io3 c rr I N A. 



The Romans believed it to be the fiime kind which was pro- 

 duced at Ro!;ie from the filk-thread which had found its way 

 there in the time of Pliny, which makes him complain of the 

 ^rcat trouble the Rotiian women had in winding and weaving 

 their fiik, whilft the Seres had no more to do than to gather it 

 from the leaves of trees. '•'' Uncle geminus fceminis nojlris labor 

 *' redordiendijila rurjujque texendi" It was long before the ma- 

 nufadure of filks was eftabliflied at Rome. The nfe was dif- 

 couraged by a law forbidding men to debafe themfelves by the 

 wearing of lllk, as fit only for women. The effeminate Helio- 

 gabalus is the firft on record who wore a drefs entirely of filk. 

 The manufactory even in the ribband or haberdafhery way did 

 norreach our kingdom till about the year 1482. Spain had very 

 loner the ftart of us. Our monarchs were forced to be content 

 with cloth ftockings. Henry VIII. accidentally got a pair now 

 and then from Spain. Sir 'Thomas Grejham prefented a pair to 

 Edivard VI. which was much talked of. Mrs. Montague, filk- 

 woman to queen Elizabeth, prefented her with a pair of black 

 filk, after which, her highnefs would never wear any of cloth. 

 Broad filks were not woven in Englajid till the year 1620. The 

 fouthern and weftern parts of Europe for centuries poffeffed that 

 fpecies of man u failure. 

 Cotton. The manufa<Slure of cotton muft have been of great antiquity^ 



BuHalde-' mentions the flirub, and the time of the fowing, 

 which immediately follows the harveft, and in the fame field.. 

 The produce is woven into calicoes, and into a cloth well known 

 in England by the name of Nanquins, fo called from the place 



* Vol, i. p. 319, 



of 



