they make men seem like women, and this they call by the ridiculous name _gowne_. Their hoods are little, and tied under the chins. Their lirri-pipes (tippets) pass round the neck, and hanging down before, reach to the heels." Towards the end of the 14th century men began to wear short clothes made to fit the body so closely that it often required the assistance of two people to remove them, and it is from this period we can distinctly trace the difference between ancient and modern dress; in fact, our present fashions--masculine and feminine--resemble to a certain extent those worn during mediæval times. Then, as now, men wore overcoats with tight sleeves, felt hats also with feathers, worn over a skull cap, and slung behind the back, and closely-fitting shoes and boots. The Tudor monarchs paid considerable attention to the adornment of their persons, and were responsible for stringent legal enactments calculated to encourage home manufacturers. Felt hat-making--one of our oldest industries--was introduced into this country from Spain and Holland. A great impetus was given to this branch of trade by a law passed in 1571 which enjoined "every person above the age of seven years to wear on Sundays or holidays a cap of wool, knit made, thickened, and dressed in England by some of the trade of cappers, under the forfeiture of three farthings for every day's neglect." In 1603 the felt makers became a Corporation with grants and many privileges. Throughout the Middle Ages the upper classes frequently engaged in commerce. Bishops, abbots, and nobles personally superintended the disposal of the produce of their estates, and a considerable number of the younger sons of good families were the leading traders of the 15th and 16th centuries. [Illustration: COSTUME OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VII.] The "frocke" frequently mentioned, and of which the modern frock coat is the degenerate descendant, was a sort of jacket or jerkin made occasionally with skirts, a style associated especially, with Holbein's portraits of Henry VIII. and his contemporaries.