Boothose (boot-hose, boot hose) are over-stockings or boot liners worn in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to protect fine knitted stockings from wear. They first appear around 1450. Originally a practical item, they were later made of fine linen and sported elaborate lace and embroidered boothose tops. By 1583 Philip Stubbs in his Anatomie of Abuses could decry "The vain excesse of botehosen"