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A damifel come unto me,
Lufsumer lifed a never in land;
Hendly fcho toke me by the hand,
And fone that gentyl creature
Al unlaced myne armure;
Into a chamber fcho me led,
And with a mantel fcho me cled,
It was of purpur fayr and fine,
And the pane of riche ermine :
Al the folk war went us fra",
And thare was none than bot we twa;
Scho ferved me hendely to hend,
Her maners might no man amend,
Of tong fcho was trew and renable f,
And of her femblant foft and ftabile;
Ful fain I wald, if that I might,
Have woned with that fwete wight.
In MORTE ARTHUR, fir Launcelot go-
ing into a nunnery is unarmed in the ab-
befs's chamber. B. xiii. ch. i. In MORTE
ARTHUR, fir Galahad is disarmed, and
cloathed in a cote of red fendall and a
"mantell furred with fyne ERMYNES, &c."
B. xiii. ch. i. In the British LAY or ro-
mance, of LAUNVAL (MSS. Cott. VES-
PAS. B. 14. 1.) we have,

Un cher mantel de BLANCHE ERMINE,
Couvert de purpre Alexandrine.

There is a statute, made in 1337, prohi

a Lovelier lived.

Courteously fhe.

c Border.

■ From.

biting any under 100l. per annum, to wear fur. I fuppofe the richeft fur was Ermine; which, before the manufactures of gold and filver, was the greatest article of finery in drefs. But it continued in ufe long afterwards, as appears by antient portraits. In the Statutes of Cardinal Wolfey's College at Oxford, given in the year 1525, the ftudents are enjoned, "Ne magis pretiofis

aut fumptuofis utantur PELLIBUS." De VESTITU, &c. fol. 49. MSS. Cott. TIT. F. iii. This injunction is a proof that rich furs were at that time a luxury of the fecular life. In an old poem written in the reign of Henry the fixth, about 1436, entitled the ENGLISH POLICIE, exhorting all England to keepe the fea, a curious and valuable record of the ftate of our traffick and mercantile navigation at that period, it appears that our trade with Ireland, for furs only, was then very confiderable. Speaking of Ireland, the writer says,

-Martens goode been her marchandie,
Hertes hides, and other of venerie,
Skinnes of otter, fquirrell, and Irish hare;
Of sheepe, lambe, and foxe, is her chaf-
fare.

See Hacklvyt's VOIAGES, Vol. i. p. 199. edit. 1598.

At the facking of a town in Normandy, Froiffart fays, "There was founde fo "moche rycheffe, that the boyes and vyl"laynes of the hoofte fette nothynge by goode FURRED gownes." Berners's Tranfl. tom. i. fol. lx. a.

He is conducted to her chamber.

Trefour he wife of grete noblay
Heo thozte more that heo faide.
To anothir ftude fheo he gan him lede",
That hir owne chambre was,

W

In al this world richer none nas.
Theo atyr was therein fo riche
In al thys world nys him non lyche *.
Heo ladde him to a stage,

And him fchewed one ymage,

And saide, Alexander leif thou mey,
This ymage is made after the 2;
Y dude hit in ymagoure2,
And cafte hit after thy vigoure;
This othir zeir, tho thou nolde
To me come for love ne for golde,
Het is the ylyche, leove brother,
So any faucon f is anothir.

O Alifaunder, of grete renoun,
Thou taken art in my prifoun!
Al thy ftreynthe helpethe the nowzt,
For womman the haveth bycowzt,