_Hodge._ "Tush, tush, her neele, her neele, her neele, man; neither flesh nor fish, A lytle thing with an hole in the ende, as bright as any syller, Small, long, sharp at the point, and straight as any piller." _Diccon._ "I know not what it is thou menest, thou bringst me more in doubt." _Hodge._ "Knowest not what Tom tailor's man sits broching thro' a clout? A neele, a neele, a neele, my gammer's neele is gone." Gammer Gurton's Needle. It is said in the old chronicles that previous to the arrival of Anne of Bohemia, Queen of Richard the Second, the English ladies fastened their robes with skewers; but as it is known that pins were in use among the early British, since in the barrows that have been opened numbers of "neat and efficient" ivory pins were found to have been used in arranging the grave-clothes, it is probable that this remark is unfounded. The pins of a later date than the above were made of boxwood, bone, ivory, and some few of silver. They were larger than those of the present day, which seem to have been unknown in England till about the middle of the fifteenth century. In 1543, however, the manufacture of brass pins had become sufficiently important to claim the attention of the legislature, an Act having been passed that year by which it was enacted, "That no person shall put to sale any pins, but only such as shall be double headed and have the head soldered fast to the shank, the pins well smoothed, and the shank well sharpened." Gloucestershire is noted for the number of its pin manufactories. They were first introduced in that county, in 1626, by John Tilsby; and it is said that at this time they employ 1,500 hands, and send up to the metropolis upwards of L20,000 of pins annually. Our motto says, however, that his garment "With thornes together pind and _patched_ was;" and a French writer says, that before the invention of steel needles people were obliged to make use of thorns, fish bones, &c., but that since "l'etablissement des societes, ce petit outil est devenu d'un usage indispensable dans une infinite d'arts et d'occasions."