Yes, and I will look for a picture I have seen where there are women
pulling up their skirst to warm their feet/legs at a fire in a room. It
is almost a "cut away" picture as if to show the scene of the village,
but what is going on inside the buildings as well. I think I said this
recently on the list (and have been away so, forgive if this was part of
this conversation and I have forgotten.) if you go to Moryson, where he
is talking about clothing in on the continent in several places he says
that women do wear breeches under their gowns. Of course this is later
than you speak of (1598~1604), but......
"This cold is the cause, why their sheepe and cattell are kept in
stables, to bring forth their young. And howsoeuer the same be done in
Italy, subiect to great heate, yet it is not of necessitie, as here, but
out of the too great tendernesse of the Italians, towards the few cattle
they haue And this is the cause, that how soeuer they vse not hot
stoaues, as the Germans doe, yet the Weomen, as well at home, as in the
Churches, to driue away cold, put vnder them little pannes of fier,
couered with boxes of wood, boared full of holes in the top. And this
sordid remedy they carry with them, by the high way in waggons, which
the Danes or Mosconites vse not, though oppressed with greater cold:
onely some of the more noble Weomen, disliking this remedy, choose
rather to weare breeches, to defend them from the cold." (Netherands)......
Some of the chiefe Women not able to abide the extreme cold, and loth to
put fier vnder them for heate (as the common vse is) because it causeth
wrinckles and
spots on their bodies, doe vse to weare breeches of linnen or silke.
(Germany).......
The City Virgins, and especially Gentlewomen, couer their heads, face,
and backes with a Vaile, that they may not be seene passing the
streetes, and in many
places weare silke or linnen breeches vnder their gownes. (Italy)"
Sg
Were there any fires inside? Most of the castles we visited in France
were damp and cold, but twice we visited castles where the chimneys
had been restored so they'd made a fire inside - makes a whole world
of difference. They would still be cold in the winter, though...
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