10 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



Western Europe and England wore furs for protection and 

 covering, until the Roman invasion introduced the use of 

 fabrics. After the retirement of the Romans, the Euro- 

 peans north of Italy returned to the wearing of the skins 

 of wild animals. For a number of generations prior to 

 the Norman conquest in 1066 homespun was worn by the 

 nobility but the poor classes used furs and sheepskin for 

 raiment. 



During the middle ages the men of Europe wore furs 

 exclusively, but they were denied to woman, and it was not 

 until the reign of Edward III of England that furs became 

 fashionable for women, and they have remained so ever 

 since. 



As native furs were scarce in England and their use 

 confined to the wealthy, and in order to meet the demand 

 for coats made from pelts of creatures of the wild, Prince 

 Rupert in 1670 formed the famous Hudson's Bay Company 

 known then as "The Governor and Company of Adventures 

 of England trading into Hudson's Bay," to export pelts of 

 fur animals from the New World, principally that section 

 of the continent we now call Canada, and this company is 

 still in existence. Other companies preceded and followed 

 the Hudson's Bay Company into the fur business in America 

 and this section of the world became famous for the pro- 

 duction of the finest furs worn by the people of the civilized 

 world. 



Furs have had their place in myth, song and ancient 

 legend and it may come as a surprise to many to learn that 

 Cinderella's slipper was not made of glass, as many of us 

 were informed by fairy story books, but was, in fact, a fur 

 slipper. 



The original of Cinderella and her famous foot-gear, 

 which had its origin in Egyptian folk-lore, was written by 

 a noted French author named Perrault under the title 

 "Cindrillion" (little cinder girl) and although he wrote 

 that the little heroine dropped on the steps of the palace a 

 pantoufle en vair, (fur slipper) the printer set the type so 

 as to read en verre, and verre in French is "glass," while 

 vair, having the same pronunciation, is a fur represented in 



