Star.
London, England, 1831-09-12 00:00:00

FRAMEWORK KNITTERS.

Tie
Ciril, Political, and Ailechaniad Hietery of the
Fr am...work Knities rin Eusope and America, le. By
CR Av Ewon HE Prsox. Nottingham, 1831.

_ .
This is the work of a journeyman lace-maker.
It contains a great deal of interesting information.
As in duty bound, we have read the book through
with attention. The writer has collected a groat
deal of information ! we confine ourselves to a few
extracts, and the expression of our best hopes that
tl:e persevering labour of the writer may meet with
the reward of a ready and remunerating sale. As
an historical fact, the following account of the in-
troduction of knit stockings in England desarves to
be quoted :

•• Knit stockings vere first introduced into England from
Mantua, in Italy. William Rider, a clothier, rtho resided
near London:bridle, being at the house of an Italian met-
cl ant, (a class then very '•ur:erous In London,) saw a pair
of knit stockings, and had the ingenuity to make a pair ex-
actly like them, which be presented to Sir %Pillion Her-
bert, then Earl of Pembroke, who was one of the sixteen of
the council of regency, appointed by Henry VIII. ilurinl
the minority of Edward VI. The difficulty in fa-
shioning hose arose, ro doubt, from the shape
of the foot, and the forming the heel, which
though when seen dune, appears very simple, yet it is pro.
bable afforded great impediments to the formation of a
stocking. How and in what manner the sloth hose were
made is not known; but it is very probable they were
seen, and then formed by leg-boards to the size :rid shape
required, by being shrunk from the cloth, in the operation
of milling. This comfortable elastic wear (Rider's knit
stockings) excited the attention of the English nobility and
gentry, and they became eater to enjoy the luxury of hay.
ing elastic stockings ; as we find from Dr. Howell. that
the silk• women of Elizabeth, in 156 t. had acquired such
dexterity in the art, as to make them of such fineness, as
to be enabled to knit them of black silk ; after which, says
that historian, Elizabeth never more wore cloth hose:'
p. 12.13.

The difficulty in " fashioning the hose," hers
referred to, was not fully overcome in two cen
furies; and we were at last indebted for the per-
fection of tl:e art to the personal vanity of a
stocking-master, of the name of Villiers, a de-
scendant. as our author believes, of the Duke of
Buckingham :
" He was remarkahle for a handsome well-shaped leg,
and generally wore silk stockings. Being a muter stocking.
maker, and keeping a large shop of silk frames, in order
that the stockings might fit his leg exactly. he paid great at-
tention to the fashiJii of the hose. from the frame ; the narrow.
ings had been, previous to his time, all made by four courses,
and, consequently, they looked as though the piece had been
taken suddenly out ; Villiers directed his workmen to nar-
row them by degrees. • • • Pi eelcous to kis date, the
hose bad the foot bottom set on the same width u the in.
step, but as be had caused his boa to be well narrowed

down in the small, to fit his fine-shaped leg, he invented
the mode of setting the bottom of the foot wider than the
instep, and then, after woi king about half an inch, narrow-
ing it gradually down to the width of the instep, which
made it act as a gusset, and gave room across the heel and
instep. He also directed his stockings to be mad. at ihe
knee with natrowings and widening., called first narrow-
ing*; and had the heels and feet perfectly rounded by bind-
ings in, i. e. a narrowing reduces the width only one needle
at a time, binding three needles in silk stockings. The
result was, that the English silk and cotton stockings be.
came decidedly snperior in shape to thole of any other
county, and they still retain their superiority, which, in
fine silk stockings, always secures for them a superior mar-
ket, and has caused them always to be preferred to French,
Spanish, et Itallan."—P. 212.

The traditional history of the invention of the
stocking-frame, has a romance about it that makes
it interesting:

" The iimarion of the knitting machine, (since bettcr
knorn 1 y the name of die etockin_ frame, an the reel:men
is framecork-kbit.ers ) owed its origin, as is universally
agre-4'. to a sin mbar circumstance, the ilisappointed love
,he inventor, the Rev. Wtn. Lee, curate of Calverton in
the county ef hhetin:.!ian4. This :;ebtlernan, it is said, paid
his addresses to a yuntig woman in his reiglihunrhood, to
whom, from some cause, 1 is attentions were not ageeshle
nr, as with more probability ii. Las been co jeettwel, shc
affects' to treat 141 m whit negli!, Ince, to ascertain I er river
over his affections. Whencv.r ne raid his visits, she always
took ,:are to be busily employed in knitting, and would pay
no attention to his addresses; this conduct %he pursued
to such a beret extent, and fur so long a pe-
riod, that the lover became dis,;usted, end he vowed
to devote his (mum leisure, instead of dancing attend-
ance on a capriclons woman, who treatetl hie attention with
cold neglect, in devising an invention that should effeetnally
aspersed,: her favourite employment of knitting. So sale-
lets ras Mr. Lee in :.is occupation, that be neglected every
thir.g to accomplials this new object of his attentions, even
'lsis sacerdotal duties vac neglected. In vain did his sweet-
heart et.deavour to reclaim him ; she foued, too las, that
she bad carried her humour too far ; all interests, all avoca-
tions, all erections were absurbcd in his new pirsult, frau
which be inrylined he should realise an immense fortune.—
His curacy %MS despised, and at length abandoned, u he-
Death the notice of a person who had formal its ids imagiro-
don such gigantic prospects. The old stocking makers,
particularly those in London, were fond of dilating in their
cups, and in their general conversrtion, on the difficulties he
encountered."—p. 38-9.

Lee et lzst succerAj. In producing a cumbrous machine.
the :limitation of his own age, though the won of ours ;
mid his next effurts were directed to reap the reward of his
long leaours

“ He removed his invention to London, for the purpose
of presenting it to the Queen, in the fond hope of receiving
her congratulations, and those of her whole court. • • •
Thuugh supiatted by the powerful intercession of Lord
Hunsdun, and his son, Sir William Cary, equally a favourite
whit Elizabeth, she refused to make either* grant of money,
or secure him a monopoly or patent. Her answer
is said to have been to the following purport
bly lord, I have too much love to my poor people, who ob-
tain their bread by the employment of knitting, to give
my money to forware an invention which will tend to their
ruin, by depriving tium of employment, and thus make
them beggars. Had Mr. Lee made a machine that would
have made silk stockings, I should, I think, have been
somewhat justified is granting him a patent for that mono-
poly, which: would have affected only a small number of my
subjects, but to enjoy the delusive privilege of making
stockings for the whole of my subjects, is too important to
grant to any individual.' • •

" Though disappointed he was not discouraged. Lord
Hunsdoo, as well as hhi son Sir William Cary, was equally
sanguine as to the making of silk stockings, and obtaining
the patent, which they hoped to enjoy conjointly, and they
determined to persevere. As s prelintinsty, it was agreed
that Mr. Lee should learn Sir William (afterwards Lord.
Hunsdon) ; and upon his requiring a guarantee for the
.ecutity of his invention, Sir Wm. offered to become his
apprentice, which was accepted. Thus the first stocking.
maker's apprentice was a knight, and eldest son to a lord,
who was of the blond royal." p. 43-6.

Lee, however, received so little encouragement,
that eventually, at the solicitation of Sully,
then Ambassador in England, be removed to
France :

Flavin.; established Ids frames, and commenced his ma-
nufactory, he went to Paris, where be was introduced by the
Mike to his Sovereign, Henry the Great, who gave him a
gracious reception. This benevolent 31onarch, who was then,
and is now. the darling of the French nation, particularly
of the working dunes, was meditating the bumbling of the
ascendancy of the house of Austria, and was preparing fur
the opening of a campaign the most brilliant that had taken
place in that age, when the desperate amain, Francis Rn.
vaillac, as he passed through the streets of Paris. during a
momentary stop of hiscarriage, gut upon its wheels, and at
two !•lows deprived Henry of life, and poor Wm, Lee, of all
his brilliant expectations. He was then in Paris, expecting
after the hurry of the departure of Henry, that his minister,
Sully would have leisure to arrange with him the establish.
ing of his manufacture upon an extended scale. Su dread-
ful a misfortune acted u a thunderbolt upon the uufurtu.
nate ingenious man, and when, waiting upon Sully, he found
that that great minister had resigned the whole of his ap.
pointments into the hands of Mary Medici', the Queen
Regent, and that he was preparing in disgust to retire to hie
estate, leaving the government in the hands of Italians, his
fortitude forsook him, and he gave way to the melancholy
which had attacked him in London ; he thought himself the
most unf.munate of men ; alone, unprotected, in a foreign
country, after 22 years' struggles, he sickened at the thought,
and sent for his brother James from Rouen, but before he ar-
rived the inventor of the stocking-frame died of a broken
heart, in the midst of strangers. This happened in the year
1610.”—p. 61.2.—[A very minute and meritorious notice
of the ingenious work of Mr. Henson appears in the Athe-
neum Saturday afternoon.]

We regret to learn that at the Great Cold .harbour
Farm, last week, a very manifest disinclination to assist
In quenching it was shown by many of the agricultural
labourers. The owner of the stock, it was said, had
given dissatisfaction to the labouring population by having
mowed his corn. It may be remembered that a thrashing
°whim belonging to the same proprietor was broken a
week or two seek since, and on Saturday sennight a man
was committed to gaol for htc offence. This continued state
of warfare between employers and labourers is truly lament.
able—lent Keruld.

CRUELTY TO AwimAt.s.—The officers of the
society against Cruelty, among several cues pro-
secuted by them last week, caused Charles Thomas
to be find in costs, by Alderman Thorpe, for hav-
ing whipped a horse with great barbarity while It
was overloaded : his defence was, that the poor
animal was broken-winded, and therefore would
not go without beating. We are only sorry that
the worthy Alderman did not impose the full pe-
nalty allowed by the act.