CHAP. C. URVICA‘CEE. MO RUS. 1353 
commenced. in the Crimea, by the planting of all the best varieties of DZ. alba 
in the government garden at Odessa; where, according to M. Descemet ( 7'aé. 
Hist., &c., p. 55.), they succeed perfectly. In Spain, the culture of silk was 
introduced, as we have already seen, by the Arabs; and it is universally 
allowed to have been in a highly flourishing state in the fifteenth century ; but it 
has declined ever since ; and at the present day, as Capt. S. E. Cook informs 
us, itis one of the most neglected branches of agriculture in Spain; being 
almost confined “to Valencia, Catalonia, Murcia, and a part of Grenada.” 
(Sketches in Spain, &c., vol. ii. p. 38.) In Egypt, the culture of silk was 
introduced some years since, by the Pacha Ibrahim, and it is in a prosperous 
state. M/.a.multicailis is also mentioned among the trees that have been 
planted in the government gardens at Algiers, (See p. 178.) 
The first record of silk in Britain is of a present sent by Charlemagne to 
Offa, king of Mercia, in 780, consisting of a belt and two silken vests. Silk is 
mentioned in a chronicle of the date of 1286, in which we are told that some 
ladies wore silk mantles at a festival at Kenilworth about that period; and, 
by other records, we find that silk was worn by the English clergy in 1534. 
Henry VIII. had the first pair of silk stockings that were ever seen in 
England sent to him from Spain; and Edward VI. had “a pair of long 
silk hose,” from the same country, presented to him by Sir Thomas Gresham 
(who built the Royal Exchange); “a present which was thought much 
of” (Howell's Hist. of the World, iii. p. 222.) These stockings were cut 
out of a piece of silk, and sewed together, like the cloth hose that were 
worn previously; the first knit silk stockings were worn in England by 
Queen Elizabeth. Silk manufactures were introduced into England in the 
fifteenth century ; but they do not appear to have mademuch progress “ till the 
age of Elizabeth ; the tranquillity of whose long reign, and the influx of the 
Flemings, occasioned by the disturbances in the Low Countries, gave a powerful 
stimulus to the manufacturers of England.” (Jd‘Culloch.) In 1609, James L., 
probably in imitation of Henry IV., passed his famous edict for introducing 
the culture of the silkworm into Britain (see p. 1344.); and from the 
Issues of the Exchequer, &c., of his reign, lately published, it appears that he 
planted largely himself. One of the entries in this curious work is an order, 
dated Dec. 5. 1608, directing the payment to “ Master William Stallenge ” 
of the “sum of 935/., for the charge of four acres of land, taken in for His 
Majesty’s use, near to his palace of Westminster, for the planting of mulberry 
trees; together with the charge of walling, levelling, and planting thereof 
with mulberry trees,” &c. By another entry, we find that the attempt to rear 
silkworms was not hastily abandoned ; as it contains an order, dated January 
23. 1618, nine years after the preceding one, for 50/. to be paid the keeper 
of His Majesty’s house and gardens at Theobald’s, “ for timber-board, glass, 
and other materials, together with workmanship, for making a place for His 
Majesty’s silkworms, and for making provision of mulberry leaves for them,” 
Hartlib, in his Legacy, &c., printed in 1652, quotes some passages from 
Boneil on Mulberries, a work, printed in 1609; and among others a letter from 
King James to his lords lieutenants, recommending the planting,of mulberry 
trees, and offering them at 2 farthingseach. (See Legacy, &c., ed. 2., p. 59.) 
Though this attempt to rear silkworms in England proved unsuccessful, the 
manufacture of the raw material, supplied by other countries, was extraordinarily 
flourishing. The silk-throwsters (twisters) of the metropolis were united 
into a fellowship in 1562; and were incorporated in 1629. Though retarded 
by the civil wars in the time of Charles-I. and the commonwealth, the manu- 
facture continued gradually to advance; and so flourishing had it become, 
that it is stated in a preamble to a statute passed in 1666 (13 & 14 Chas, 2. 
c. 15.), that there were at that time no fewer than 40,000 individuals engaged 
in the trade. ((‘Culloch.) A considerable stimulus was given to the Eng- 
lish silk manufacture by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685; when 
above 50,000 French artisans took refuge in England. At this period, the 
consumption of silk goods was so great in England, that, besides the quantity 
