Sir Thomas Lombe.

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cousin, Sir Thomas Lombe. In 1732 the patent expired; when Sir Thomas petitioned Parliament for a renewal, and pleaded that the works had taken so long a time in perfecting, and the people in teaching, that there had been none to acquire emolument from the patent." "But he forgot," says Hutton, "to inform them that he had accumulated more than 120,000l.!" The Government declined to renew the patent; but granted the sum of 14,000l. to Sir Thomas as compensation, on condition that he would prepare, and deposit in the Tower of London, an exact and faithful model of his machinery, for the inspection and advantage of others who might purpose constructing and carrying on similar works.

The Act authorising the issue of the money mentions, among other causes which justified the grant, the great obstruction offered to Sir Thomas Lombe's undertaking by the King of Sardinia, in prohibiting the exportation of the raw silk which the engines were intended to work.

The account of the machinery of this immense mill, five stories in height, and one-eighth of a mile in length, has been much exaggerated. The grand machine is stated to have been constructed with 26,586 wheels, and 96,746 movements, which worked 73,726 yards of organzine silk-thread with every revolution of the water-wheel whereby the machinery was driven; and as this revolved three times in each minute, the almost inconceivable quantity of 318,504,960 yards of organzine could be produced daily! Hutton's authority is, however, to be preferred, for he served an apprenticeship of seven years in the mill; and he reduces the number of wheels to 13,384.

Soon after Lombe's patent had expired, a mill was erected at Stockport; and this was followed by others, in Derby and in various places; until now there are about 400 silk-throwing factories in England, employing, it is computed, considerably more than 100,000 operatives.

The chest in which John Lombe brought over to England his spindles, and various matters connected with the trade, we here engrave. It is one of the most richly carved and painted chests of its kind which is extant. Since Lombe's time, it has, until within the last few years, been preserved in the mill which he built, but is now the property of Mr. Llewellynn Jewitt, F.S.A., of Derby. This chest is, of course, much older than Lombe's time; and apart from its association with his name and career, is a remarkably fine example of art. The Mill is picturesquely situated on the Derwent: since Lombe's time it has received many additions; but the old mill, as built by him, still remains, and is likely to last through many generations. The accompanying view has been sketched from St. Michael's Mill.

Various attempts have been made to rear silk-worms in England.

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Culture of Silk in England.

James I., to obtain the requisite food for the silk-worms, in 1608 sent circular letters to all the counties of England, strongly recommending the inhabitants to plant mulberry-trees; and he directed to be distributed 10,000 mulberry-plants, which were to be procured in London at three farthings per plant. In 1609, James expended 9351. in the planting of mulberry-trees upon the site of the present Buckingham Palace and Gardens, St. James's Park. It was at this time that Shakspeare planted his mulberry-tree. King James's garden did not succeed; but Charles I., by letters-patent, in the fourth year of his reign, granted to Walter Lord Aston the custody and keeping of the garden, and of the mulberries and silk-worms there, and of all the houses and buildings to the same garden belonging, for his own and his son's life. In the next two reigns, "the Mulberry Garden" became a place of public refreshment it is a favourite locality in the gay comedies of Charles the Second's time. The Silk-Garden scheme was revived in 1718, when part of the estate of Sir Thomas More (Chelsea Park) was leased to a company, and 2000 mulberry-trees were planted. Thoresby, in his Diary, 1723, tells us that he saw "a sample of the satin lately made at Chelsea of English silk-worms for the Princess of Wales, which was very rich and beautiful." This scheme also failed; but the Clock-house in Lower Chelsea was long after famous for the sale of mulberries from the trees planted for silk-rearing.

In 1790, the Society of Arts awarded a premium for silk grown in the neighbourhood of London. No similar success is recorded until 1839, when Mr. Felkin produced at Nottingham some fine cocoons from eggs from Italy. Mrs. Whitby, at Newlands, near Lymington, Hants, has plantations of mulberry-trees, and has for many years reared silk with success from eggs of the large Italian sort, of four changes, from which she obtains as great a proportion and as good a quality of silk as they do in Italy or France. Mrs. Whitby has presented to the Queen twenty yards of rich and brilliant damask manufactured from silk raised at Newlands. The obtaining a sufficient quantity of food for the worms at the right time had hitherto been the great difficulty of growing silk in England. This has been surmounted by Mrs. Whitby, whose silk is worth as much in the market as the best foreign silks; and making allowance for unfavourable seasons, labour, machinery, outlay of money, &c., Mrs. Whitby states that land laid out for the silkworm's food will afford a large profit. Some of the silk grown by her has been pronounced superior to the best Italian raw silk.

In 1846, scarves were manufactured in Spitalfields from the produce of between 700 and 800 worms kept in an attic-room in Truro. In size and weight the worms surpassed those in Italy; the cocoons were larger; the quality of silk when reeled was fully equal to the best imported; and the quantity exceeded the Italian average, and this in a season not remarkably propitious.

The home culture of silk is an important object, since the value of silk brought to England is above 2,000,000l. annually; and the silk manufacture engages perhaps fifty millions of our capital, and employs one million of our population.

WILLIAM LEE,

AND THE STOCKING-FRAME.

An

KNIT Silk Stockings made in England were first worn by Queen Elizabeth, who refused to wear any cloth hose afterwards. apprentice, soon after, borrowed a pair of knit worsted stockings, made at Mantua, and then made a pair like them, which he presented to the Earl of Pembroke; and these are the first worsted stockings known to be knit in England. This humble process of knitting seems to have been superseded by the stocking-frame almost immediately after the introduction of knit stockings; for the invention of the stocking-frame dates from 1589, the thirty-first year of Elizabeth's reign.

A singular confusion pervades the early history of the stocking-frame; there is a strange jumble of persons, places, and dates in the accounts given of the invention and the inventor, which it is difficult to reconcile, unless we implicitly believe the evidence of a painting which long hung in Stocking-Weavers' Hall, in Redcross-street, London. This picture contained the portrait of a man in collegiate costume, in the act of pointing to an iron stocking-frame, and addressing a woman who is knitting with needles by hand. The picture bore the following inscription: "In the year 1589, the ingenious William Lee, A.M., of St. John's College, Cambridge, devised this profitable art for stockings (but, being despised, went to France), yet of iron to himself, but to us and to others of gold: in memory of whom this is here painted."

From Deering's Account of Nottingham, it appears that William Lee (whose name is sometimes written Lea) was a native of Woodborough, a village about seven miles from Nottingham. He was heir to a considerable freehold estate, and a graduate of St. John's College, Cambridge. It is reported that, being enamoured of a young country girl, who during his visits paid more attention to her work, which was knitting, than to her lover and his proposals, he endeavoured to find out a machine which might facilitate and forward the operation of knitting, and by this means afford more leisure to the object of his affection to converse with him. Beckmann says, "Love indeed is fertile in inventions, and gave rise, it is said, to the

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Lee's Stocking-frame.

art of painting; but a machine so complex in its parts, and so wonderful in its effects, would seem to require longer and greater reflection, more judgment, and more time and patience, than could be expected in a lover. But even if the case should appear problematical, there can be no doubt in regard to the inventor, whom most of the English writers positively assert to have been William Lee." Deering expressly states that Lee made the first loom in the year 1589, the date named on the painting.

Another version of the story states that Lee was expelled from the University for marrying contrary to the statutes. Having no fortune, the wife was obliged to contribute to their joint support by knitting; and Lee, while watching the motion of his wife's fingers, conceived the idea of imitating those movements by a machine. According to another version, Lee, while yet unmarried, excited the contempt of his mistress by contriving a machine to imitate the primitive process of knitting, and was rejected by her. But both accounts agree that the Stocking-frame was invented by Lee, and that about the date assigned. A writer in the Quarterly Review, 1816, however, observes: "This painting might give rise to the story of Lee's having invented the machine to facilitate the labour of knitting, in consequence of falling in love with a young country girl, who, during his visits, was more attentive to her knitting than his proposals; or the story may, perhaps, have suggested the picture.'

But there is another claimant. Aaron Hill ascribes the invention to a young Oxonian, who, having contracted an imprudent marriage, and having nothing to support his family but the produce of his wife's knitting, invented the stockingframe, and thereby accumulated a large fortune. Evelyn, in his Diary, records having seen this machine as follows: "3 May 1661. I went to see the wonderful engine for weaving silk stockings, said to have been the invention of an Oxford scholar forty years since;" thus placing the invention many years later than the date of the picture in Stocking-Weavers' Hall.

The story of Lee's after-life, however, corroborates his being the inventor: his name is mentioned as such in the petition of the Stocking-Weavers of London to allow them to establish a guild. It is related that Lee, having taught the use of the machine to his brother and the rest of his relations, established himself at Culverton, near Nottingham, as a stocking-weaver. After remaining there five years, he applied to Queen Elizabeth for countenance and support; but finding himself neglected both by the Queen and her successor, James I., he transferred himself and his machines to France, where Henri IV. and his