of silks, velvets, satins, and brocades; and within the last few years, slight and beautifully coloured threads of glass have been interwoven with them, forming a new and much-admired production.

Linen is a most useful and necessary addition to the clothing of mankind. Its origin is so ancient that it is unknown, but, in the time of Herodotus, it was an article of export from Egypt, whence the Greeks and Romans procured it. The mummies are frequently found wrapped in it, which is a sufficient proof of its antiquity.

Cotton is also another manufacture that was known in the early ages. Its invention is attributed to the Persians, and Pliny mentions its use among the Egyptians; but though in ancient delineations brought from the latter country, flax is frequently seen, there is no indication of the cotton-plant.

Cloth, which was a manufacture known to the Egyptians, Romans, and Greeks, was brought from Rome into Britain, and the conquerors instructed their new subjects in the art of fabricating it, and established a manufactory at Winchester. It fell into decay, however, under the Danes and Saxons, but revived when Alfred came to the throne, and ever since that time it has gradually improved, till at last the woollen trade has become a principal source of the wealth and riches of England.

MANUFACTURE OF LACE.

The antiquity of lace, that favourite addition to a lady's toilette, is not supposed to be nearly so great as the fabrics we have already mentioned. In Beckman's

"History of Inventions," we read the following account: "It seems very difficult, if not impossible, to determine the antiquity of lace. I remember no passage in the Greek or Roman authors that seems to allude to it; for those who ascribe works of this kind to the Romans, found their opinions on the expression, 'art of the Phrygians,' which consisted only of needlework. Lace worked by the needle may be found among old church furniture. We read in various authors, that the art of making lace was brought from Italy, particularly from Genoa and Venice, to Germany and France; but this only seems to allude to the oldest kind, or that worked by the needle. I am firmly of opinion that lace worked by the needle is much older than that made by knitting. I will venture to assert that knitting lace is a German invention, first known about the middle of the sixteenth century. The inventress was a Saxon lady named Barbara, wife of Christopher Uttman."

In a French work, entitled "La Vie de Colbert," we read of the first introduction of the lace manufacture into France, but point is the only kind mentioned. The Count de Marsan, says the author, brought from Brussels to Paris his former nurse, named Du Mont, and her four daughters, and procured for her the exclusive right to establish and carry on the lace manufacture in that capital. In a little time Du Mont and her daughters collected two hundred women, some of whom were of good families, and they soon produced such excellent work, that it was, ere long, pronounced very little, if at all, inferior to that imported from foreign countries. The laces now the most prized and sought after are Brussels

point, Mechlin, Valenciennes, Lisle, Chantilly, and blonde.

EMBROIDERY.

Embroidery is a very ancient invention, and was much admired and practised among the early nations. It is supposed that the Phrygians first discovered this art, and employed coloured silks, and gold thread or wire, for ornamenting their dresses. In the Bible we find that the high-priest's robe had on the bottom of the skirt figures of pomegranates, wrought with blue, scarlet, and purple. The ephod, also, was embroidered in blue, purple, scarlet, and gold; the girdle of needlework, too, we are informed by Josephus, was embroidered with flowers in colours. Homer and Virgil frequently mention this art; thus, in the "Odyssey," we read:

"Close by the stream a royal dress they lay,
A vest, and robe with rich embroidery gay."

And Virgil also says:

"A noble present to my son she brought,

A robe, with flowers on golden tissue wrought."

The "Æneid," too, stiff with golden wire."

speaks of "robes of tissue, We may, therefore, suppose

this to be the same as the gold mentioned in Exodus, which was "beat into thin plates, and cut into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work."

"Threads of the dearest and most malleable metal, gold," says Beckman, "seem to have been early employed for ornamenting different articles of dress.

People, however, soon began to weave or knit dresses of gold thread, without the addition of any other materials. The weaving of gold threads with cloth is ascribed by Pliny to King Attalus. In the third century gold was interwoven with linen, and that linen was embroidered in gold thread. It was not till a much later period that silver was formed into threads, and interwoven with cloth. It has been fully proved that silver threads were so interwoven in the time of the last Greek emperors.

In the time of Moses, embroidery appears to have been performed by men; for, in Exodus, we read that Aholiah was a cunning workman, and an "embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen.”

Homer and Virgil frequently mention this art, which appears, from their poems, to have been brought to perfection, and constantly practised, by the Tyrian and Phrygian ladies, who not only embroidered vests, tunics, and girdles, but also pictures and carpets. Thus we read:

"Fair thrones within from space to space were raised,
Where various carpets with embroidery blazed,

The work of matrons."

And again :

"The queen her hours bestowed

In curious works; the whirling spindle glowed
With crimson threads; while busy damsels cull
The snowy fleece, or twist the purple wool."

The women in many of the Greek Islands were also renowned for their great proficiency in embroidery. The Anglo-Saxons, too, practised it with great success ;

and Edward the Elder is mentioned in history as having "had his daughters taught to exercise the needle and the distaff."

WEAVING AND DYEING.

Weaving is another art in which the ladies of the "olden time" also excelled, and it appears that they frequently employed themselves in making garments for their lords. Thus we find in the "Eneid :".

"The queen, on nearer view, the guest surveyed,
Robed in the garments her own hands had made."

And of Andromache we read:

"Far in the close recesses of the dome,
Pensive she plies the melancholy loom;
A growing work employed her secret hours,
Confusedly gay with intermingled flowers."

The ancients were much celebrated for their knowledge of various beautiful dyes, some of which are unknown to modern ages. Tyre was renowned for the invention of the purple dye, which was formerly the symbol of regal and sacerdotal dignity. Homer has stamped its value and antiquity, by representing his heroes in purple robes; and habits of the same precious colour were given by the Israelites to Gideon. Pliny describes this colouring matter, and says that it was extracted from two kinds of shell-fish, and was contained in a small bag in their throats; each fish only yielding one drop. As may be imagined, it was very expensive, from the immense quantities required to dye one piece of cloth; but that the colour was very