St. Paul daily globe., 1889-07-30
HOSIERY IN HISTORY.
Stockings in All Times and Ages.
Irish Girls Bare Legs.

San Francisco Chronicle.
1t is denidedly interesting, if not en-
ti1ely instructive, to look into the his
tory of stockings. So far as civilization
and civilized usages must be considered,
the anterior history of this country is
that of the land which furnished the
bulk of its colonists, and it becomes a
matter of pertinence to America
to learn that while the Scotch High
landers, from the days of AgricOla to
the battle of Killicrankie, looked with
scorn upon garments of any. sort, at
least in the heat of battle, the Southern
OF Belgic BritOns were clad like the
Gauls, in cloth Of fine wool, which in
clnded covering for their limbs also.
Highlander and South BritOn were
days of slow development.
In the time of the AnglO-SaXons
drawers reaching half way down the
thigh and stockings meeting them,
were alluded to by Saxon writer's as
breech and hose. In Faance the femo-
ralia or drawers of Charlemagne were
of linen. The monk of st. Gall speaks
of tibialia vel coXialia stockings or
drawers) of linen of one color, but Or
namented with precious workmanship.
1t is evident from the context that the
writer meant long drawers or hose and
drawers in one like the brac8 of Ca-
sar'S Gauls.
In the days of the Norman and Plant
agenet kings the costume for the neither
eXtremitieS consisted of drawers with
long stocking or pantalOOnS with feet to
them, called by the Normans ''chaus-
seS." The Saxon word hose occurs in
wardrobe roll of King Johns time.
Cloth stockir gs embroidered with gold
are among the articles of dress ordered
by Henry LII. for his sister Isabel. In
the reign Of Henry |. the hose were
richly fretted with gold and yarlouSly
colored silks.
But Elizabeth was the first English
sovereign to wear genuine knitted stock
ings, and as soon as the fashion had
been inaugurated the ladies went wild
over it. 1t is expressly stated in con-
temporary records that they were mot
ashamed to wear hose of all kinds OF
changeable cOlOrs, as green, red, white.
russell, tawney and else what not:;'
commonly knit" too. and ''curiOusly
indented in every point with quirks,
clocks, open seams and everything else
accordingly"
1t was Mrs. Montague who presented
the queen with the first pair of black
knit silk stockings, which pleased her
so much that she would never wear any
cloth hose afterward. Soon after this,
saws Stow, William Rider, then an ap-
prentice to Thomas Burdet, seeing a
| pair of knit worsted stockings at an
| Italian merchants, brought from Man.
trim, borrowed them, and having made
| a pair like them. presented them to the
| earl of Pembroke, which was the first
| pair of worSted stockings knit in Eng
land.
In 1899 William Lee, master of arts
and fellow of st. Johns college, Cam
| bridge, invented a stocking frame.
| Tradition attributes the origin of his
invention to pique he had taken
against townSwoman with whom he
was in love, and who neglected his pas
! sion. She got her livelihood by knit
| ting stockings, and to depreciate
| her employment he constructed this
frame and Instructed his brother
| and other relatives how to work it. The
other stocking-makers combined and
drove him from the country, SO that at
last he died at Paris of a broken heart.
In the reign of Anne the vests were
| heightened to meet the stockings and
| entirely concealing the breeches, the
stockings being of blue and scarlet silk,
with gold or silver clocks. Scarlet
stockings were worn by fashionable
bellies, who also INDUCED in the prac-
! tice of snutf-taking.
Mrs. Damer, the eccentric and cele-
brated sculptor of the days of George
| I'LL, is said to have been the first female
who wore black silk stockings in Eng
land. Ladies wore white stockings,
even in mourning, as late as the year
1878. and white stockings are worn by
two-tnirds of the English women of all
classes to-day. the cost and 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 district is largely dictated
by the practice prevalent among Scotch
women of Washing heavy articles by
treading them in tub with their feet,
and perhaps also for convenience of
fording the burns or brooks in the
mountainous sections. AS to the Irish
''colleen," stockings have been deemed
a superhuity for century past, as
every contemporary historian has taken
especial pains to record. They might
have added that the average Irish
lassie, stockings or no stockings, is the
most virtuous girl on the face of the
| earth.