“The fondness of ladies for painting their faces and exposing the bosom was severely reprimanded by the divines and satirists at the early part of the 17th century. While a ruff or band of immoderate size stretched forth from the neck, the front of the dress was cut away immediately beneath it, nearly to the waist, which made the fashion more noticeable, as all the other part of the bust was over-clothed, while the bosom was perfectly bare.” Masks were worn by ladies on all public occasions, and it was considered a sign of impropriety to appear without them (Fig. 2). The ruff went out of fashion during this reign, because Mrs. Annie Turner, a starcher of ruffs, who was executed for poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury, wore a starched ruff of the approved colour at her execution. _Charles I. and the Commonwealth._ There was little change in female costume at the beginning of this reign. The French hood and farthingale were still worn, and the high-crowned hat was generally worn by countrywomen and the wives of the citizens (Figs. 5 and 7), especially when they belonged to the Puritanical party. In the course of the reign of Charles, there came a change in female costume, contemporary with and as elegant as that which took place in the male costume. The hood, the farthingale, and the starched bands disappeared. A good specimen of the new costume is given in Fig. 1, after Hollar. The dress is full, and falls gracefully about the body; the bodice is tight-fitting, and the sleeves are rich and full, but gathered at the wrist, and there is an elegant falling collar edged with lace. The long petticoat was generally displayed in a certain measure by the robe, which was, at times, quite gathered up at the waist. As a matter of course, the ladies of the Republican party, following the example set by their men folk, dressed very soberly, some of them adhering to old-fashioned articles of dress, such as the hood and high-crowned hat. A fashion introduced in the previous reign was that of wearing _patches_ on the face. Fig. 3 gives a curious specimen of this fashionable absurdity. It excited the derision of the satirists, who repeatedly decried it in their works; but it continued in fashion for a long time--until the end of the 17th century. The usual costume of a Puritan woman is shown in Fig. 5. The female costume in the later years of the Protectorate is illustrated by Fig. 6 from the monumental effigy of Elizabeth Sacheverell, 1657 A.D., in Morley Church, Derbyshire. _Charles II._ With the Restoration, England threw off the sober, kill-joy aspect that it had worn, and the Court, with its gaiety, set the fashion in a studied negligence and elegant déshabille. The glossy ringlets of the ladies, escaping from a simple bandeau of pearls, or adorned by a single rose, fell in graceful profusion upon bare, snowy necks, and the arms were bare to the elbow.