among surgeons, a soft yielding substance, either laid under the head or a broken limb. In this sense, bolsters are contrived for crooked, bunched, and otherwise distorted backs, shoulders, &c.

By a constitution made under Archbishop Burchier, the clergy are forbidden to wear bolsters about their shoulders, in their gowns, coats, or doublets. The occasion of the prohibition is variously construed. Some say that bolsters came in fashion in the reign of King Richard III, who being necessitated, by his natural deformity, to pad, the courtiers, and even the clergy, did the same, out of compliance to their prince; so that every body who had the misfortune to be born straight, was obliged to wear a bolster on his shoulders to be in the fashion. Others, however, controvert this; alleging that the constitution above mentioned was made 20 years before the usurpation of Richard.

BOLSTERS of a Saddle, those parts of a great saddle, which are raised upon the bows, both before and behind, to hold the rider's thigh, and keep him in a right posture.