Calceolaria

“ One half the garden just reflects the other.’”
“Rather a mournful reflection now,” observed Emmie with a smile.
“But easily changed to a bright one!” cried Vibert; “we’ll set plenty of hands to work, and get everything right before spring. These old straggling bushes must come up; we’ll have new plants from a nursery-garden, and fill those beds with geraniums, fuchsias, and calceolaria. An orangery, as at Hampton Court, shall be at one end of the house; and we must fix on a site for a conservatory, in which some huge vine shall spread out its branches, heavy with delicious bunches of grapes.” ”

“ The men wear ear-rings, supposed to be, and sometimes in reality, of gold, with bits of glass of different colours in them, and also silver or brass finger and toe rings, and sometimes a bangle on each arm or on one leg. The women go in very largely for beads, strings of them adorning their necks, white and blue being favourite colours. Rings for the ears, fingers and toes, and sometimes many glass bangles on the arms, and an anklet on each leg, are the usual things, the pattern of the metal jewelry being often the same as seen on the women of the plains. ”

“ The women have a cloth striped with blue, white, and red, falling as low as the ankles; silver rings in the ear, about an inch and a half in diameter, bracelets of horn, glass, brass, copper, and silver, according to the quality of the wearer; round the neck, beads, and strings of glass, or coral; round the ankles, brass, copper, or silver, and sometimes rings on the toes as well as fingers. The fashionable ornament is a Spanish dollar soldered fast to a ring. The poor women have pewter, brass, and copper rings. ”

“ They ornament their heads with coloured glass beads, tastefully disposed; they wear necklaces of small black glass beads, interspersed with a few gilt glass ornaments. The necklaces, which are about three inches broad, encircle the neck like a cravat. The head-dress of these women would be becoming, if their hair was not covered with a layer of butter, with which they also grease their bodies: it renders their skin glossy, but gives them an unpleasant smell. Most of the females have no other dress than a piece of cloth, five feet long and two wide, which they fasten round their waists. ”

“ It was made, this collar, of such stuff as lined the cloak, maybe it was of fur, or of satin, of silk, or of cloth of gold. The tremendous folds of these overcoats gave to the persons in them a sense of splendour and dignity; the short sleeves of the fashionable overcoats, puffed and swollen, barred with rich appliqué designs or bars of fur, reaching only to the elbow, there to end in a hem of fur or some rich stuff, the collar as wide as these padded shoulders, all told in effect as garments which gave a great air of well-being and richness to their owner. ”

“ In cloisonné enamel-work a metal base—of gold, silver, copper, or some other metal—has its design traced upon it by means of thin metal wires or strips soldered to the base and forming a number of divisions. These, when filled with the colored silicate (subjected to amalgamation by heat, and afterward polished) produce a beautiful patterned surface, the design of which appears traced in metal filaments. The Byzantine and the Greek enamelers executed their cloisonné enamels in gold, as likewise did the Anglo-Saxons, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Japanese in their finest work. ”

“ But they have bad tempers, are oppressed with hard work from their youth, and soon lose all their freshness and beauty. Their dress is very simple, consisting of a wide loose robe of blue calico, fastened round the neck and sweeping the ground. On the head is a large black veil usually of silk but seldom used to cover the face. They are fond of ornaments; rings, ear-rings, bracelets and anklets of glass, copper, silver and gold are worn in great abundance. Five or six bracelets are often found on a single dark arm while rings of all shapes and sizes cover the fingers. ”

“ They also display a pretty taste in jewellery, wearing pearl ear-rings and pearl and coral necklaces, other articles of attire including black velvet slippers, and sleeveless bodices laced with ribbon over a white chemisette. Occasionally the hair is turned up in a knot beneath a veil which hangs down behind, but, when working or going to market, the women imprison it in a silken mesh adorned with tassels, the latter being sometimes of gold and silver. ”

“ The graves of women contain daggers, which may possibly imply that the women had been warriors; also large spiral rings, various ornaments, finger-rings, bracelets, glass beads, &c.
Women’s dress of the bronze age seems to have consisted of the skirt and bodice as at the present time, but the men’s clothes were quite different from those of the iron age; in the earlier time trousers were not worn, while we see them in use in the latter.
Many sewing implements of bronze have been found in the graves, the needles like those of the stone age are sometimes made of bone, but many are of bronze ”

“ As ear-rings they wear two, and some women three, large silver rings, inserted as links of a chain: their necklace is glass imitating coral; those of the higher class wear round their necks a solid ring of silver, somewhat thicker than the collar usually worn by criminals in some parts of Europe ”

“ The ground or field of every coat of arms must be either of metal, colour, or fur. The METALS of heraldry are, Or==gold, and argent==silver, and as the shield of war was antiently of metal, either embossed or enamelled, the retention of the two precious metals as the field of an escocheon is easily accounted for. The COLOURS are gules, azure, vert, purpure, sable, tenne, and sanguine. ”

“ Calvert is also wrong in his statement that the larger bones were all broken to get at the marrow; on the contrary, we very rarely meet with broken bones. He is again incorrect in stating that I find small articles of bronze, as well as ornaments in gold and silver filigree work. I have never as yet found bronze here, but in all cases copper; and never have I found ornaments of gold or silver filigree work. The ornaments represented in the drawings are of pure gold, or electrum, or silver, or copper. ”

“ Armillæ, or bracelets, are found both in bronze, in silver, and in gold. They vary very considerably in form. Of these, one example (fig. 321) will be sufficient. The pair here represented are of base silver, and bear evidence of having been much worn. Examples of analogous type have been found at Castleford and other places. Other armlets partake more of the character of torques, torquis, or collar; and others, again, are simply bars of metal, twisted in one or more coils, like a spiral spring, around the wrist. ”

“ It is said by some that the silk chalice-veil is a foreign innovation and has no proper place in the Anglican ritual, but it is of such general use now that we must mention it here. It is usually made of the richest silk or satin, and embroidered all over, or at the corners and centre, or with a border all round and a cross or monogram in the middle of one side, lined with silk and edged with a narrow fringe or cord, or made up plain. The design is frequently, but not necessarily, made to match the burse. ”

“ But the most curious bracelet, and by no means an uncommon one, is that made of a human lower jaw with one or more collar bones closing the upper side crossing from one angle to the other. Whether these are the jaws of former friends or enemies we had no means of ascertaining; no great value appeared to be attached to them; and it was observed, as a curious circumstance, that none of these jaws had the teeth discoloured by the practice of betel chewing.
BRACELET MADE OF A HUMAN JAW.
We procured various sorts of necklaces--strings of shells, black seeds, and dogs' teeth. ”

“ The silk or calico may be dyed of any shade which use or fancy may require, impressed with gold or silver foil in every form, and variegated by ornaments in relief, copied from the most beautiful productions in nature. This new style of binding is distinguished not more for its durability, elegance, and variety, than for the economy and dispatch with which it ushers the offspring of intellect into the world. ”

“ Seven yards of purple cloth of damask gold were allowed for a kirtle for Queen Catherine, in a wardrobe account of the eighth year of Henry's reign. The sleeves of the ladies, like those of the gentlemen, could be changed at pleasure, being separate, and attached at will. They were extremely rich; and we find in one lady's inventory three pair of purple satin sleeves, one of linen paned with gold over the arms, quilted with black silk, and wrought with flounces between the panes and at the hands ”

“ Round the waist is always a string of beads, glass or clay if the wearer be poor, gold if she be rich. This supports the “shim,” a sort of under-petticoat, if we may so term it, which is simply a strip of calico an inch or so in width, one end being fastened to the girdle of beads in front, and the other behind. They all wear plenty of ornaments of the usual description, i. e. necklaces, bracelets, armlets, anklets, and even rings for the toes.
The hair of the married women is dressed in rather a peculiar manner. ”

“ Good form forbade the toga to be worn without the calceī, and they were worn also with all the other garments included under the word amictus. The calceus was essentially our shoe, made on a last of leather, covering the upper part of the foot as well as protecting the sole, fastened with laces or straps. The higher classes had shoes peculiar to their rank. The shoe for senators is best known to us (calceus senātōrius) , and is shown in Fig. ”

“ With the exception of the brooch-pin, which is always made of iron, Anglo-Saxon jewellery is almost invariably composed of gold, silver, or of some alloy, {64} and is very rarely of iron like the buckles found in the Frankish cemeteries. These iron buckles, owing to the perishable nature of their material are often much disfigured by rust, but many are sufficiently well preserved to exhibit a beautiful and elaborate inlay of silver, sometimes accompanied by gold. ”

“ Large black wooden studs in the lobe of the ear are on high days and holydays replaced by masses of silver or pewter, resembling a pile of hand-grenades, or the teething rattles employed in nurseries. Bracelets and anklets of the same metals, which, from their clumsiness, are aptly denominated “fetters,” are worn by those who can afford such extravagance. Blue and gold-coloured beads are ingeniously wrought into a necklace by the wealthier, who never appear without a bandoleer of potent amulets, terminating in a huge bell-rope tassel ”

“ To recall such a time in pictures, one must then see visions of loose-tuniced men, with heavy cloaks; of men in short tunics with sleeves tight or loose at the wrists; of hoods with capes to them, the cape-edge sometimes cut in a round design; of soft leather boots and shoes, the boots reaching to the calf of the leg. To see in the streets bright Oriental colours and cloaks edged with broad bands of pattern; to see hooded heads and bared heads on which the hair was long; to see many long-bearded men; to see old men leaning on tan-handled sticks ”

“ The pendent silver ear-rings are of imposing size and weight, and wide bracelets cover the arms, while, in the case of a woman fortunate enough to be the mother of a son, a distinguishing ornament dangles in the centre of the forehead, whence the hair is drawn back and arranged in a coil on the nape of the neck. ”

“ A claw, a shoulder-blade, a condyle, a leg or arm bone, or any other bone separately considered, enables us to discover the description of teeth to which they have belonged; so also reciprocally we may determine the form of the other bones from the teeth. Thus, commencing our investigation by a careful survey of any one bone by itself, a person who is sufficiently master of the laws of organic structure may, as it were, reconstruct the whole animal to which that bone had belonged. ”

“ The scalping is an operation not calculated of itself to take life, as it only removes the skin, without injuring the bone of the head; and necessarily, to be a genuine scalp, must contain and show the crown or centre of the head; that part of the skin which lies directly over what the phrenologists call “self-esteem,” where the hair divides and radiates from the centre ”

“ For both gold and silver the same cleanness is necessary, and in either case the same method, but there is a little difference in applying the enamel and also in the actual enamels applied, for the red enamel cannot be put on silver because the silver does not take it. ”

“ Both men and women have their noses pierced, and wear a sort of twisted nails in them of gold, about the thickness of a finger, called caricuris. They also wear necklaces of fine gold, rarely worked, and ear-rings of twisted gold. ”

“ The inferior ranks wear copper or iron. The men suffer the hair to remain in its natural form, except [33] buckling it in two or three places, in order to affix a coral ornament to it; but the women arrange theirs more artificially, with long and small buckles, or ornaments, the hair divided on the crown of the head, and the ornaments placed with great uniformity. ”

“ In concluding this chapter we must add that one of the first rules to be learnt in heraldry is that in arranging the tinctures of a coat of arms, metal can never be placed upon metal, nor colour upon colour. The field must therefore be gold or silver if it is to receive a coloured charge, or vice versa. ”