OF HAND-SPINNING OF FLAX. 263 



of linen yarns, which the reports of the Linen Board in 

 Dublin declared to have increased "in a, most alarming manner " 

 The quantity of linen yarns sent from Ireland to England 

 that year was no less than 2,489,782lbs. The writer of the 

 article adds, " The legislators of that day performed so many 

 odd freaks, that it is a subject of surprise how the Irish Par- 

 liament escaped the blunder of prohibiting a demand for the 

 industrial produce of tl)e Irish people." 



The importance of Flax-spinning by hand is so well known 

 in Germany that a writer says, when speaking of Bohemian 

 women, "In this part of Germany every female, from the 

 maid-servant to her mistress, has a spinning-wheel ; and 

 there is no good house-wife in Bohemia who would not con- 

 sider herself disgraced, if she did not spin within her estab- 

 lishment all the yarn required to make the linen articles 

 ^necessary for her household." A similrr feeling existed in 

 Ireland while spinning by hand was practised, but the 

 spinning frame and steam-engine has revolutionised the 

 linen-trade, and now power-loom supersedes old hand-loom 

 weaving. 



Having made a few remarks on the Flax-spinning in 

 Ireland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Scotland, I feel certain 

 that an article which appeared in the London Daily News, 

 on the 14th of September last, will be found equally in- 

 teresting, if not more so, than the dry statistics of the York- 

 shire spinners : 



TEXTILE FABRICS OF THE ANCIENTS LINEN. 



A letter on the preparation of Flax so as to resemble 

 cotton, which we (Daily News) published recently, has elicited 

 from an antiquarian correspondent the following curious and 

 interesting resume of what is known respecting the textile 

 fabrics of the ancients : 



" Your correspondent's reference to the clothing of the 



