A slight inspection of the inventories of Henry VIII.'s apparel will convince us of a truth which we should otherwise, readily have guessed, viz., that no expense and no splendour were spared in the "swashing costume" of his day. Its general aspect is too familiar to us to require much comment. We may remark, however, that four several acts were passed in his reign for the reformation of apparel, and that all but the royal family were prohibited from wearing "any cloth of gold of purpure colour, or silk of the same colour," upon pain of forfeiture of the same and L20 for every offence. Shirt bands and ruffles of gold were worn by the privileged, but none under the degree of knight were permitted to decorate their shirts with silk, gold, or silver. Henry VIII.'s "knitte gloves of silk" are particularly referred to, and also his "handkerchers" edged with gold, silver, or fine needlework. These handkerchiefs, wrought with gold and silver, were not uncommon in the after-times. In the ballad of George Barnwell, it is said of Milwood-- "A handkerchief she had, All wrought with silk and gold, Which she, to stay her trickling tears, Before her eyes did hold." In the east these handkerchiefs are common, and it is still a favourite occupation of the Egyptian ladies to embroider them. We are surprised now to find to what minute particulars legal enactments descended. "No husbandman, shepherd, or common labourer to any artificer, out of cities or boroughs (having no goods of their own above the value of L10), shall use or wear any cloth the broad yard whereof passeth 2_s._ 4_d._, or any hose above the price of 12_d._ the yard, upon pain of imprisonment in the stocks for three days." It was in a subsequent reign, that of Mary, that a proclamation was issued that no man should "weare his shoes above sixe inches _square_ at the toes." We have before seen that the attention of the grave and learned members of the Senate, the "Conscript Fathers" of England, was devoted to the due regulation of this interesting part of apparel, when the shoe-toes were worn so long that they were obliged to be tied up to the waist ere the happy and privileged wearer could set his foot on the ground. Now, however, "a change came o'er the spirit of the day," and it became the duty of those who exercised a paternal surveillance over the welfare of the community at large to legislate regarding the _breadth_ of the shoe-toes, that they should not be above "sixe inches square."