WOMAN’S SPHERE

Northern Advocate, 13 August 1935, Page 3

WOMAN’S SPHERE

A GIFT FOR A QUEEN,

THE FIRST SILK STOCKINGS. Today silk stockings are no novelty. We see them bn rich and poor, in town and in 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 today 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 of long black silk stockings. The Queen was delighted and wore them ‘immediately. After a few days’ trial if appears that she was still delighted and Mistress Montagu 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.”

The 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. TWINE GLOVE MASSAGE. Beauty culture is so serious an institution nowadays that, whereas the application merely of powder years ago was a shameful thing and to be hid, its non-application is today the crime, and a vast number of people feel unclothed without a good many ether applications as well, states the “Manchester Guardian.” But while make-up in general is at bottom suggestive not of the golden but of the primitive age, and while our black and brown brothers set a fashion which we copy now in principle, ■’ if not in detail, there is at least far more stress laid upon cleanliness, massage, exercise, and all those institutions which keep one in condition. No horse is more groomed than the average young woman, and, while he is made to shine and she is preferably dulled or dimmed the idea is the same. With regard to massage, there is the foreign habit of frictioning, for which one pays unduly abroad if one adds it to the haircut. Friction means that rub with a rough towel or a loofah which is suggested by the more breezy film stars. It treats chiefly with tlie skin, and the good rub all over the body is pleasant and healthy for the skin. Some people do it with a loofah strap, some only with the towel. A neat idea is a string glove. This must be made of stiff and roughstring, the sort of twine ' with which the heavier parcels are tied up. It can be easily made on ordinary glove lines, with only a thumb, like those worn by babies. The string is knitted on four needles, and, but for the divergence of the thumb, is only a cylinder tapering off at the top like the toe of a sock. The string is rather hard to work with, but as it is thick the work is soon done, and a formidable weapon is made for dealing with the skin after the bath. The twine ! glove has the advantage over the loofah strap in that it can be worked with one hand and is a good deal more flexible.