Nevertheless, in the reign of Mary, i.e. 1558, many wore cloth hose, as is evidenced in the following anecdote of Dr. Sands, who was afterwards Archbishop of York. Being in the Tower, he had permission for a tailor to come and take an order for a pair of hose. This serves to prove the veracity of Stowe, that stockings were not an article manufactured in England generally, we suppose, till six years afterwards. “Dr. Sands, on his going to bed in Hurleston’s house, he had a paire of hose newlie made, that were too long for him. For while he was in the Tower, a tailor was admitted to make him a pair of hose. One came into him whose name was Beniamin, dwelling in Birchin lane; he might not speak to him or come to him to take measure of him, but onelie to look upon his leg; he made the hose, and they were two inches too long. These hose he praied the good wife of the house to send to some tailor to cut his hose two inches shorter. The wife required the boy of the house to carrie them to the next tailor, which was Beniamin that made them. The boy required him to cut the hose. He said, ‘j am not the maister’s tailor.’ Saith the boy, ‘Because ye are our next neighbour, and my maister’s tailor dwelleth far off, j come to you.’ Beniamin took the hose and looked upon them, he took his handle work in hand, and said, ‘These are not thy maister’s hose, but Doctor Sands, them j made in the Tower.’” In a catalogue of the revenues of the Bishop of St. Asaph, it is stated, “The bishop of that diocese was entitled, as a perquisite, upon the death of any beneficed clergyman, to his best coat, jerkin, doublet, and breeches. Item, his hose or nether stockings, shoes, and garters.” About 1557, knitting must have become common, for Harrison, in his description of the indigenous produce of this island, says, the bark of the alder tree was used by the peasants’ wives for dying stockings which they had knitted. Hollinshed also informs us, that about 1579, when Queen Elizabeth was at Norwich, “upon the stage there stood at one end eight small women children spinning worsted yarn, and at the other end as many knitting worsted yarn into hose.” Silk stockings are said, in consequence of their high price, for a long time to have been worn only upon grand occasions. Henry II. of France, wore them for the first time, on the marriage of his sister with the Duke of Savoy in the year 1559. In the reign of Henry III. who ascended the throne in 1575, the consort of Geoffroy Camus de Pontcarre, who held a high office in the state, would not wear silk stockings given to her by a nurse who lived at court, because she considered them to be too gay. Anno 1569, when the privy-councillor Barthold von Mandelsoh, who had been envoy to many diets and courts, appeared on a week-day with silk stockings, which he had brought from Italy, the Margrave John of Austria said to him, “Barthold, I have silk stockings also; but I wear them only on Sundays and holidays.”