450 MORUS ALBA. 



KiiglaiKl. sent t(i him from Spain; and Mdward \ 1., -'had a pair of long silk 

 hose." from iho .sanieconnlry. prcsi'iitod to him by Sir Thomas (ircsham, ' a present 

 which was ihoiight much of." Thj-y were ciii out of a piece of silk, and sewed 

 togelher, like (lif cloih hose that wen; worn previously [o the reign of Mlizaheth. 

 James I., when king of Scotland, was forced to beg the loan of a j)air of silk 

 stockings of the lOarl of Mar, to apjjcar in before the Mnglish embassador, enforc- 

 ing his recpiest with the cogent appeal, " For ye would not, sure, tha. your king 

 shouKl appear as a scrub bi'fore strangers" a circumstance which ])robably led 

 him to promote the cultivation ol silk, both in England and in America. The 

 manufacture of silk was introduced into Britain in the XVth century ; but it did 

 not appear to make much progress till the time of Elizabetii, the tranqmllity of 

 whose long reign, and the intlux of the Flemings, occasioned by the disturbances 

 in the Low Countries, gave a powerful stimulus to the manufactures of JiUgland. 

 In 1GI)5, James I., probably in imitation of Henry IV., passed his famous edict 

 for introducing the culture of silk into Britain ; and from the " Issues of the Ex- 

 chequer," 6ic., of his reign, it appears that, by the year 1()0S, he planted largely 

 himself. Hartlib, in his " Legacy," &c., printed in 16.52, quotes some passages 

 from Bonoeil's work on mulberries, &c., issued in 1609; and among other letters 

 from King James to his lords lieutenants, recommending the planting of nudberry- 

 trees, and ottering them at two farthings each. Though this attempt to rear 

 silkworms in England proved unsuccessful, the manufacture of the raw material 

 supplied by other countries, was in an extremely flourishing condition. The 

 silk-throwsters of London were united into a fellowship, in 1562; and were 

 incorporated in 1620. Though retarded by the civil wars in tiie time of Charles 

 I. and the commonwealth, the manufacture continued gradually to advance; and 

 so flourishing had it become, that it is stated in a preamble to a statute passed in 

 1666, that there were at that time no fewer than forty thousand individuals 

 engaged in the trade. A considerable stimulus was given to the English silk 

 manufacture by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, in 1685 ; when about fifty 

 thousand French artisans took refuge in Britain. At this period, the consump- 

 tion of silk goods was so great in England, that, besides the quantity manufac- 

 tured in the country, there were annually imported an amount exceeding six 

 hundred thousand pounds sterling. After the failure of the attempts of James I., 

 to establish the culture of silk in Britain, another trial appears to have been made 

 in the year 1629. This may be niferred from a grant having been made to Wal- 

 ter Aston, of the custody of the garden, mulberry-trees, and silkworms, near St. 

 James', in the county of Middlesex; although this may possibly have been a 

 continuation of the project of the year 1605. In 1718. the scheme was again 

 renewed, and a patent granted to John Appleton, Esquire, for producing raw 

 silk of the growth of England. To accomplish this undertaking, he was author- 

 ized to raise a fund by joint-stock subscription. This he accomplished, dividing 

 the capital into shares of five pounds each. A deed of trust was executed, and 

 enrolled in the court of chancery ; directors for managing the concerns of the 

 company were chosen by the subscribers, and Chelsea Park, being conveniently 

 situated, and possessing, as was supposed, a soil favourable for the purpose, was 

 fixed upon as the theatre of their operations. A lease of this place for one hun- 

 dred and twenty-two years was obtained, and two thousand mulberry-trees were 

 soon actually planted ; this forming but a small part, however, of the vast quan- 

 tity which the company contemplated raising. Many large edifices were erected 

 at a great expense, upon the spot, the remains of which, at the present day, are 

 said to be entirely obliterated. Mr. Henry Barham, who probably was a mem- 

 ber of this compan-y, published, at this time, an essay on the silkworm, wherein 

 he laboured to prove that all objections and difficulties raised against the prose- 

 cution of what he calls " this glorious undertaking," were mere phantoms. The 



