English Linen History
It is well known that the Phoenicians visited England at a very remote period, and for many ages supplied the inhabitants with the productions of Eastern countries, in exchange for tin and other metals from the mines of Cora wall. They were unquestionably the first people who visited Britain for the purposes of trade, as this is positively affirmed by Strabo, and acknowledged by many other authors. After visiting all the coasts of the Mediterranean they passed the Straits of Gibraltar about 1250 B.C., built Cadiz, sailed along the west coasts of Gaul, discovered the Cassiterides or Scilly Isles, and the south-west coast of Britain, Bochart says 904 B.C, but others think only 600 B.C.
This much is certain that Herodotus, who lived 440 B.C, speaks of the Cassiterides as the place from which all the tin came, but declares he does not know where they are. The Linen of Egypt was an important article in the trade of the Phoenicians, and no doubt formed one of the commodities given in barter for the highly prized metals and minerals of England, although Strabo only enumerates salt, earthenware, and brass trinkets, as then British imports. This Linen was much valued by all the nations of antiquity to whom it was known, and doubtless the natives of Britain, although uncivilized, would also prize it. It is fair to suppose, therefore, that Linen may have been first introduced into England by this maritime people, although there is nothing certain known on the subject. After the Phoenician commerce was destroyed, for many ages the rude and barbarous natives of this country had little intercourse with other nations, and the very existence of Linen, if ever known, seems to have been forgotten by many of them.
Roman Empire Time
Caesar says that the Britons in the interior of the country were clothed with skins. Pliny and others say that the ancient Britons still continued to besmear their bodies with paint long after the people of Spain, Gaul, and even Germany had abandoned that practice and were tolerably clothed. It would appear, however, that some of the people of Britain not only wore various kinds of cloth at the time the Romans first visited the country, but that they were then well acquainted with the art of dressing, spinning, and weaving both Flax and wool, and that they practiced these arts much in the same manner as the people of Gaul Not only was this the case, but they were even the inventors of some particular descriptions of cloth.
One of these was made of fine wool, dyed of different colors, and woven in checks or squares, like the Scottish tartan of the present time. Of this the people made summer mantles and other garments. Pliny says the ancient Gauls and Britons were acquainted with the art of dyeing woolen yarn and cloth. The material chiefly used was the glastum or woad, with which in former times they had dyed their bodies; and deep blue long continued to be the favorite color with which the ancient Britons, and also the Caledonians, dyed their clothes. The dress of the Druids was white, and probably of Linen cloth. Pliny mentions that the priest, arrayed in a surplice or white vesture, climb up into the tree (mistletoe), and with a golden hook or bill cutlet it off, and they beneath receive it in a white soldier's cassock, or coat of arms. Burnt bones have been found in British barrows, secured by a Linen cloth. Some specimens of the Linen were of a reddish-brown color, the filaments at first appearing like hair.
Sir R. C. Hoare found in a barrow some bits of cloth so well preserved that the size of the threads could be distinguished, and skewed it to be what is now termed a Kersey cloth. The following description of the habit of the great British heroine, Boadicea, is given by Dido and other historians. “She wore a loose robe of changeable colors over a thick plaited kirtle, the tresses of her hair hanging down to her very skirts, with a chain of gold about her neck, and carrying in her hand a short spear or dart." What Tacitus says of the German women may also be true of the Britons" Their dress differed little from that of the men, excepting that the women wore more Linen, but left their arms and part of their bosoms bare." The art of making, and the custom of wearing Linen, were probably brought into England by the Belgian colonies, about a century before the Roman invasion, or perhaps earlier, and at the same time with agriculture, and it kept pace with that most useful of arts in its progress northwards. There is direct evidence that the Belgae manufactured Linen, as well as cultivated their lands on the Continent, and there is thus good reason to conclude that they continued to do the same after they settled in this Island. Although the Belgae, the most civilized of the ancient Britons, were not altogether unacquainted with the most essential branches of the clothing art before they were subdued by the Romans, yet these arts were improved in England by that event. The Romans learned all the useful and ornamental arts practiced in the different countries throughout their vast empire, and readily taught them to their subjects in other countries where they were unknown, or imperfectly practiced. The Roman invasion of England must therefore have been the means of reviving and extending the use of Linen there, as the Britons were then, or very shortly afterwards, partial to Linen, and used it for many purposes. Pliny describes the different qualities of Flax respectively produced by each country; with a minuteness which shows that the manufacture of Linen was then an important branch of trade among the Romans, and that wherever their arms penetrated Linen would soon be known. It appears from the Notitia Imperii that there was an Imperial college or manufactory of woolen and Linen cloth for the use of the Roman army in Britain established at Venta Belgarum, now Winchester.
Middle Ages
After the Romans left England, much of the civilization which they had introduced followed in their train, and again went with them; and the natives relapsed into at least semi-barbarism. After the retreat of the Britons into Wales and Cornwall, and the establishment of the Saxons in England as masters of the country, greater attention began to be paid to the arts of peace, and particularly to trade and commerce. The retrograde movement which began with the withdrawal of the Roman legions was stopped, and a gradual improvement manifested itself in the country. Macpherson in his " Annals of Commerce " says, that about A.D. 500, it appears from the chronicles of the period fine Linen, (probably imported), was possessed by the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland. The bodies of the dead, at least those of eminent rank, were wrapped in fine Linen. By the ancient laws of Wales, all the officers of the household were appointed to be clothed thrice every year, the King furnishing the woolen and the Queen the Linen cloth for that purpose. The several parts of the dress of the King and nobility are enumerated, among which are sheets, stockings, shoes, and boots. The stockings were of woolen or Linen cloth wound round the legs and feet, and fastened in different ways.
Before the end of the 7th century, the art of weaving had attained remarkable perfection in England, for in a book written by Bishop Aldhelm, about A.D. 680, in praise of virginity, he speaks of " webs woven with shuttles, filled with threads of purple and many other colors, flying from side to side, and forming a variety of figures and images in different compartments with admirable art." These figures were sometimes embroidered upon the cloth with threads of gold, silver, and silk of purple and other colors, as the nature of the figures to be formed required; and to render them the more exact, they were first drawn with coloring matter by some skilful artist. They were commonly executed by ladies of the highest rank and greatest piety, and were designed for ornaments to the churches, or for vestments to the clergy. The garments of the Anglo-Saxons were Linen and woolen, and the Flax and the fleece were spun in winter by the females of every family, from the highest to the lowest rank. From this universal practice the term spinster came to be applied to an unmarried woman, and the trace of this custom still remains. The Saxon ladies were very skilful with their needles, particularly in embroidery and ornamental work, and celebrated events were often represented by them with great truth on tapestries hangings and similar works. The four princesses, daughters of King Edward the Elder, and sisters of King Athelstane, are highly celebrated by historians for their assiduity and skill in spinning, weaving, and. needlework, which was so far from spoiling the fortune? of these Royal spinsters, that it procured them the addresses and the hands of the greatest princes then in Europe. William of Malmsbury, mentions that Harold, King of Norway, sent to Athelstane of England a fine ship, with a gilded stern and purple sails.
Bayeux tapestry
The celebrated Bayeux tapestry, executed by the Queen of William the Conqueror, and her maidens, in commemoration of the conquest of England, is of Linen cloth, worked with wool. It was presented by Queen Matilda to the Cathedral of Bayeux, of which William's brother was bishop. This tapestry is 20 inches wide by 214 feet long, divided into 72 compartments, and it is one of the most wonderful specimens of industry in existence. It is now in the possession of the municipality of Bayeux, by whom it is highly valued and religiously preserved. It begins with the embassy of Harold to the Norman court, A.D. 1065, and ends with his death at the battle of Hastings, the following year. The many important transactions of these two busy years are represented in the clearest and most regular order in this piece of needlework, which contains many hundred figures of men, horses, herds, trees, castles, churches, Ac, Ac., all executed in their due proportions and proper colors, with inscriptions over them to throw light on the history. Though Queen Matilda directed this work, yet the greater part of it was probably performed by English women, as a contemporary writer says that the Anglo-Saxon ladies were so famous for their skill in needlework and embroidery in gold, that those elegant manufactures were called Anglicum Opus.
The Anglo-Saxons of this period were far from being strangers to the use of Linen, for all persons of any consideration among them wore shirts of it next their skin. These were considered so pleasant and necessary, that a woolen shirt was then, according to Johnson's Canons, reckoned among those things which constituted penance for very great sins. Above the shirt they wore a tunic, and Alcuinus says, " those of the soldiers are commonly made of Linen, and exactly fitted to the shape of their bodies."
The Anglo-Saxons also wore breeches, either of Linen or woolen cloth, reaching below the knee, very much like the trousers of the sailors of the present time. The upper covering or mantle of princesses and ladies of distinction was made of silk or fine Linen. They had their sceta or sheets, and in a foreign charter, dated 1069, lintrius is a term used for bed Linen, and elsewhere lintheamina. It would thus appear that large quantities of Linens were consumed by the Anglo-Saxons, and it is probable that the manufacture had been chiefly of a domestic character. It may be, however, that part of them were imported, especially those of the finest quality.
The Flax
The Flax plant appears to be indigenous to Britain. Its properties have been long known to the inhabitants, and it must have been raised from an early date. During the Roman, and also the Saxon period, it was grown to some extent, but the troubles consequent on the incursions and invasions of the Danes seem to have interfered with, and perhaps in a great measure to have stopped, its cultivation. It is reported that at the time of the Korman conquest very little Flax was grown. Very many manufacturers of cloth from Flanders came over with the Normans and settled in England, and others followed at later periods. These industrious people pursued their trade with much assiduity and with great advantage to their adopted country, as well as profit to themselves. The production of both woolen and Linen fabrics experienced considerable improvement soon after the Flemings arrived, and of the skill of this people an ancient historian has said that “The art of weaving seemed to be a peculiar gift bestowed upon them by nature."
In a list of articles made out in 1070, being the fourth year of William the Conqueror, neither Flax nor Hemp are enumerated. It would thus appear that their cultivation had, for a time at least, been discontinued. They must, however, have been resumed within a century thereafter, as they are both enumerated by the Council of Westminster in 1175, among the things annually reproduced as subject to tithe. William the Conqueror published a proclamation for the encouragement of trade, promising foreign merchants who frequented the ports of England the most perfect security for their goods and persons.
King John, for the encouragement of the clothing arts, and the improvement of commerce, established in the great towns of England, guilds, or corporations of merchants, bestowing upon them, by royal charter, various privileges and immunities, for which they paid certain fines into the Exchequer ; and the making and selling of cloth was regulated by statute. At this period the shirts of all persons of rank and fortune, and even of the great body of the people, were of Linen, which had then become so common that it was no longer taken notice of by historians as a singularity. As this part of dress is not much seen, it has been less affected by the tyranny of caprice and fashion than other parts of the clothing, and it still remains nearly what it then was. It is related in Madox's “History of the Exchequer," that fine Linen was first made in Wilts and Sussex in 1253; and, in order to patronize the infant manufacture, Henry III. Ordered the Sheriffs of each of these counties to buy for him one thousand ells of fine Linen, and to send it to his wardrobe at Westminster. Notwithstanding this royal patronage, woolen was worn in nearly all garments until the age of the Tudors, when Linen began to come into more general use. In 1272 it is recorded that Irish Linen was used at Winchester. In the latter part of the 13th century the people wore woolen shirts, but now (in the 14th century), says La Flamma, we wear Linen.
The manufacture of Linen
Table Linen was then scarce in England. The manufacture of Linen must have been pretty generally established in Wales in the beginning of the 14th century, as its use was then common in the country. Barbour, in his Life of King Robert Bruce, says that the men of Wales, in 1314, were mostly clothed in Linen. During this century most of the fine Linen used in England was supplied by Rheims. In 1331 Edward III. resolved to establish manufactures, and for that purpose invited over weavers from Flanders to settle in England. In 1351 the king regulated the places of meeting of the foreign weavers for the sale of their cloth. Those who had come from Flanders were to meet in the churchyard of St Lawrence, Pulteney, and those from Brabant in the churchyard of St Mary Somerset. Afterwards the cloth fair was removed to West Smithfield. It is stated in " Londinopolis" that there were then weavers of divers sorts, viz., of drapery or tapcry and napery, i.e. of woolen and Linen.
There is a regular account extant of the imports and exports which paid duty in England in 1354, and among the former were Linen. In 1378 an Act was passed fur the encouragement of foreign merchants, and Linens and canvas are enumerated among the articles then imported. From these and similar notices it would appear that few Linens had then been manufactured in the country, the greater part of them having been imported, chiefly from Flanders and France. The principal manufacture of textile fabrics, before and for some time after this period, was woolen cloth, and considerable quantities of it were exported. In 1386 a company or guild of Linen weavers was first established in London, consisting of such as had been brought over from the Netherlands by Edward III. They were much molested by the weavers' company of London, and never attained a great degree of success.
The Tailors or " Fraternity of Scissors," now called " Merchant Tailors' dates as a chartered company in the city of London from the year 1399. Anciently they made all kinds of apparel, whether of wool or of Linen, and also the padding of armor, hence their designation in several charters as " linen armourers." Many foreign merchants in England were at this time formed into companies, such as " Merchants of the Steel Yard," " Merchants of the Staple," Ac. The foreign trade was then on an extensive scale, and fine Linen was imported from Venice, Pisa, Genoa, Bretagne, Flanders, Holland, and other places, chiefly of Egyptian and German manufacture.
The Linen cloth made in England would seem to have been generally coarse, and only worn by the very poorest, the fine Linens for the use of the rich being imported. It appears from the roll of the king's wardrobe in 1415, that the greatest part of the Linen then used in England, especially by those of the higher ranks, was imported, and was chiefly from' Keynes or Bennes and Champagne in France, and from Flanders and Brabant in the Netherlands. The excellence of these Linens is celebrated in many romances and poems composed shortly before this period. In 1415 King Henry V. invaded France with a fleet of large vessels, and gained the battle of Agincourt. The ship in which he himself embarked carried a sail of purple silk.
