STOCKING MANUFACTURE.

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given to her by a nurse who lived at court, because sheconsidered them to be too gay.' 1 Anno 1569, when the privy-councellor Barthold von Mandelsloh, who had been envoyto many diets and courts, appeared on a week-day with silkstockings, which he had brought from Italy , the MargraveJohn of Ciisfrin said to him, “ Barthold, I have silk stock-ings also ; but I wear them only on Sundays and holidays.” 11The celebrated Leonard Tlmrneisser, however, who livedat the court of Brandenberg , about the end of the sixteenthcentury, wore silk stockings daily; and in general dressedvery magnificently in silk and velvet.' 3

The knitting stockings with wires, called weaving, hasbeen thought to bear a resemblance to the wire-work inscreens of churches. However, the invention of the stock-ing-loom is thought more worthy of attention, because it isalleged to have been the production of a single'person, andperfected at one trial; his name, and the exact period isascertained; and, because it is founded upon a similarincident to that of the beauteous Corinthian maid, who, assome say, invented the art of painting and design, being-traced to one of the most enthusiastic passions of the humanheart; also like the invention of pattens, see Grays Trivia.We bestow a particular attention upon this incident whichproduced the stocking-loom, trusting our fair readers willfavour us with their attention when they know it is as-cribed to almighty LOVE.

It is a machine which nothing less powerful could haveeffected we are assured ; it consisted of 2000 separate parts.Here the sexual passion produced an humble but verydistant imitation of what Divine Love effected in the wondersof the universe.

Under the usurpation of Cromwell, the stocking-knittersof London presented a petition, requesting permission toestablish a guild. In this petition they gave a circumstantialaccount of their profession, (from whence the following par-ticulars are collected,) of its rise, progress, and importance.No doubt can exist but that in this document the petitionersrendered the best, and probably a true account of the originand progress of their trade, that of stocking-weaving beingthen scarcely fifty years old. The circumstances theystated being then within memory, any misrepresentationwould have militated against them, and could have been

11 Samlfoix Versuch in der Geschichte von Paris, v. p. 43.xt Mohsen’s Beitragen zur Geschichte der Wissenschaften in Brandenburg,p, 87. w Mbhsen, ut supra.

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