“Indeed I have,” said St. Hugh, “for I have made a long journey on purpose to see my son.”
So saying, he took hold of the king’s sleeve and drew him on one side. Richard smiled and embraced the old man. They withdrew to the recess behind the altar and sate down.
“In what state is your conscience?” asked the bishop.
“Very easy,” said the king.
“How can that be, my son,” said the bishop, “when you live apart from your virtuous queen, and are faithless to her; when you devour the provision of the poor, and load your people with heavy exactions? Are those light transgressions, my son?”
The king owned his faults, and promised amendment; and when he related this conversation to his courtiers he added, “Were all our prelates like Hugh of Lincoln, both king and barons must submit to their righteous rebukes.”
Furs were much used now as coverings for beds; and they were considered a necessary part of dress for a very considerable period.
In Sir John Cullum’s Hawsted, mention is made that in 1281 Cecilia, widow of William Talmache, died, and, amongst other bequests, left “to Thomas Battesford, for black coats for poor people, xxxs. in part.” “To John Camp, of Bury St. Edmunds, furrier, for furs for the black coats, viijs. xjd.” On which the reverend and learned author remarks, “We should now indeed think that a black coat bestowed on a poor person wanted not the addition of fur: such, however, was the fashion of the time; and a sumptuary law of Edward III. allows handicraft and yeomen to wear no manner of furre, nor of bugg,[96] but only lambe, coney, catte, and foxe.”
The distinction in rank was expressly shown by the kind of fur displayed on the dress, and these distinctions were regulated by law and rigidly enforced. By a statute passed in 1455, for regulating the dress of the Scottish lords of parliament, the gowns of the earls are appointed to be furred with ermine, while those of the other lords are to be lined with “criestay, gray, griece, or purray.”
The more precious furs, as ermine and sable, were reserved exclusively for the principal nobility of both sexes. Persons of an inferior rank wore the vair or gris (probably the Hungarian squirrel); the citizens and burgesses, the common squirrel and lamb skins; and the peasants, cat and badger skins. The mantles of our kings and peers, and the furred robes of the several classes of our municipal officers, are the remains of this once universal fashion.