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The terrace, where in old days dames in ruffs had sniffed the sweet-brier and southern-wood of the borders below, and ladies, bright with rouge and powder and brocade, had walked in the swing of their hooped skirts the terrace now echoed to the sound of brown boots, and the tap-tap of high-heeled shoes at two and eleven three, and high laughter and chattering voices that said nothing that the children wanted to hear.
A motley assemblage it was, this crowd, comprising every variety of costume of rank and station and ecclesiastical profession, cowls and hoods of Franciscan and Dominican, picturesque headdresses of peasant-women of different districts, plumes and ruffs of more aspiring gentility, mixed with every quaint phase of foreign costume belonging to the strangers from different parts of the earth; for, like the old Jewish Passover, this celebration of Holy Week had its assemblage of Parthians, Medes, Elamites, dwellers in Mesopotamia, Cretes, and Arabians, all blending in one common memorial.
The fashion of red stockings, so much cried down, dispraised, and followed, is on the eve of departing, to be consigned to the family tomb of 'all the fashions, where sleep in peace the ruffs and hoops, and fardingales of past centuries; and "All its beauty, all its pomp, decays Like Courts removing, or like ending plays."
Amid so much suffering, she often sunk into despair before the cold hearth and empty pots, and no longer thought it worth while to plait her large cap and ruffs. It was now Maria's turn to speak words of comfort, and remind her of her son, the Beggar captain, who would soon enter Leyden. On the sixth of September the burgomaster's wife was returning home from an early walk.
And as Josiah said bitterly, the ruffs wuzn't any higher than the prices. And I told him the prices wuzn't none too high for what we got, and I sez, "We are gittin' along in years and don't often rush into such high expenses, so we'll make the venter." And he groaned out, "Good reason why we don't make the venter often, unless we want to go on the Town!"
Moreover, I will say for thee, Susan, that thou hast bred the girl as becomes one trained in my household, and unless she have been spoiled by resort to the Scottish woman, she is like to make the lad a moderately good wife, having seen nought of the unthrifty modes of the fine court dames, who queen it with standing ruffs a foot high, and coloured with turmeric, so please you, but who know no more how to bake a marchpane, or roll puff paste, than yonder messan dog!"
Lord Talbot, well pleased to introduce his spirited young cousins, took them in his boat to Richmond, which they reached just as the evening coolness came on. They were told that her Majesty was walking in the Park, and thither, so soon as the ruffs had been adjusted and the fresh Spanish gloves drawn on, they resorted.
Some were pictures of children little girls in thick satin frocks which reached to their feet and stood out about them, and boys with puffed sleeves and lace collars and long hair, or with big ruffs around their necks. She always stopped to look at the children, and wonder what their names were, and where they had gone, and why they wore such odd clothes.
The assembly grounds have the effect of splitting up and scattering the birds, and the number of Ruffs at any one particular meeting place is limited by the territories; with the result that Ruffs fit to breed are evenly distributed and always to be found in certain definite places, and the Reeves know by experience where to find them.
Where they found the body to be taken away, and a black Cat very lean and deformed sitting in the coffin, setting of great Ruffs, and frizzling of hair, to the great fear and wonder of all beholders."
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