These beribboned garments were a French mode. The breeches were the “rhingraves” of the French court, which were breeches made wholly of loops of ribbons—like two ribboned petticoats. They caught the eye of seafaring men; we know that Jack ashore loves finery. We are told of sea-captains wearing beribboned breeches as they came into quiet little American ports, and of one English gallant landing from a ship in sober Boston, wearing breeches made wholly from waist to knee of overlapping loops of gay varicolored ribbon. It is recorded that “the boys did wonder and call out thereat,” and they “were chided therefor.” It is easy to picture the scene: the staring boys, born in Boston, of Puritan parents, of dignified dress, and more familiar with fringes on the garments of savage Indians than on the breeches of English gentlemen; we can see the soberly reproving minister or schoolmaster looking with equal disapproval on the foppish visitor and the mannerless boys; and the gayly dressed ship’s captain, armed with self-satisfaction and masculine vanity, swaggering along the narrow streets of the little town. It mattered not what he wore or what he did, a seafaring man was welcome. I wonder what the governor thought of those beribboned breeches! Perhaps he ordered a pair from London for himself,—of sad-colored ribbons,—offering the color as a compromise for the over-gayety of the ribbons. Randle Holme gave in 1658 three descriptions of the first petticoat-breeches, with drawings of each. One had the lining lower than the breeches, and tied in about the knees; ribbons extended halfway up the breeches, and ribbons hung out from the doublet all about the waistband. The second had a single row of pointed ribbons hanging all around the lower edge of the breeches; these were worn with stirrup-hose two yards wide at the top, tied by points and eyelet-holes to the breeches. The third had stirrup-hose tied to the breeches, and another pair of hose over them turned down at the calf of the leg, and the ribbons edged the stirrup-hose. His drawings of them are foolish things—not even pretty. He says ribbons were worn first at the knees, then at the waist at the doublet edge, then around the neck, then on the wrists and sleeves. These knee-ribbons formed what Dryden called in 1674 “a dangling knee-fringe.” It is difficult for me to think of Dryden living at that period of history. He seems to me infinitely modern in comparison with it. Evelyn describes the wearer of such a suit as “a fine silken thing”; and tells that the ribbons were of “well-chosen colours of red, orange, and blew, of well-gummed satin, which augured a happy fancy.” In 1672 a suit of men’s clothes was made for the beautiful Duchess of Portsmouth to wear to a masquerade; this was with “Rhingrave breeches and cannons.” The suit was of dove-colored silk brocade trimmed with scarlet and silver lace and ribbons.