these diminutive skins; and Drayton was learned and accurate when he
gave his well-dressed shepherd ‘mittons[325] of bauson’s skin;’ that is,
of gris, and a hood of mineveere. With respect to _sables_, I have only
to add, that from their grave and sober elegance, they were retained as
tippets in the habits of bishops and other dignitaries in England to the
time of queen Elizabeth, when they gave place to a similar ornament of
silk, the origin of the present scarf, which continued to be called a
tippet till the reign of Charles II. See Baxter’s life, where we find
that puritan, when sworn in king’s chaplain, refusing to wear the
tippet.”