466

STOCKING MANUFACTURE.

years afterwards: “ Dr. Sands, on his going to bed in Hurle-ston’s house, he had a paire of hose newlie made, that weretoo long for him. For while he was in the Tower, a tailorwas admitted to make him a pair of hose. One came in tohim whose name was Beniamin, dwelling in Birchin-lane;he might not speak to him or come to him to take measureof him, but onelie to look upon bis leg ; he made the hose,and they were two inches too long. These hose he praiedthe good wife of the house to send to some tailor to cut hishose two inches shorter. The wife required the boy of thehouse to carrie them to the next tailor, which was Beniaminthat made them. The boy required him to cut the hose.He said I am not the maister’s tailor. Saith the boy, becauseye are our next neighbour, and my maister’s tailor dwellethfar off, j come to you. Beniamin took the hose and lookedupon them, he took his handle work in hand, and said, theseare not thy maister’s hose, but Dr. Sands, them j made inthe Tower.”

In a catalogue of the revenues of the Bishop of St. Asaph,it is stated that, “ The bishop of that diocese was entitled,as a perquisite, upon the death of any beneficed clergyman,to his best coat, jerkin, doublet, and breeches. Item, hishose, or nether stockings, shoes, and garters .”—Survey ofthe Cathedral Church of St. Asaph, by Broicne Willis.London, 1720, 8vo.

About 1577, knitting must have become common, forHarrison, in his description of the indigenous produce of thisisland, says, the bark of the alder tree was used by thepeasants’ wives for dyeing stockings which they hadknitted. 9

Hollinshed also informs us, that about J 570, whenQueen Elizabeth was at Norwich, “ upon the stage therestood at one end eight small women children, spinningworsted yarn, and at the other end as many knittingworsted yarn into hose.”

We are informed that the English word stocking, comesfrom stock, truncvs, Latin , the trunk of a tree. Silk stock-ings are said, in consequence of their high price, for a longtime to have been worn only upon grand occasion^.Henry II. of France, wore them, for the first time, on themarriage of his sister with the Duke of Savoy, in 1559. 10

In the reign of Henry III. who ascended the throne in1575 the consort of Geoffroy Camus de Pontcarre, whoheld a high office in the state, would not wear silk stockings

* Finst part of Hollinshed’s Chronicle.

ao Abttgi de 1’Histoire de France, par Mezeray, 1696, p. 198