Allow me to say a few words in reply to your correspondent "GASTROS."
His quotation from Fairholt (_Costume in England_), who cites
Stubbes's _Anatomy of Abuses_ as the earliest authority for the use
of beaver hats in England, is not a satisfactory reply to my query;
inasmuch as I am aware that beaver hats were occasionally worn by
great people in this country some centuries before Stubbes was born.
For example, Henry III. possessed "unum capellum de Bevre cum apparatu
auri et lapidibus preciosis;" as appears from the "Wardrobe Account,"
of the 55th year of his reign. I have, therefore, still to ask for
the _earliest_ instance of the use of hats or caps of this material
in England; such hats, as well as gloves, are mentioned in several
English inventories made between the thirteenth and sixteenth
centuries. Is there any example earlier than the time of Henry III.?

"GASTROS" has also obligingly replied to my query as to "the meaning
of the term _Pisan_, used in old records for some part of defensive
armour," but he seems to have forgotten that I expressly stated that
term had no relation to "the fabrics of Pisa;" at least such is my
belief. With regard to the inventory of the arms and armour of Louis
le Hutin, taken in 1316, printed in Meyrick's _Ancient Armour_, to
which he kindly refers me, it may be observed that the said inventory
is so perversely translated in the first edition of that work (just
now I have no means of consulting the second), as to be all but
useless; indeed it might be termed one of the most extraordinary
literary performances of modern times, as the following instance
may suffice to show. One of the items of the inventory is, "une cote
gamboisée à arbroissiaus d'or broudées à chardonereus;" and it is thus
rendered into English, "a gamboised coat with a rough surface (like
a thicket;--_note_) of gold embroidered on the nap of the cloth!"
The real signification is "a gamboised coat embroidered in gold,