Cardinal PASSION EI'S HERMI

TAGE.

With lefs expence aud parade cardinal Paffionei had built and ornamented his Camalduli hermitage. This hermitage, contrived on the fide of the mountain of Frefcati, had a prospect of Rome, part of the Campania and its fea, with an horizontal view of the Rufinella of the jefuits lying under it. The difpofition was modelled from the irregularity of the ground. The apartments formed as many infulated pavilions, difperfed among groves communicating along ferpentine paths and thefe paths ended at the main walk, which itfelf was laid out only as the mountain would permit, being cut in it like a little bank. Along the borders of this walk, of thefe paths, and thefe groves, were placed funeral monuments which the cheerful verdure around them enlivened. These monuments were ancient tombs of all dimenfions, urns of different figures, moftly very uncommon, and Greek and Latin epitaphs of all ages. The most remarkable piece, at leaft in its bulk, was the tomb of an emperor of the lower ages. Cardinal Albani, to whom it belonged, had made an offer of it to cardinal Paffionei, with the exprefs provifo that he should hoift it into his hermitage, fuppofing this to be utterly impoffible; however, cardinal Paf fionei, by dint of machines and oxen, at length effected it.

Among the epitaphs, that on a Greek actress attracted particular notice, being of a great length, in characters of the best times, and finely preferved. I was for copying those infcriptions which I thought

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moft affecting, or moft fingular; but the cardinal faved me that trouble, informing me that he had fent a complete collection of them to the Royal Academy of Belles Lettres at Paris.

In the dining room stood a ciftern taken out of the ruins of Adrian's villa at Tivoli. It was an oblong fquare of four feet to three, and one in depth, and pierced in its centre for a tube; which, playing at meal time, furnished water for drinking, and rinfing the glaffes: this water, equally excellent for its coolness and quality, is the very fame which watered Cicero's Tufculanum; the cardinal having alighted on the ancient pipes. I never faw any goldfmith's work comparable to this ciftern, either for elegancy of form, tafte of the ornaments, or delicacy of workmanship. The cardinal, in his pavilion, had a closet of books rather choice than many. In the most confpicuous part of this closet hung a portrait of the celebrated M. Arnaud, a Sorbonne doctor; and near it was a large octavo bound in green, without a title : on opening it, there was the Lettres Provinciales in five languages.

But this hermitage had nothing fo extraordinary in it, as its founder: he was free, open, and juft, in his conversation, in his dealings, and all his actions; in a word, cardinal Paffionei was really a phænomenon in a country and a court, which are the very centre of intrigue and the moft artful practices. In his love of literature he had no equal: nobody ever fhewed more ardour in promoting it, and nobody ever more heartily detefted the jefuits: this love and this hatred were the two fprings of his views, his fchemes, and his whole con

duct.

duct. An unexpected reftraint on his declared fentiments proved his death: though eighty years of age, his genius and conftitution retained all their vigour.

His decease was followed by the fpeedy deftruction of his hermitage: the people of Camalduli, on whofe ground it was built, feconded by their neighbours, immediately fell to pulling down a place which he had formed, and was his fupreme delight. I have heard, that, to make the quicker work in its demolition, his rancorous enemies

tumbled down from the mountain most of the monuments, which the cardinal had placed there.

To the Roman antiques, with which I was most taken, I think I may add one of a very remarkable kind indeed, and difcovered but a little before my arrival.

The abbot Mazeas had accompanied the bishop of Laon, when going to Rome as ambassador from France. Though the account given by Spartian of the magnificence with which the emperor Adrian had collected for his houfe at Tivoli, the most remarkable products of the feveral provinces of the empire, be but fuperficial, this learned Frenchman undertook from it to fearch the ground on which the ruins of that houfe lie fcattered. Among fome plants quite foreign to the foil of Rome, and which have perpetuated themfelves on this ground, he perceived a fhrub emitting a kind of gum, made ufe of by the labouring peafants for perfuming their fnuff. The firft fhrubs of this fpecies which he examined were weak and knotty; but advancing towards an eminence intercepting the north

wind, he perceived others very vigorous, and to be nothing less than that valuable fhrub from which the Arabians gather the balfam of Mecca, and by the emperor Adrian imported and cultivated in his gardens at Tivoli. The abbot Mazeas, it is to be prefumed, will communicate to fome of the academies, of which he is a member, the particulars of his obfervations, and the discoveries arising from them.

The following curious Enquiries inta the Modes of Fashion and Dress of our Ancestors at different Periods, taken from Grainger's Biographical Hiftory of England, will, we doubt not, prove very entertaining to fuch of our readers as have not had an opportunity of seeing the original.

HENRY VIII.

N the reign of Richard II. the

boots were worn of fo enormous a length, that they were tied to the knees. A law was made in the same reign, to limit them to two inches. The variety of dreffes worn in the reign of Henry the Eighth, may be concluded from the print of the naked Englishman, holding a piece of cloth, and a pair of fhears, in Borde's "Introduction to Know"ledge." The drefs of the king and the nobles, in the beginning of this reign, was not unlike that worn by the yeomen of the guard at prefent. This was probably aped by inferior perfons. It is recorded, that "Anne Bolen wore yellow mourning for Catharine "of Arragon."

As far I have been able to trace K 4 the

the growth of the beard from portraits, and other remains of antiquity, I find that it never flourished more in England, than in the century preceding the Norman conqueft. That of Edward the Confeffor was remarkably large, as appears from his feal in Speed's "Theatre of Great-Britain.” After the conqueror took poffeffion of the kingdom, beards became unfashionable, and were probably looked upon as badges of difloyalty, as the Normans wore only whiskers. It is faid, that the English fpies took thofe invaders for an army of priests, as they appeared to be without beards.

I

MARY.

HAVE before obferved, that much the fame kind of drefs which was worn by Henry VIII. in the former part of his reign, is now worn by the yeomen of the guard. It is no lefs remarkable, that the moit confpicuous and diftinguifhing part of a cardinal's habit, which has been banished from England ever fince the death of cardinal Pole, is alfo now worn by the lowest order of females, and is called a cardinal.

I take the reign of Mary to be the era of ruffs and farthingales, as they were first brought hither from Spain. Howel tell us in his "Letters," that the Spanish word for a farthingale literally tranflated, fignifies cover-infant, as if it was intended to conceal pregnancy. It is perhaps of more honourable extraction, and might fignify coverinfanta.

A blooming virgin in this age feems to have been more folicitous

to hide her skin, than a rivelled old woman is at present. The very neck was generally concealed; the arms were covered quite to the wrifts; the petticoats were worn long, and the head-gear, or coifure, clofe; to which was fometimes faftened a light veil, which fell down behind, as if intended occafionally to conceal even the face.

If I may depend on the autherity of engraved portraits, the beard extended and expanded itfelf more during the fhort reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, than from the conqueft to that period. Bishop Gardiner has a beard long and ftreaming like a comet. The

beard of cardinal Pole is thick and bufhy; but this might poffibly be Italian. The patriarchal beard, as I find it in the tapestries of those times, is both long and large; but this feems to have been the invention of the painters, who drew the cartoons. This venerable appendage to the face, was formerly greatly regarded. Though learned authors have written for and against almost every thing, I never faw any thing written against the beard. The pamphlets on the "Unlove"linefs of Love-locks," and the "Mischief of long Hair," made much noife in the kingdom, in the reign of Charles I.

other things, to pass from one extreme to another, the large jutting coat became quite out of fashion in this reign, and a coat was worn refembling a waistcoat.

The men's ruffs were generally of a moderate fize, the women's bore a proportion to their farthingales, which were enormous,

We are informed, that fome beaux had actually introduced long fwords and high ruffs, which approached the royal ftandard. This roufed the jealoufy of the queen, who appointed officers to break every man's fword, and to clip all ruffs which were beyond a certain length.

The breeches, or to speak more properly, drawers, fell far short of the knees, and the defect was fupplied with long hofe, the tops of which were faftened under the drawers.

William, earl of Pembroke, was the first who wore knit ftockings in England, which were introduced in this reign. They were prefented to him by William Rider, an apprentice near London-bridge, who happened to fee a pair brought from Mantua, at an Italian merchant's in the city, and made a pair exactly like them.

Edward Vere, the feventeenth earl of Oxford, was the firft that introduced embroidered gloves and perfumes into England, which he brought from Italy. He prefented the queen with a pair of perfumed gloves, and her portrait was painted with them upon her hands.

At this period was worn a hat of a fingular form, which resembled a clofe-ftool pan with a broad brim. Philip II. in the former reign, feems to wear one of these utenfils upon his head, with a narrower

brim than ordinary, and makes at leaft as grotefque an appearance, as his countryman Don Quixote with the barber's bafon.

The reverend Mr. John More, of Norwich, one of the worthiest clergymen in the reign of Elizabeth, gave the best reafon that could be given, for wearing the longest and largest beard of any Englishman of his time; namely, "That no act of his life might be "unworthy of the gravity of his "appearance." I wish as good a reafon could always have been affigned for wearing the longest hair, and the longeft or largest wig.

As the queen left no lefs than three thoufand different habits in her wardrobe when he died, and was poffeffed of the dreffes of all countries, it is fomewhat ftrange that there is fuch a uniformity of drefs in her portraits, and that she should take a pleafure in being loaded with ornaments.

At this time the stays, or boddice, were worn long waisted. Lady Hunfdon, the foremost of the ladies in the proceffion to Hunfdonhoufe, appears with a much longer waift than thofe that follow her. She might poffibly have been a leader of the fafhion, as well as of the procession.

beaus in this reign, who sometimes ituck flowers in their ears.

William, earl of Pembroke, a man far from an effeminate character, is reprefented with earrings.

James appears to have left the beard in much the fame state as he found it, on his acceffion to the throne.

The cloak, a dress of great antiquity, was more worn in this, than in any of the preceding reigns. It continued to be in fashion after the restoration of Charles II.

It is well known that James I. ufed to hunt in a ruff and trowfers.

We learn from Sir Thomas Overbury, that yellow ftockings were worn by fome of the ordinary gentlemen in the country.

Silk garters, puffed in a large knot, were worn below the knees, and knots, or rofes, in the fhoes.

Wilfon informs us, that the countess of Effex, after her divorce, appeared at court" in the "habit of a virgin, with her hair "pendant almoft to her feet:" the princefs Elizabeth, with much more propriety, wore hers in the fame manner, when fhe went to be married to the prince Pala

tine.

The head of the countefs of Effex feems to be oppreffed with ornaments; and the appears to have expofed more of the bofom than was feen in any former period.

The ladies began to indulge a ftrong paffion for foreign laces in the reign of James, which rather increased than abated, in fucceeding generations,

The ruff and farthingale still continued to be worn. Yellow ftarch for ruffs, firft invented by the French, and adapted to the fallow complexions of that people, was introduced by Mrs. Turner, a phyfician's widow, who had a principal hand. in poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury. This vain and infamous woman, who went to be hanged in a ruff of that colour, helped to fupport the fashion, as long as fhe was able. It began to decline upon her execution.

The ladies, like thofe of Spain, were banished from court, during the reign of James, which was, perhaps, a reason why drefs underwent very little alteration during that period.

It may not be impertinent to remark, that the lady of Sir Robert Cary, afterwards earl of Monmouth, was mistress of the sweet (or perfumed) coffers to Anne of Denmark; an office which answered to that of mistress of the robes at prefent.

It appears from portraits, that long coats were worn by boys, till they were feven or eight years of age. We are told by dean Fell, that the famous Dr. Hammond was in long coats, when he was fent to Eton fchool.

When James came to the crown, there was in the wardrobe, in the Tower, a great variety of dreffes of our ancient kings; which, to the regret of antiquaries, were foon given away and difperfed. Such a collection must have been of much greater use to the ftudious in venerable antiquity, than a review of the ragged regiment" in Weftminster Abbey.

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CHARLES