C.D. LAMONT.
Greenock.
[Our correspondents will probably find some confirmation of their ingenious suggestion in the following passage from The Vision of Piers Ploughman:—
"And at the day of dome
At the heighe deys sitte."
Ll. 4898-9. ed. Wright.]
Saveguard.—"BURIENSIS" (No. 13. p. 202.) is informed that a saveguard was an article of dress worn by women, some fifty or sixty years ago, over the skirts of their gowns when riding on horseback, chiefly when they sat on pillions, on a double horse, as it was called.
It was a sort of outside petticoat, usually made of serge, linsey-wolsey, or some other strong material: and its use was to guard the gown from injury by the dirt of the (then very dirty) roads. It was succeeded by the well-known riding-habit; though I have seen it used on a side-siddle by a rider who did not possess the more modern dress.
P.H.F.
Amongst the bequests to the Clothworkers' Company of London is one by Barbara Burnell, by will dated 27th June, 1630, wherein she directs the company to bestow 4l. 6s. yearly in woollen cloth to make six waistcoats and six safeguards for six poor women.[17]