1817.] Stirling Heads. 209
culation of the gentlewomen of these times, and the excuse which they find is, one which proves that a fine lady, although "cameleon-like" in all other particulars, in making out her milliner's bill, is pretty nearly the same sort of being in the fifteenth as in the nineteenth century.[1]
In the dress of numbers 22 and 31, we can distinguish nearly the whole paraphernalia of female beauty in the fifteenth century. The hood, kirtle, embroidered shift, the mantle, patelet or small ruff, the kerchiefs of crisp or lawn, the belt, brooches, golden chains, the circlet of gold which confined the hair, and the farthingale or minor hoop.[2]
These admirable delineations of female costume bring to our mind the picture given of the manners and the apparel of a Scotch coquette of the fifteenth century, by Dunbar, in his tale of the twa mariit women, a poem equal, in point of humour, to many of Chaucer's.[3]
"I saw thre gay ladyes sit in ane grene arbour,
All grathit into garlaneis of fresche gudeli flour is,
So glitterit as the gowd were their glorious gilt tresses,
Quhill all the gressis did gleeme of the glad houris.
Kemmit was their cleer hayr, and curiouslie sched
Attour their shoulderis down, schyne schyning full bricht,
With kurches, capin thame abone, of krisp cleir, and thin,
Their mantellis green war as the grass that grew in May sesonn."
The head No 3 is supposed to be a likeness of James I. and if this is the case, this unfortunate prince must have been an uncommonly fine-looking man. He is represented in a kind of undress. It is plain and simple, but very graceful; the countenance is intelligent, and the head has an air of much ease and dignity. In most of the male portraits we find the velvet or satin bonnet as a distinguishing part of the courtier's dress, the jacket,[4] the lewie, a sort of loose hood which hung behind the back, the doublet (which was generally of some rich-coloured satin), and the shirt, which was often embroidered, and its collar studded with precious stones. "When James IV. conveyed Margaret, his bride, the daughter of Henry VIII. of England, into Edinburgh, seated, according to the primitive manners of the times, behind him on horseback, his gallant person was arrayed in a jacket of cloth of gold, a doublet of violet satin, scarlet hose, his spurs gilt and long, and the collar of his shirt richly embroidered with precious stones.[5]"
Amongst the unknown portraits, there is one, No 12, which has a striking resemblance to the description given by Pitscottie, of the Duke of Albany, brother to James III. We shall quote this, as it is a very odd and singular description, and contains an enumeration of features which, in the present age, would constitute a very ugly personage; but honest Pitscottie is altogether of a different opinion. "This Alexander," says the historian, "was of mid stature, broad shouldered, and well proportioned in all his members, and specially in his face, that is to say, broad faced, red nosed, great eared and of a very awful countenance, when he pleased to show himself unto his unfriends."[6] On looking to the portrait, which is No 12 of this collection, we think there will be few who will not recognise the large ears, the sour unfriendly expression, the full swelled nose, and the broad shoulders, which were the characteristic features in the Duke of Albany. Our limits will not permit to enlarge farther on many of the other heads in this curious publication. Some of them appear to be altogether fancy pieces, such as representations of satyrs, or savages with knotty clubs, muscular arms, and a single garment thrown across their naked breast, and bound by a knot at the shoulder. Figures of this description were not unfrequent in the masques and moralities which were often acted at the court of the Scottish monarch. Other heads are unquestionably portraits, and of eminent and distinguished persons, as their dresses are rich, and their air noble; but it is difficult, if not impossible, to identify them with the original, for the written pictures left us by contemporary his-
