My idea of
a doublet is so misty that I shall not venture to affirm that the
gentleman wore a doublet. It was a loose coat of some description
hanging negligently from the shoulders and looped at the throat,
showing a tasteful arrangement of lacework below and at the wrists. Full
trousers reaching to the tops of buckskin boots, and a low-crowned soft
hat--not a Puritan's sugar-loaf, but a picturesque shapeless head-gear,
one side jauntily fastened up with a jewel--completed the essential
portions of our friend's attire. It was a costume to walk in, to ride
in, to sit in. The wearer of it could not be awkward if he tried, and I
will do Delorme the justice to say that he put his dress to some severe
tests. But he was graceful all the while, and made me wish that my
countrymen would throw aside their present hideous habiliments and
hasten to the measuring-room of Delorme's tailor.
In looking over the plates of an old book of fashions we smile at the
monstrous attire in which our worthy great-grandsires saw fit to deck
themselves.
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