5. CLOTHING

(a) _The habit of the staff._—The dress worn by the master and his fellow-workers was usually monastic or clerical, but it varied considerably, for the priests might be regulars or seculars, the brethren and sisters religious or lay persons. Occasionally the warden was not in orders; it was directed at St. Leonard’s, York, that “when the master is a layman, he shall wear the habit of the house.” In an ecclesiastical type of foundation, the dress was commonly after the Augustinian fashion, consisting of black or brown robe, cloak and hood, with a cross on the outer garment; white and grey were occasionally worn by officials of both sexes. The Benedictine brethren of St. Mark’s, Bristol, were clothed in a black habit with a quaint device, namely, “a white cross and a red shield with three white geese in the [p175] same.” Secular clerks had more latitude in costume; the sombre mantles were enlivened by a coloured badge, a pastoral staff at Armiston, a cross at St. John’s, Bedford, etc. (b) _The almsman’s gown._—The early type of pensioner’s habit is perpetuated at St. Cross. Ellis Davy, having sober tastes, provided for his poor men at Croydon that “the over-clothing be darke and browne of colour, and not staring neither blasing, and of easy price cloth, according to ther degree.” This stipulation was probably copied from the statutes of Whittington’s almshouse, which as a mercer he would know. The usual tendency of the fifteenth century was to a cheerful garb. The bedeman of Ewelme had “a tabarde of his owne with a rede crosse on the breste, and a hode accordynge to the same.” The pensioners at Alkmonton received a suit every third year, alternately white and russet; the gown was marked with a tau cross in red. At Heytesbury the men’s outfit included “2 paire of hosyn, 2 paire of shone with lether and hempe to clowte theme, and 2 shertys”; the woman had the same allowance, with five shillings to buy herself a kirtle. The two servitors at St. Nicholas’, Pontefract, wore a uniform “called white livery.” (c) _The leper’s dress._—The theory of the leper’s clothing is described in the statutes of St. Julian’s; they ought “as well in their conduct as in their garb, to bear themselves as more despised and as more humble than the rest of their fellow-men, according to the words of the Lord in Leviticus: ‘Whosoever is stained with the leprosy shall rend his garments.’” They were forbidden to go out without the distinctive habit, which covered them almost entirely. The outfit named in the _Manual_ consisted of [p176] cloak, hood, coat and shoes of fur, plain shoes and girdle. The hospital inmate in his coarse warm clothing was readily distinguished from the ragged mendicant. The brothers and sisters at Harbledown were supplied with a uniform dress of russet, that is to say, a closed tunic or super-tunic; the brethren wore scapulars (the short working dress of a monk), and the sisters, mantles. At St. Julian’s hospital, the cut of the costume was planned; thus the sleeves were to be closed as far as the hand, but not laced with knots or thread after the secular fashion; the upper tunic was to be worn closed down to the ankles; the close black cape and hood must be of equal length. The amount of material is recorded in the case of Sherburn, _viz._ three ells of woollen cloth and six ells of linen. At Reading the leper’s allowance was still more liberal, for the hood or cape contained three ells, the tunic three, the cloak two and a quarter; they also received from the abbey ten yards of linen, besides old leathern girdles and shoes. Lepers were forbidden to walk unshod. At Sherburn, each person was allowed fourpence annually for shoes, grease being regularly supplied for them. Inmates of both sexes at Harbledown wore ox-hide boots, fastened with leather and extending beyond the middle of the shin. High boots were also worn by the brethren at St. Julian’s “to suit their infirmity”; if one was found wearing low-cut shoes—“tied with only one knot”—he had to walk barefoot for a season. For headgear at Harbledown, the men used hoods, and the women covered their heads with thick double veils, white within, and black without. Hats were sometimes [p177] worn, both in England (Fig. 9) and in France. (Fig. 26.) In the Scottish ballad (_circa_ 1500), Cresseid is taken to the lazar-house dressed in a mantle with a beaver hat. This was probably a secular fashion. [Illustration: 26. A LEPER (With clapper and dish)] FOOTNOTES: [103] Surtees, Vol. 56. Gray’s Register, p. 181. [104] _Val. Ecc._, i. 56. [105] Giffard’s Register, p. 388. [106] P.R.O. Chanc. Misc. 20, No. 13. [p178]