RISE AND PROGRESS OP THE HOSIERY MANUFACTURE. 83 



its conception and completion, and his consciousness of the immense 

 step he had made in administering to the comfort and advantage of his 

 countrymen, he sought the approval and countenance of his sovereign. 

 She visited him, attended by her kinsman Sir William Carey and Lord 

 Hunsdon, and saw him work his machine at Bunhill Fields. The frame 

 was a twelve-guage, and working upon coarse worsted yarn, altogether 

 unfit for royal or fashionable use. Elizabeth was disappointed, because 

 she hoped to have found silk hose making on it. Lee had desired a 

 patent monopoly in acknowledgment of his so-far successful effort. The 

 Queen is said to have thus written — " My Lord, I have too much love 

 for my poor people, who obtain their bread by the employment of knit- 

 ting, to give my money to forward an invention which will tend to their 

 ruin, and thus make them beggars. Had Mr. Lee made a machine that 

 would have made silk stockings, I should, I think, have been somewhat 

 justified in granting him a patent which would have affected only a 

 small portion of my subjects ; but to enjoy the exclusive privilege of 

 making stockings for the whole of my subjects, is too important to grant 

 to any individual." Lee was stimulated to alter his frame in order to 

 produce silk stockings. After throwing aside his wood jacks for iron 

 ones, and increasing the fineness from six to twelve needles, and as 

 many loops in an inch in width in each row, he, in 1597, produced silk 

 hose : these the Queen accepted and wore, praising their agreeable elas- 

 ticity and beauty of texture. Nevertheless she refused the entreaties of 

 Lord Hunsdon, and granted neither money nor patents. Perhaps her 

 Exchequer was poor, or she might dislike to seem careless of employ- 

 ment for her subjects by creating further monopoly of labour. It is 

 probable that afterwards a patent was issued of a limited character. 

 Such large hopes of profit from this new invention were entertained, 

 that Lord Hunsdon, a descendant of the Tudors, bound himself by 

 deed to Lee, learnt the art of frame-work knitting, and became the 

 first stocking- maker's apprentice. There can be no doubt that this 

 nobleman supplied the funds necessarily expended in the improve- 

 ment of the first stocking-frame, and in the construction of several 

 others. Lee had given himself wholly to them, neglecting clerical 

 duties and all other means of existence. He was never seen at 

 Court, and seldom anywhere else but in his workshop. His prospects of 

 profit and success gradually faded away. He soon saw Ms great but 

 politic and parsimonious patroness laid in her grave ; and after wait- 

 ing patiently for some years to ascertain whether her successor would 

 encourage him to keep the invention at home, also having lost his 

 patron, Lord Hunsdon, the continued neglect of James I., and his 

 refusal to grant patent or money, he decided to accept, though with 

 much regret, the pressing offers of the illustrious Sully, and transfer 

 it and himself to France. 



The manufacture was established at Rouen ; and Lee was introduced 

 by the Duke de Rosny to Henry IV., who gave him a gracious recep- 



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