In the Norman period we find gloves worn only by men, and even then they were considered the appendages of the rich and great. They were an important factor on all ceremonial occasions, and were consequently very ornate and of rare material and workmanship, and many of them decorated with precious stones. The gloves of bishops were of silk and linen, richly embroidered, and those of monarchs were white with broad, pointed cuff. The presentation of the royal gloves at the coronation ceremony is a custom which still prevails, for in the records of Victoria’s coronation is the Duke of Norfolk’s petition to present the Queen’s coronation gloves. While we of to-day use gloves only as a protection and an ornament, in the intervening centuries they had a significance aside from this. Churchmen wore gloves as a sign of purity; judges, as a token of the integrity of their office; men pledged their honor by their gloves; and perhaps we may be pardoned for saying that this custom still survives with us, since our gloves are sold “on honor.” [Illustration: A Walking Glove. Two-Clasp Piqué Glacé. Two-Toned Stitching. $1.00 to $2.00.] [Illustration] [Illustration: Gentleman’s Walking Glove. English Cape Leather, One Clasp at the Wrist, Oak Tan and Red Shades are correct. $1.00 to $2.25.] [Illustration: English Cape Leather Riding and Coaching Glove. In Havana-Browns and Red Shades. $1.00 to $2.00.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _Old Royal Gloves._ Some of the gloves worn by royal personages still exist. We illustrate a glove worn by England’s maiden queen, Elizabeth, and a very ornate affair it is—of fine white leather, profusely embroidered in gold thread, and having a yellow fringe and lined with drab silk. Elizabeth’s hands were very beautiful, we are told, the charm of which she was wont to display by the repeated removal of her gloves. DuMaurier writes how he had heard from his father “that, having been sent to her, at every audience he had with her majesty, she pulled off her gloves more than a hundred times to display her hands, which, indeed, were very beautiful and very white.” Either the royal hands were a deal larger than a lady of our time would care to possess, or they knew not in those days the grace of our perfect-fitting gloves, for those of Elizabeth’s are as much as three and one-half inches across the palm, and have a thumb five inches in length, the entire glove being about a half-yard.