362 
MOTH. 
were no longer obliged to have recourse to the 
Persians for a supply of it, and a considerable change 
took place in the nature of the commercial inter- 
course between JEurope and India. 
It was not till towards the end of James the First’s 
reign that the broad silk manufacture was intro- 
duced into England, notwithstanding the planting 
of mulberry-trees for the nourishment of the insects 
had been earnestly recommended from the throne 
at an earlier period. About the year 1620, however, 
the manufacture was prosecuted with great vigour 
and advantage, so that the monarch was no longer 
at a loss for a pair of silk stockings, as it is said 
once happened to him while king of Scotland. Silk 
at that time being very scarce in the country, the 
king wrote to the earl of Mar, one of his friends, 
to borrow a pair of silk stockings, in order to ap- 
pear with becoming dignity before the English am- 
bassador ; concluding his letter with these words ; 
“ for ye would not, sure, that your king should 
appear like a scrub before strangers.” 
