rved how
rare the wearing of silk was in England.

Shortly after becoming king, James I. endeavoured to establish the silk
manufacture in England, as had already been successfully done in
France. He gave every encouragement to the breeding of silkworms. He
sent circular letters to all the counties of England, strongly
recommending the inhabitants to plant mulberry trees. The trees were
planted in many places, but the leaves did not ripen in sufficient time
for the sustenance of the silkworms.

The same attempt was made at Inneshannon, near Bandon, in Ireland, by
the Hugnenot refugees, but proved abortive. The climate proved too
cold or damp for the rearing of silkworms with advantage. All that
remains is "The Mulberry Field," which still retains its name.
Nevertheless the Huguenots successfully established the silk
manufacture at London and Dublin, obtaining the spun silk from abroad.

Down to the beginning of last century, the Italians were the principal
producers of organzine or thrown silk; and for a long time they
succeeded in keeping their art a secret. Although the silk
manufacture, as we have seen, was introduced into this country by the
Huguenot artizans, the price of thrown silk was so great that it
interfered very considerably with its progress. Organzine was
principally made within the dominions of Savoy, by means of a large and
curious engine, the like of which did not exist elsewhere. The
Italians, by the most severe laws, long preserved the mystery of the
invention. The punishment prescribed by one of their laws to be
inflicted upon anyone who discovered the secret, or attempted to carry
it out of the Sardinian dominions, was death, with the forfeiture of
all the goods the delinquent possessed; and the culprit was "to be
afterwards painted on the outside of the prison walls, hanging to the
gallows by one foot, with an inscription denoting the name and crime of
the person, there to be continued for a perpetual mark of infamy."[3]

Nevertheless, a bold and ingenious man was found ready to brave all
this danger in the endeavour to discover the secret. It may be
remembered with what courage and determination the founder of the Foley
family introduced the manufacture of nails into England. He went into
the Danemora mine district, near Upsala in Sweden, fiddling his way
among the miners; and after making two voyages, he at last wrested from
them the secret of making nails, and introduced the new in