Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-07-07
HOSIERY OF HISTORY.
STUDIES OF STOCKINGS IN ALL TIYES AND
AGES.
The Irish Girls Bare Lsgs-Elizabsih Wore tie
Fist Gsnains Kuiilsd S!ockmgs-A Sick
ing Knitisrs Misfortune.
san F.anetsco chron,e,..


II is decidedly interesting, if not entire
ly instructive, to look into the history Of
stockings. So far as civilization and
civilized usages must be considered, the
anterior history ofthe country is that of the
land which furnished the bulk OF It's colon
lists. And go it becomes q matter OF per-
thence to America to learn that while the
Scotch Highlanders, from the days of
Agricola to the battle OF Killicrankle,
looked with scorn upon garments of any
sort, at less. in the heat OF battle, the
Southern or Bslgic Britons were cad, ike
the Gauls, in cloth of fine wool, which in
cluded g covering for their limbs also. But
the days OF distinctive hose for the High
lander and South Briton were days Of slow
development.
Ia the time of the Anglo-Saxons draw
ere reaching half wsy down the thigh, ard
stockings meeting them, were alluded %
by Ssxon writers under the nsme OF b.etch
and hose. In France the femorala or
drawers Of ChaTlemagre were OF linen.
The monk Of 81. Gall speaks Of tihialia vel
coxslia stockings or draTers) Of linen Of
one color, but oraamented with precious
workmanship. Il is evident from the
context that the writer meant long draw
ere, or hose aud drawers in one, like the
bsac 1)f CG;ar's Gsuls.
In the days of the Norman and PlariaCe-
net kings the costume for the neither tx
tremities consisted Of drawers with long
stockings, or pantaloans, with feet 20 them,
called By the Normsns 'chausse5 J." The
Saxon word hose cccurSin q wardrobe roll
of King Johns time. Cloth stockings en-
broidered with gold gre among the articles
ofdress ordered by Henry Ill for hissister
Isabel. In the reign Of Henry !. the hose
were richly fretted with goldand yagiously
colored silks.
Bat Elizabeth was the first English soy-
ereign to wear genuine knitted stockings,
and as soon as the fashion had been inaug-
urated the ladies went wild over It. 1t is
expressly stated in contemporary records
that they were mot ashamed TO wear hose
of all kinds Of chargeable coloTs as green,
red, white, russell, tawney and else what
not" Commonly knit, - too, and curl
ously indented IN every point with qliEks,
clocks, open seams and everything else &C
cordingly."
II was Mistress Montague who present.
ed the Queen with the first pair of black
knit silk stockings, which pleased her 50
much that she would never wear any cloth
hose afterWsrd. Soon after this, says
Stow. William Rider, then apprentice to
Thomas Burdet seeing a pair Of knit
wors.ed stockings at an Italian merchants,
brought from Mantrim, borrowed them,
and, having made pair like them, pre-
sen.ed them to the Eatl of Pembroke,
which was the first pair Of woTsted s.ock-
ings knit in England.
In 1890 William Lee, master of arts and
fellow OF st. Johns College, Cambridge,
invented o stocking frame. Tradition at
tributes the origin of his invention to e
pique he had taken against townswoman
With whom he was in love aud who neg
lected his passion. She got her livelihood
by knitting stockings, and to depreciate
her employment he constructed this frame
and instructed his brother and other rela-
tiyes how 10 work it. The other stocking
makers combined and drove him from the
country. so that he died at Paris OF a
broken heart.
In the reign of Anne the vesta were
leugthened to meet the stockings and en-
tireIy conceal the breaches, the stockings
being Of blue or scarlet silk, with gold or
silver clocks Scarlet stockings were worn
by fashionable bellies, who also INDUCED
| in the practice Of snuf-tsking.
Mrs. Damar, the eccentric and celebrated
sculptor of the days Of George Ill, Is said
TO have been the first female who wore
black silk stockings in Eugland Ladies
wore white stockings. even in mourning,
as late as the year 1873, aud white stock
iugs sre worn by twothirds of the English
women of all classes to-day, the trouble OF
washing Notwithstanding.
The bare-limbed lassies OF Scotland and
Ireland have attracted the eye Of every
American tourist. In the former case the
custom which prevails chiefly in the rural
districts ia largely dictated by the practice
prevalent among Scotch women Of washing
heavy articles by treeding them In tub
with the feet, and perhaps, also, for con-
venience Of fording the burns or brooks Ia
the mountainous sections. AS to the Irish
colleen" stockings have been deemed a
superhuiiy for centuries past, as every con
temporary historian has taken special pains
to record They might have added that the
average Irish lassie, stockings or no stock
ings, is the most virtuous girl on the face
OF the earth.