The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-09-03
STOCKING Loae.


me Early Days Of this Usefsi Piece -
Wearing Apparel.
We associate the name of stockings
and hosiery In general with the fsbrica-
lions of knitted underwear, but stock
ings were worn long before the art Of
knitting was used as an aid in the man
/ ufacture of textiles. The ancient Greek
and Roman ladies wore no stockings of
any kind, sandals and buskins being tho
only covering worn on the feet. There
were no manufactured stockings in the
days of Queen Clotilde and Of Bertha,
the first Christian queen of England.
A strip of cloth or wooden stuff was
wrapped around the feet and up to the
knees and held in place by strings or
straps, laced like our shoestrings. Such
stockings were often worn by actors Of
a generation ago when persOnating
Macbeth.
Originally the covering of the lower
half of the body was all made in one
piece, thereafter divided in two at the
knee, but still of the same coarse ma.
terial, and called trunk hose" The
| first manufactured stockings were clum-
|
terial. Luxury had its influence upon
stockings, however, as upon other arti-
cles of clothing, and the richest cloths
were subsequently used in their manu-
facture, and often they were ornament
ed with gay embroidery. Henry I'LL,
of England. upon the marriage of his
sister Isabella to the Emperor Frederick
H., presented her with pair of cloth
stockings embroidered in gold. Pearls
were sometimes fastened upon them,
and as much taste aud art were expend-
ed upon their OrnamentatiOn as ladies
apply to the same articles nowadays.
Cloth stockings went out of fashion
after awhile, and knitted stockings grad
ually came into use. The art of knitting
is the youngest of all the important tex
tile manufactures, and, compared with
the others, its origin is quite modern.
No certain allusiOn 10 the art occurs
before the beginning of the Fifteenth
Century. In an act of Parliament of
Henry VII, 1883. emitted wooden
cappes' are mentioned. 1t is supposed
that the art was first practiced in Scot
land, and thence carried into England,
and that caps were made by knitting
some years before the more difficult
feat of stocking-making was attempted.
In an act of Edward vi, 1858, KNITTED
hose, knitted petticoats, knitted gloves,
| and knitted SLEEVES" are enumerated,
and trade of hosier is, among others, in
| cluded in an act dated 1868.
"King Henry WILL" says the Chroni-
cler Stowe, .syOu shall understand, did
only wear Goth hose, or hose cut out of
ell-broad tafletta, unless by great chance
there came pair of silk stockings from
Spain"
liking Edward VI" he adds, chad a
pair of Spanish silk stockings sent him
rs great present."
The first silk stockings made in Eng
land were knitted by Queen Elizabeth's
silk-woman, Mistress Montague. who
presented her Majesty with pair of
black silk ones, which she liked SO well
that she kept the donor knitting silk
| stocking as long as she lived. Before
the end of her reign stockings were
made of silk, jarnsey. wOrsted, crewel
or the finest yarn and thread that could
be had, and Stubs remarked that the
ladies were mot ashamed to wear hose
of all kinds of changable cOlors, as
green. red, white. russell. tawney and
else what not, cunningly knit and Curl
Ously indented in every point with
quirks, clocks, open seams and every
thing else accordingly"
The fashion thus introduced by roy
atty was soon adopted by the under
ranks. The first Peer who INDUCED in
silk stockings was that William Herbert,
called the ''prOud Earl of Pembroke"
PrOuder than ever we can fancy him in
the DAYS of trunk hose, lOng-waisted
dOublets and huge ruffs, appearing at
court in his new and fashionable knit
hose and perhaps dancing measure
with the virgin Queen" her head COW
cred with feathers, her feet glittering
in gold and silver embroidered slippers,
wearing her black silk stockings as she
coquettishly raised her brocaded skirt
and shook her feet in the dance.
In 1859 William Lee. master of arts
and fellow of st. Johns College, Cam
bridge, invented stocking frame. Lee
was born ut marlborough, in Noting
hamshire, and is said to have been heir
to a good estate. Tradition attributes
the origin of his invention to biquc he
had taken against towns-wOman
with whom he was in love and who it
seems neglected his passion. She
earned her livelihood by knitting stock
ings, and. with the ungcnerous object
of depreciating her employment he
constructed this frame, first working ut
it himself, then teaching his brother and
other relations. He practiced his new
invention some time ut Calverton, a
village about five miles from Noting
ham. and either he or his brother is said
to have worked for Queen Elizabeth.
The other stocking manufacturers used
every art to bring his invention into
disrcputc, and it seems they effected
their purpose for that time, rs he sub
sequently removed from Calverton and
settled Mt Rouen. in France, where he
met with great patronage. The MUIR
der of Henry w., of France, however,
and the internal troubles that followed
that event frustrated his success, and
he died at Paris of q broken heart
Stowe says that Lee not only manu-
featured stockings on his frame, but
..waistcoats and divers other things"
King James l, it is said, not only
wore silk stockings, but was SO fond Of
them that he lowered his kindly dignity
so far rs to ask one of his courticrs to
lend him pair.
That was royalty going a-begging
with vengeance when VIC read in a
1-..o. .x:n <,f ho,x, bo el. 81