A CURIOUS LAW

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 20

A CURIOUS LAW

USE OF SILK AND GOLD Wrought silk was brought from Persia to Greece 325 B.C. In Rome in the time of Tiberius a curious law was passed by tlie Senate. It prohibited the use of plato of gold, and forbade men "to debase themselves by wearing silk, fit only for women." In ancient times silk was of tlio same value as gold, weight for weight, and was thought to grow in the same manner as cotton, on trees, says a writer in the "Horshaw Sign Post." Silkworms were not brought to Europe from India until the sixth century. It is on record that Charlemagne,' in A.D. 780, made Offa, King of Mereia, a magnificent present of two silken vests. Roger, who was King of Sicily in 1140", did much to encourage the Sicilians to. produce silk, so that they not only bred silkworms, but spun and wove the silk. Gradually ,the manufacture of silk spread into Italy and Spain, also into the South of France, but it was left.to Henry IV. (of Prance) to-plant mulberry trees and order the production of silk throughout the kingdom. Silk was not manufactured in England until IGO4, although there is some account of the beautiful silk mantles worn by some noble ladies at a grand ball held ut Kenilworth in 1286. ' The clergy was permitted to wear silk as early as 1531. A great advance in silk manufactures' was made by the French refugees, who came to London in 36SS, and settled at Sp.italfields, anil from i heir the silk . .manufacture has gone steadily onwards.