A GIFT FOR A QUEEN

Evening Star, Issue 22004, 13 April 1935, Page 25

A GIFT FOR A QUEEN

THE FIRST SILK STOCKINGS To-day silk stockings are no novelty. We see them on rich and poor, in town and in the country. Everyone , wears % them now, writes a London correspondent.' . To whom have we to give thanks for this luxury which we have come to take for granted? Once women wore stout strips of material wound all round their legs from knee to ankle. It must have been a tedious performance, and the result horribly clumsy and uncomfortable. . But it needed as bold a mind then as it does to-day to break with tradition, and modern women should pay a tribute to the heroine who banished “ cloth hose ” into the limbo of things well forgotten. • It was Queen Elizabeth, the 400th anniversary of whose birth was celebrated recently, whose independence of mind struck this blow for freedom. The story of the''first pair of silk stockings to be worn by an Englishwoman can be told in a few- words. In the autumn of 1560 Mistress Montagu —the Queen’s silk woman—was mysteriously busy. _ , She.collected a large quantity of fine black silk thread, and then she sat for hours poring over a piece of highly intricate work. Finally, on New Year’s Day, Her Majesty found among the pile of presents from loving and favour-wanting subjects a little packet which contained a pair °f Ibng black silk stockings. The Queen was delighted and wore them immediately. After a few days’ trial it appears that she was.still delighted, and Mistress Montague was summoned. Queen Elizabeth asked where she had

found them, and whether she would be able to get any more. “ I made them of purpose only for your Majesty, and seeing these please you so well, I will presently set more in hand,” said Mistress Montagu. “ Do so,” answered the Queen, “ for indeed I like silk stockings so well, because they are pleasant, fine, and delicate, that henceforth I will wear no more cloth stockings.” This action of hers throws a vivid light on the mind of a queen who has been more blamed and' more praised than any other occupant of the throne before or since.