360 PET ANIMALS. 



** We are indebted to this little insect for our greatest luxur) r in clothing, a 

 reflection which ought to humble our pride ; for how can we be vain of the silk 

 that covers us, when we reflect to whom we are indebted for it, and how little we 

 are instrumental in the formation of those beauties in our clothing of which we 

 are vain." STUBM'S Reflections. 



STLKWOEMS. 



"BREEDING silkworms was quite a mania in England a century and 

 a half ago ; ladies of title and fashion had cocoons hanging about 

 their apartments, and many a flunkey was as crimson in the face as 

 the scarlet continuations below his waist through looking after the 

 fires to see that a regular heat was kept up, and climbing the trees 

 to gather mulberry leaves. One poor flunkey was tried because the 

 worms left to his management perished, and there was a strong sus- 

 picion that he had given them poison, but whether with a pap-spoon 

 or a soup-ladle was never clearly proved. A patent was granted by 

 George I. for establishing an English silk manufactory, and two 

 thousand mulberry trees were planted at Chelsea to feed the silk- 

 worms ; but the manufactory and the trees came to nought, and all 

 that came of the affair was a capital work written by Henry Barham, 

 and published in 1719, on the management of silkworms. There 

 was a society that gave silver and gold medals to those who grew 

 the greatest number of mulberry trees, which at this period were 

 propagated from cuttings. Are there any of the two thousand mul- 

 berry trees that were planted in the time of George I. standing at 

 Chelsea now, we wonder ? There was a Mrs. Williams, of Gravesend, 

 who made a stir in the world of silkworms some eighty years ago, 

 and who hatched the pretty dears so early that when they kicked up 

 their little heels for the first time in this wicked world there wasn't a 

 mouthful of anything for them to eat, as the mulberry trees were as 

 bare as the bridge of your nose, so the little worms gave it up for a 



