264 DICKSON ON THE FLAX 



Assyrian gods carries us back to a period when fine linen 

 occupied a proud station amang textile fabrics. The Greeks 

 and Romans are but moderns when compared with the 

 Egyptians and Assyrians. The fashions of Pharaoh's court, 

 and the luxury of Sardanapalus, bore little analogy to the 

 stately extravagance of George IV., or of Louis Quatorze. 

 But unless, as Byron suggested, some future age should 

 actually disentomb George IV". and his courtiers, posterity 

 probably will be puzzled as to Brussels lace with the same 

 doubts which perplex writers on ancient linen. When 

 Lucius Lucullus invited his friends to supper in the Hall of 

 Apollo, had he ashirt to his back? When lovely Thais 

 inveigled the philosopher, had she a cambric handkerchief? 

 The learned say that Alexander Severus was the first Emperor 

 of Rome who wore a shirt, at least in our sense of the word, 

 for everybody had an indusium. And here we are fairly^ 

 plunged in the ambiguities of language, and we shall not 

 easily emerge from them. The Roman subuenta, the under 

 tunic, was made of linum. Was it linen or calico ? Curtius 

 uses linum of cotton and cotton cloth. In Yorkshire they 

 call Flax ' line ;' we moderns have restricted the word ' linen' 

 to the fabric made from Flax. We may remark in general 

 that the more deeply we dive into antiquity, the more com- 

 pletely isolated we find mankind, in their arts and their 

 luxuries, in their religion and their government. Clothing 

 was one of the prime necessities of life, and different races of 

 men have clothed themselves with various materials ; the 

 Chinese kept silkworms, and from time immemorial have 

 worn silk ; the natives of Hindostan cultivated the cotton tree, 

 and consequently have worn calico ; the Syrian, the Iberian 

 and the Gaul made garments of the skins of beasts ; nay, the 

 Spaniard, and all that maritime population which dwelt on 

 the shores of the Bay of Biscay, used leather for the sails of 

 their ships, When Lucien, who was a Syrian, describes 



