Mr. B. Corney (No. 19. p. 307.)
has supplied a beaver hat from Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_; we meet
with another in his _Testament of Creseide_, v. 386., "in a mantill
and a beaver hat." We may therefore conclude that they were not
unusual in Chaucer's time. I now think it very probable that beaver
hats were introduced into this country as early as the Norman
Conquest; for we find mention of them in Normandy at a still earlier
period. In the "Chronicle of the Abbey of St. Wandrille" (edited by
Acheri, in his _Spicilegium_), we find, amongst the gifts of the Abbot
Ansegisus, who died A.D. 833,
"Cappas Romanas duas, unam videlicet ex rubeo cindato, et
fimbriis viridibus in circuitu ornatam; alteram _ex cane
Pontico_, quero vulgus _Bevurum_ nuncupat, similiter fimbriis
sui coloris decoratam in orbe."
I do not conceive this cap to have been made of the _skin_ of a
beaver, for the term would then most probably have been "ex _pelli_
canis Pontici."
This Chronicle contains several curious inventories of the gifts of
many of the abbots; in which we may see the splendour of the vessels
and vestments used at that period in religious services, as well as
the style of reading then prevalent amongst the monks.
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