In the second half of the sixteenth century these were tube-like breeches, worn by men, tightly-fitting over the thigh and extending from the lower edge of the short trunk hose to the knee. Cannons were generally made of a different material and pattern from either the trunk hose or the stocking and in the 1570s and 1580s could be ornately embroidered in coloured silks, gold or silver thread. In the seventeenth century, especially in the 1660s when petticoat breeches were fashionable, deep linen or lace flounces were attached to the lower end of the cannons, appearing to act as a full, ruffled extension of the rhine- graves themselves. This was a fashion to be seen in France and England but especially in Holland and Germany (see Hose (trunk) and Breeches (petticoat or rhine-grave)).
