At one time it was the custom in England to present love-handkerchiefs. They were not more than three or four inches square, wrought with embroidery, a tassel at each corner and a small button in the centre. The finest of these favors were edged with narrow gold lace or twist, and then, being folded up in four cross-folds, so that the middle might be seen, they were worn by the accepted lovers in their hats or on the breast. These tokens of love became at last so much in vogue that they were sold ready-made in the shops in Elizabeth's time at from sixpence to sixteen-pence apiece. Tokens were also given by the gentlemen, and accepted by the ladies, as is indicated in an old comedy of the time— "Given earrings we will wear, Bracelets of our lover's hair; Which they on our arms shall twist, (With our names carved) on our wrists." _Umbrellas._ Umbrellas are an older invention than some writers would have us suppose. Even the usually entertained notion that Jonas Hanway introduced the umbrella into England, in the year 1752, is proved to be false by evidence that can be cited. Ben Jonson refers to it by name in a comedy produced in 1616; and so do Beaumont and Fletcher in "Rule a Wife and Have a Wife." Swift, in the "Tatler" of October 17th, 1710, says, in "The City Shower"— "The tucked-up seamstress walks with hasty strides, While streams run down her oiled umbrella's sides." The following couplet also occurs in a poem written by Gay in 1712— "Housewives underneath th' umbrella's oily shed Safe through the wet in clinking pattens tread." It is probable that Hanway was the first _man_ seen carrying an umbrella in London. At Persepolis, in Persia, are some sculptures supposed to be as old as the time of Alexander the Great, and on one of these is represented a chief or king, over whose head some servants are holding an umbrella. At Takht-i-Bostan are other sculptures, one of which is a king witnessing a boar hunt attended by an umbrella-bearer. Recent discoveries at Nineveh show that the umbrella was in use there, it being common to the sculpturings, but always represented open. The same is to be seen upon the celebrated Hamilton vases preserved in the British Museum. In many Chinese drawings ladies are attended by servants holding umbrellas over their heads.