One of the writers of the time complains loudly of the practice of starching, saying: “The devil hath learned them to wash and dive their ruffs, which being dry will then stand stiff and inflexible about their necks.” The starch was made of different colours--white, red, blue, and purple. In order that the enormous ruffs might remain in their original position, they were supported by frameworks of wire called “_supportasses_,” covered with gold thread, silver, or silk. (Fig. 7.) In 1579 Elizabeth issued orders that long cloaks should not be worn, “nor such great excessive ruffles.” It was in this reign that William Lee, M.A., a Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, invented a stocking frame, and worked with it at Calverton, a village near Nottingham. There was considerable opposition to him and his machine from the other hosiery manufacturers, and he left this country to take up his abode in Rouen. Stockings were worn of “silk, jarnsey, cruel, or the finest yarns, thread, or cloth that could be had, and they were of all colours.” Ladies’ shoes were of many colours and of many fashions. “Some of black velvet, some of white, some of green, and some of yellow; some of Spanish leather, some of English, stitched with silk and embroidered with gold and silver all over the foot.” When riding abroad, ladies wore masks and visors of velvet with holes for the eyes. They wore much jewellery, and perfumed gloves embroidered with gold and silver, and they carried looking-glasses about with them wherever they went. [Illustration: PLATE 43.