From the old accounts of the Laundry we gather some idea of mediæval
clothing and personal cleanliness. Four shirts was a large allowance for
a nobleman in the fifteenth century; and youths of noble rank were sent
to college without a change of linen. It is upon record that Bishop
Swinfield, for himself and his whole household, in the thirteenth
century, only spent forty-three shillings and twopence for washing; and
the Duke of Northumberland's establishment, in the time of Henry VIII.
consisting of one hundred and seventy persons, only cost forty shillings
for the laundry expenses of a whole year. On the other hand, the
institution of "tubbing" was not unknown. Baths are frequently mentioned
in the romances, and are occasionally depicted in illuminations. They
were large tubs with a curtain over them, after the manner of a modern
French bed.
With respect to what we now call "comfort," it is certain that all the
appliances of tapestried hangings were far inferior to the modern
devices of double walls, sashes, and French casements, &c. as means of
excluding draughts of air. But then the costume was suited to the
houses. The modern drawing-room life was scarcely possible in a mediæval
mansion. It was a necessity to dress more warmly; and, as may be seen in
very many mediæval illuminations, almost every one, of either sex, went
with covered heads. Just in the same way, in a modern farm-house or
cottage, it is common enough for hats and bonnets to be worn habitually
indoors.
The flannel in general use, the wadded petticoats, and worsted stuffs
and brocaded silks (so thick as almost to stand alone) for gowns, were
much better calculated to resist cold and damp than the cobweb fabrics
worn by modern females; and the men's clothes were of a more substantial
texture, and made much fuller than the scanty modern corresponding
garments of thin superfine broadcloth. The thick woollen dresses of the
monks also were well contrived for preserving a comfortable portable
climate. No part but the face was exposed to the external air, and this
was protected by the cowl, so that they were always defended from
currents of cold air in the cloisters and vaulted aisles of the now
desolate monastic edifices.
Woollen cloths were long the chief material of male and female attire.
When new the nap was generally very long; and after being worn for some
time it was customary to have it shorn; indeed, this process was
repeated as often as the stuff would bear it. Thus we find the Countess
of Leicester sending Hicque, the tailor, to London, to get her robes
reshorn. Among the materials for dress mentioned, are linen, sindon,
which has been variously interpreted to mean satin or very fine linen;
scarlet and rayed or striped cloths, of Flemish, French, or Italian
make; _pers_, or blue cloth, for the manufacture of which Provence was
famous; russet, say or serge, and blanchet or blanket, a name which, it
is believed, was given to flannel. The furs named are squirrel and
miniver.
Among the minor objects of personal use which appear to have belonged to
Margaret de Bohun, in the fifteenth century, the "poume de ambre," or
scent-ball, in the composition of which ambergris formed a principal
ingredient, deserves notice; this being, perhaps, the earliest evidence
of its use. We here learn also that a nutmeg was occasionally used for
the like purpose; it was set with silver, decorated with stones and
pearls, and was evidently an object rare and highly prized. Amongst the
valuable effects of Henry V. according to an inventory dated A.D. 1423,
are enumerated a musk-ball of gold, weighing eleven pounds, and another
of silver-gilt. At a later period the Pomander was very commonly worn as
the pendant of a lady's girdle. The _peres de eagle_ were the stones
supposed to be found in the nest of the eagle, to which various
medicinal and talismanic properties were attributed. Nor are we
cognizant of an earlier mention of coral than that which occurs in this
inventory: namely, the paternoster of coral, with large gilded beads,
which belonged to Margaret de Bohun, and the three branches of coral
which Alianmore de Bohun possessed. Among her effects also is the wooden
table "painted for an altar;" it formed part of the movable chapel
furniture which persons of rank took with them on journeys, or used
when, through infirmity, the badness of roads, or some other cause,
valid in those days, they were prevented from attending public worship.
Licences to use such portable altars are of frequent occurrence on the
older episcopal registers.
John Evelyn, regretting "the simple manners that prevailed in his
younger days, and which were now fast fading away," thus describes
old-fashioned country life about the middle of the seventeenth
century:--
"Men courted and chose their wives for their modesty, frugality, keeping
at home, good housewifery, and other economical virtues then in
reputation; and the young damsels were taught all these in the country
and in their parents' houses. They had cupboards of ancient, useful
plate, whole chests of damask for tables, and stores of fine Holland
sheets, white as the driven snow, and fragrant of rose and lavender for
the bed; and the sturdy oaken bedstead and furniture of the house lasted
one whole century; the shovel-board and other long tables, both in hall
and parlour, were as fixed as the freehold; nothing was movable save
joint-stools, the black jacks, silver tankards, and bowls.... The
virgins and young ladies of that golden age, _quæsiverunt lanam et
linum_, put their hands to the spindle, nor disdained they the needle;
were obsequious and helpful to their parents, instructed in the managery
of the family, and gave presages of making excellent wives. Their
retirements were devout and religious books, and their recreations in
the distillatory, the knowledge of plants and their virtues, for the
comfort of their poor neighbours and use of their family, which
wholesome, plain diet and kitchen physic preserved in perfect health."
As the quaint old ballad hath it--
"They wore shoes of a good broad heel,
And stockings of homely blue;
And they spun them upon their own wheel,
When this old hat was new."