Note 460 — SCENE I.—The Witch’s Cottage.

Footcloths were the ornamental housings or trappings flung over the pads of state-horses. On these the great lawyers then rode to Westminster Hall, and, as our authors intimate, the great courtiers to St. James’s. They became common enough in aftertimes.—Gifford. Briareus, the hundred-handed giant. The allusion is obvious.