A celebrated author on antiquities says, “It is probable the art of knitting stockings was first found out in the sixteenth century; but the time of the invention is doubtful.” He continues, “Savary appears to have been the first person who hazarded a conjecture that this art is a Scottish invention, because when the French stocking-knitters became so numerous as to form a guild, they made choice of St. Fiacre, a native of Scotland, to be their patron; and besides this, there is a tradition, that the first knit stockings were brought to France from that country.” This St. Fiacre, it appears, was the son of Eugenius, said to have been a Scottish king in the seventh century; and Fiacre lived as a hermit at Meaux, in France; in the Roman calendar, his name is opposite to the 30th of August. More probable, however, is the opinion in this country which respectable writers support among them. We are informed by the author of the “History of the World,” that Henry VIII., who reigned from 1509 to 1547, and who was fond of show and magnificence, at first wore woollen stockings; till by a singular occurrence he received a pair of silk knit stockings from Spain. His son Edward VI., who succeeded him on the throne, obtained by means of his merchant, Thomas Gresham, a pair of long Spanish knit silk stockings; this present was at that time highly prized. Queen Elizabeth, in the third year of her reign, A. D. 1561, received by her silk-woman, named Montague, a pair of knit silk stockings, and afterwards refused to wear any other kind. Stowe also relates, in his “General Chronicle of England,” that the Earl of Pembroke was the first nobleman who wore worsted knit stockings. In the year 1564, William Ridor, an apprentice of master Thomas Burdet, having accidentally seen, in the shop of an Italian merchant, a pair of knit worsted stockings, procured from Mantua, having borrowed them, made a pair exactly like them; these were the first stockings that were knit in England, from woollen yarn. From this it would appear, that knit stockings were first introduced into England in the reign of Henry VIII., and that they were brought from Spain to this country; and probability appears to favour the belief that they were originally the produce of either that country or Italy. Should this be the case, it has been conceived by Professor Beckmann, that they came originally from Arabia to Spain. The investigation with respect to the feigned productions of Rowley, published by the unfortunate Thomas Chatterton, arose from the mention of knitting, in a passage of those poems; it being contended that knit hose were unknown in the days of Rowley. The passage alluded to occurs in the tragedy of “Ella:”-- “She sayde, as herr whytte hands whytte hosen were knyttinge, Whatte pleasure ytt ys to be married!”