At the end of the fifteenth century, it was considered necessary in England to pass sumptuary mourning laws, owing to the extravagance of the nobility in the superfluous usage of cloth and other items at funerals. Habits and liveries were limited to certain quantities. Planché tells us dukes and marquises were allowed sixteen yards for their gowns, sloppes (or mourning cassocks) and mantles; an earl, fourteen; a viscount, twelve; a baron, eight; a knight, six; and all inferior persons, two yards only; but an archbishop had the same privilege as a duke. Hoods were only permitted to those above the degree of esquire of the king's household. [Illustration: GENTLEMAN'S MOURNING--TIME OF HENRY VII.] Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the mother of King Henry VII., issued, in the eighth year of his reign, an ordinance for "the reformation of apparell for great estates of women in the tyme of mourninge." "They shall have their surcottes with a trayne before and another behynde, and their mantles with traynes. The queen is to wear a surcotte, with the traynes as aforesaid, and playne hoode, and a tippet at the hoode lying a good length upon the trayne of the mantell, being in breadth a nayle and an inche. After the first quarter of a year, the hood to be lined with black satin, or furred with ermine; and all ladies down to the degree of a baroness, are to wear similar mourninge, and to be barbed at the chin." The surcotte, with trayne, hood, barbe, and tippet, are visible in the sketch of a lady of the sixteenth century, taken from Pietro Vercellio's famous work on costume. The gentleman's mourning of black cloth and fur, is reproduced from a contemporary MS. [Illustration: FRENCH LADY OF 16TH CENTURY IN WIDOW'S WEEDS.]