[ 20 ] 



S.si-'i * is, in the Dictionary della Crufca, explained to be 

 Spezie di Panno lano fottile e leggieri — A defcription which an- 

 fwers to our fcrge. And the epithet tiobiie ftronaly expreires the 

 excellence of the commodity, and the high repute in which it 

 was held. It is remarkable that Irifh wool is ftill found to be 

 better adapted to the conftrudion of ferges, and the other articles 

 of what is called ne-iXi dniperj, than to broad cloth. 



The following quotation from a very antient Florentine ac- 

 count book, in the Didionary della Crufca, Article Saia, is a further 

 proof of the above-mentioned extraordinary fad — " Per un Pezza 

 " di Saia d'Irlanda per veftir della Moglie d' Andrea |." From 

 hence alfo it appears, that Irifh ferge was among the Itahans an 

 article of female drefs, a circumftance which might induce us to 

 fuppofe that the fabric was then of a finer t and more delicate 

 texture than what is now made under that denomination. 



applauded, but adopted by many other ftates of Italy; and that the ladies, whom this 

 law had extremely offended, when forbidden the exorbitant ufc of Italian finery, 

 revenged themfelves by the importation of foreign wares. 



* Saia, which, as the commodity was foreign, is probably a word not originally 

 Italian, may perhaps have been altered and Italianized from ferge, which, according 

 to Skinner, is derived from the German ferge, a mat. The French and the Spaniaids 

 have adopted the fame appellation— /fr^c, French— xerga, Spanifh. But as this kind 

 of ftuff is alfo called in Englifh/fl;i — Shakefpeare, Henry VI. fecond part— " Ah, 

 " thou fay, thou ferge, thou buckram Lord !" which Skinner derives from fagiim, 

 « tunica militaris, quoniam ifte pannuS fagis conficiendis valde commodus eft," it is 

 ftill more probable that the Italian word faia was formed from this. 



■)- Far apiece of ferge of Ireland for clothing the tvife of Andreiu. 



% From a line in the Fairy Queen, book iii. cant. 12, ftanza 8, we might perhaps 

 be induced to fuppofe that in England alfo ferge was formerly of a finer texture, or 

 at leaft more fafhionable, than it now is — 



" His garment neither was of filk nor fay." 

 Here the Poet feems to put ferge upon a level with filk, at that time a very coftly 

 article of drefs. 



The 



