MULBLKKY. 249 



and birds. Voltaire states, that the valuable insect that 

 produces the silk, is originally from China, from whence 

 it was carried into Persia, though not until very late, 

 together with the art of weaving the down in which it is 

 enveloped. 



It is now 2143 years since wrought silks were first in- 

 troduced into Greece from Persia ; and about forty-nine 

 years afterwards the Grecians obtained them from India. 



In Rome a law was passed by the senate in the reign of 

 Tiberius, forbidding men to debase themselves by wear- 

 ing silk, as being fit only for women. 



Heliogabalus was the first Roman that wore a garment 

 all silk, which must have been about the year 220, A.D, 

 The Emperor Aurelianus, who died in 275, denied his 

 empress a robe of silk, because it was too dear. In the 

 year 555 some monks, who had been in India, brought 

 some eggs of the silkworm to Constantinople, where, 

 in time, they produced raw silk, which was manufactured 

 at Athens, Thebes, Corinth, &c. 



Charlemagne sent Offa, king of Mercia, a present of 

 a belt, and two silken vests, in the year 780, which is 

 the earliest account we have of silk being seen in this 

 country. 



In 1 130 the Sicilians were taught to breed silkworms, 

 and to spin and weave silk; from whence the art was 

 carried to Italy, Spain, and the south of France. Some 

 noblemen's ladies wore silk mantles at a ball given at 

 Kenilworth Castle, in Warwickshire, in 1286; and it was 

 worn by the English clergy in 1534. 



Stockings made of silk were first worn by Henry the 

 Second, of France, in 1543 ; and in 1549 mulberry- trees 

 were propagated through all France ; and the breeding of 

 silkworms was much encouraged by Henry the Fourth of 

 that country. 



Henry the Eighth of England received a few pair of 



