Evening star., 1945-01-01
By Gael Rentrev

please you so well I will presently set
more in hand"
do SO" said the delighted Queen
"for indeed / like silk stockings SC
we'll because they are pleasant, fine
and delicate, that henceforth I will
wear no more cloth stockings" Eliz-
abeth was as good as her word. Never
again, we are told, did she put on
cloth stockings.
Knitted leg coverings were COM
paratively new, marked improve
nlent on The bands Of leather OF
wrappings Of cloth that had been in
use until the Middle Ages. Queen
Elizabeth was well aware that ever
in the time Of her august father hose
had been made of ordinary cloth
Imperious Henry VIII, however, had
caused his to be made from yard
wide taffeta. In the early 1550s knit
ted stockings came in, at first made
by hand on needles OF bone or wood
which resulted in a very loose mesh
The invention of steel needles gave
finer, more even mesh.
The century was in its last decade
when William Lee came on the scene
The story goes that he was expelled
from Cambridge around 1889, fol
marrying contrary to the statutes.
He and his wife set up house in Not
tingham where Lee took students tc
coach, but this venture did not &c
very well. Cecily, his wife, had
learned what was then a new art
knitting stockings by hand-and she
decided to make them for sale. Will
liam watched despondently while hel
nimble fingers kept the needles
clicking Suddenly, or 1t may have
been slowly, an idea took possession
of him. Why could not the opera
tion be performed by mechanical
means?
1 For three years he worked on the
invention Of a stocking frame, Sc
made that all the loops in one row
! formed at the same time. But wher
| 1t came to securing patent Lee
could not get it from Queen Eliza
beth. She thought the machine woulc
ruin the poor folk who made Their
living by knitting. Even a pair oil
silk hose made on the frame. after
years of effort, did not move Eliza
beth to change her mind.
Lee went to France, tried his luci
in the old city of Rouen, but did not
meet with great success. When he
died, discouraged, his brother Jane.
came back with some trained work
men to England and their per-
sistence established the stocking in.
dustry.
For hundreds of years silk stock
ings spelt the acme of luxury tt
womankind. When the Puritans
came to the New World their hose
were frequently of cotton, calico OF
woolen cloth. BY the next century
however, there was an occasional
silk pair, and a sweet story has
been handed down of the Colonial
maiden, who knit her elder sisters
wedding hose. They were of fine
open work design with the brides
initials worked on the instep. And
even this was not the full measure
Of the labor of love. The 16-year-
old girl who did the knitting had
also raised the silkworms and spun
the silk.
Silk culture, one of the most
ancient of arts, was secret which
China guarded jealously for thou
sands of years 1t was brought to
Europe by two travelling monks who
concealed a few silk cocoons in their
slaves and carried them secretly
through the wastes of Tibet and
Central Asia into Spain.
Spain, for long thereafter, was
| the only place where silk hose could
be had. Once Sir Thomas Gres-
ham wrote from Antwerp to Eliza
beth's great minister, Cecil, Il have
written unto Spain for silk hose
both for you and my lady your
wife" Even to people in the high
station of the Cecils silk hose were
something to be priced.
For long centuries 1t was the