oothed, 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."

He proceeds:--"De toutes les manieres d'attacher l'un a l'autre deux
corps flexibles, celle qui se pratique avec l'aiguille est une des
plus universellement repandues: aussi distingue-t-on un grand nombre
d'aiguilles differentes. On a les aiguilles a coudre, ou de tailleur;
les aiguilles de chirurgie, d'artillerie, de bonnetier, ou faiseur de
bas au metier, d'horloger, de cirier, de drapier, de gainier, de
perruquier, de coiffeuse, de faiseur de coiffe a perruques, de piqueur
d'etuis, tabatieres, et autres semblables ouvrages; de sellier,
d'ouvrier en soie, de brodeur, de tapissier, de chandelier,
d'emballeur; a matelas, a empointer, a tricoter, a enfiler, a presser,
a brocher, a relier, a natter, a boussole ou aimantee, &c. &c."

Needles are said to have been first made in England by a native of
India, in 1545, but the art was lost at his death; it was, however,
recovered by Christopher Greening, in 1560, who was settled with his
three children, Elizabeth, John, and Thomas, by Mr. Damar, ancestor of
the present Lord Milton, at Long Crendon, in Bucks, where the
manufactory has been carried on from that time to the present
period.[115]

Thus our readers will remark, that until far on in the sixteenth
century, there was not a needle to be had but of foreign manufacture;
and bearing this circumstance in mind, they will be able to enter more
fully into the feelings of those who set such inestimable value on a
needle. And, indeed, _if_ all we are told of them be true, needles
could not be too highly esteemed. For instance, we were told of an
old woman who had used one needle so long and so constantly for
mending stockings, that at last the needle was able to do them of
itself. At length, and while the needle was in the full perfection of
its powers, the old woman d