"YE PARISSHE PRIEST TO VISYTE YE FAIR WALSINGHAMME, MUCHE AND LYTE UPON HIS FEET, AND IN HIS HAND A STAFFE."
Thus might have run a description of a Priest in the Year of our Lord 1400, on his way in Pilgrimage, "wel nine and twenty in a companye", to Walsingham. This cavalcade of pilgrims were men and women overwhelmingly of the middle classes. There would have been one or two comfortably rich men, perhaps a Knight, while in the Parson we have the humblest grade of Ecclesiastic. Besides these, there would have been a Nun's Priest and a Monk, perhaps a Plowman in a tabard. A Prioress would have been there too, riding a Palfrey and her Nuns also rode Palfreys. The saddle would have had no stirrup, but both feet rested on a sort of dashboard called a Planchette. An Abbot on an ambling pad, as Tennyson so well puts it in "The Lady of Shalott", also made up the company. Of the Parson, his living was so poor that it did not run, as most of the pilgrim's resources did, to keeping a horse for his parochial duties. It would be appropriate to note here that the tradition of giving gifts at Christmas and Eastertide to the Parish Priest goes back many centuries past. This was mainly done to receive, in return, a blessing, and it is interesting to note that this has survived right up to our present time, with Father Malcolm only recently bestowing a Blessing on all his flock, and those who gave gifts at Christmas and wishes of good will. The picture we have here is indeed a pleasant one, on a fine Spring morning of a group of Pilgrims making their cheerful way, some riding and some, like our poor Priest in the cavalcade, walking and shepherding the company along, much like our own yearly pilgrimage in some ways to Walsingham from St George's.
The most striking difference, however, is in the mode of the dress of our 14th century pilgrims. The contrast between the dress of the noble Knight on his, what would be to our eyes, a magnificent Shire horse, and that of the walking plowman in the procession is more evident than at any later period in English history, right up to the present time. Changes in costume were few, and it was not until the latter half of the 14th century that clothes assumed a new importance, and the most fantastic and exaggerated fashions made their appearance. The wealth and prosperity of the Tudors permitted still further elaboration.
The most noteworthy feature of the clothes for the rich, both men and women, was the very large amount of fur that was used for trimming. The dress sleeves had cuffs trimmed with all kinds of fur, reaching right down to the floor. The skirts of the coats of both men and women were likely to have been lined with fur, and one wonders as to the source of the pelts of the poor animals that were used, in such vast quantities. The vogue for embroidery spread to homes of all kinds, and bands of simple designs were often seen at the neck and hem, on the poor as well as the rich, and designs encrusted with elaborate beadwork graced the attire of all. Sleeves slashed above the elbow were also quite common, with under-sleeves of embroidered vests showing through.
The power of the Church at this time seems to have been quite negligible as regards sobriety and modesty in clothes, and it is particularly interesting to note that Priests and Nuns all wore the same attire as those who had not taken Holy Orders. The Courts, too, were singularly unhampered by the disapproval of the Church, and the extravagance and vice of the nobility was reflected in their dress.
There is no doubt that the most notable of all the differences of attire in the Pilgrims we first encountered, and our own, would be the headgear worn by the former. These were worn by ladies and gentlemen alike, with crowns, circlets, veils nets, and fine muslins, draped right round the side of the face, and various styles of hoods, some with long pieces reaching to calf-length, and some no more than resembling silk draped over what looked like cow-horns! Some of the men's hats were something like flowerpots turned upside-down on a hood with a collar attached. The most loved of all these early hats is undoubtedly the long steeple hat, draped with a filmy piece of material, which went out of fashion in about 1490. The steeple hats sometimes had openings in the back for the hair to be plaited and pulled through, to hang down amongst the drapery. Some of the Clergy, even today, fuse the old and the new, with the beretta, large black flat-brimmed hat and even the Homburg still being worn.
The 14th century closes with Lords and Ladies arrayed in cloth of gold and ermine, with girdles of exquisite and intricate design, and decked with priceless furs and jewels, gold and silver worth a king's ransom. The peasants, however, still wore their simple clothes, although many aspired to decoration of one kind or another.
Let our very welcome company of readers consider then, for a moment, the dress fashionable for men and women for our Pilgrims on their way to Walsingham in the Year of our Lord, 1400. The men's attire would have been long hose, with a loose overgarment worn with a leather belt and pouch, at the side. The girdle and pouch at the side was a very important part of every pilgrim's attire. His sleeves would have been very loose, from the shoulder, and with fur cuffs through which he could slip his hands, the sleeves being open from shoulder to cuff. He would also have been wearing a cap and hood, worn hanging down the back with the tippet over the shoulder to keep it in place. His shoes would be long-toed, pull on ones, although in wet rough weather, shoes with wooden soles were worn. The ladies would be wearing a gown, either lined or trimmed with fur of one sort or another. Over this she is wearing a kirtle, or loose fitting coat of quite elaborate design, usually embroidered, with a large girdle of cloth-of-gold, securing it high above the waist. Her hat if she was riding would probably be of the draped cow-horn type, or if walking possibly like that of Mary Queen of Scots like a Church Window shape, draped with an exquisitely embroidered overpiece. It must be emphasised that the difference in dress between the nobility and poorer classes in the procession wending its way to Walsingham, in the care of the very poor Priest, would have been very great indeed.
The undergarments worn, were for the men - who also wore long hose - to borrow from the French, a Camice, which was a long loose tunic affair, and for the women also, a long quite voluminous garment was worn, to undercut the full skirted bunchiness of the outer clothes.
Perhaps it is rather pleasant for us, for a short while at least, to survey this charming procession of pilgrims of the 14th century, as they make their slow way along their route, on a lovely spring morning; the fields and pastures bright with flowers and lowing cattle, some knee-deep in the streams by the Willow-trees, and birdsong filling the May-strewn hedgerows. And so we will leave them, for our own age, and our own dear pilgrims.
written by Rosemary Goulding
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