1538. 30 H. 8. 3 Oct. ........ two peyr of knytt hose I s.

It is to be observed, that the first-mentioned were for Sir Thomas and the latter for his children. [901] The act made on this occasion is not to be found in any of the old or new editions of the Statutes at Large. It is omitted in that published at London, 1735, fol. ii. p. 63, because it was afterwards annulled. Smith, in Memoirs of Wool, Lond. 1747, 8vo, i. p. 89, says it was never printed; but it is to be found in a collection of the acts of king Edward VI., printed by Richard Grafton, 1552, fol. The following passage from this collection, which is so scarce even in England that it is not named in Ames’s Typographical Antiquities, is given in the Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. liii. part 1, p. 127:--“In this acte limitinge the tymes for buieing and sellyng of wolles, mention is made of chamblettes, wolstende, saies, stamine, _knitte hose_, _knitte peticotes_, _knitte gloves_, _knitte slieves_, hattes, coives, cappes, arrasse, tapissery, coverlettes, girdles, or any other thing used to be made of woolle.” [902] This account is to be found in Hollingshed’s Chronicles. “Dr. Sands at his going to bed in Hurleston’s house, 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 in to 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 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 I 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 Dr. Sands, them j made in the Tower.” [903] “Item, his best coat, jerkin, doublet and breeches. Item, his hose or nether stockings, shoes and garters.”--Survey of the Cathedral of St. Asaph, by Browne Willis, 1720, 8vo. [904] Hollingshed’s Chronicle, 1577, p. 213. [905] In his satyre called The Steel of Glass:--“In silk knitt hose, and Spanish leather shoes.” [906] In Hollingshed, third part, p. 1290:--“Upon the stage there stood at the one end eight small women children, spinning worsted yarne, and at the other as manie knitting of worsted yarn hose.” [907] Buch des Alten Pommerlandes, 1639, 4to, p. 388:--“Duke Bogislaus VIII. suffered himself at length to be overcome by love, and married Sophia, daughter of Procopius margrave of Moravia, who was a very prudent and moderate lady. In her old age, when her sight became bad, so that she was incapable of sewing or embroidering, she never put the knitting-needle out of her hands, as is written in our chronicles. The rhymes which she always had in her mouth are remarkable:-- Nicht beten, gern spatzieren gehn, Oft im Fenster und vorm Spiegel stehn, Viel geredet, und wenig gethan, Mein Kind, da ist nichts Fettes an. ‘Never to pray; to be fond of walking; to stand often at the window and before the looking-glass; to talk much and do little; is not, my child, the way to be rich.’” [908] Mezeray, where he speaks of the silk manufactories under Henry IV. [909] The first description of the stocking-loom illustrated by figures, with which I am acquainted, is in Deering’s Nottingham, 1751, 4to, but it is very imperfect. A much better is to be found in the second volume of the Encyclopédie, printed at Paris, 1751, fol. p. 94-113. The figures are in the first volume of the second part of the Planches, and make eleven plates, eight of which are full sheets. [The reader will also find a very good description of the stocking-loom illustrated with woodcuts in Ure’s Dictionary, art. HOSIERY.] [910] The following passage occurs in the petition, p. 302: “Which trade is properly stiled framework-knitting, because it is direct and absolute knit-work in the stitches thereof, nothing different therein from the common way of knitting (not much more antiently for publick use practised in this nation than this), but only in the numbers of needles, at an instant working in this, more than in the other by an hundred for one, set in an engine or frame composed of above 2000 pieces of smith, joiners, and turners work, after so artificial and exact a manner, that, by the judgement of all beholders, it far excels in the ingenuity, curiosity, and subtility of the invention and contexture, all other frames or instruments of manufacture in use in any known part of the world.” [911] This account is given by Aaron Hill in his Rise and Progress of the Beech-oil Invention, 1715, 8vo. [912] The inscription may be found in Seymour’s Survey of London, 1733, fol. vol. i. p. 603: “In the year 1589 the ingenious William Lee, Master of Arts of St. John’s College, Cambridge, devised this profitable art for stockings (but being despised went to France) yet of iron to himself, but to us and others of gold; in memory of whom this is here painted.” [913] In his History of the World, already quoted, p. 171: “Nine and thirty years after was invented the weaving of silk stockings, westcoats, and divers other things, by engines, or steel looms, by William Lee, Master of Arts of St. John’s College in Cambridge, a native of Nottingham, who taught the art in England and France, as his servants in Spain, Venice, and Ireland; and his device so well took, that now in London his artificers are become a company, having an hall and a master, like as other societies.” [914] Of this Aston the following account is to be found in Thoroton’s Nottinghamshire, 1677, fol. p. 297: “At Calverton was born William Lee, Master of Arts in Cambridge, and heir to a pretty freehold here; who seeing a woman knit, invented a loom to knit, in which he or his brother James performed and exercised before Queen Elizabeth, and leaving it to ... Aston his apprentice, went beyond the seas, and was thereby esteemed the author of that ingenious engine, wherewith they now weave silk and other stockings. This ... Aston added something to his master’s invention; he was some time a miller at Thoroton, nigh which place he was born.” [915] Dell’ Agricoltura, dell’ Arti, e del Commercio. Ven. 1763, 8vo. [916] Le Siècle de Louis XIV. HOPS. My object, in this article, is not to give a history of beer, because for that purpose it would be necessary to define accurately the different kinds of grain mentioned in the writings of the Greeks and the Romans; and this would be a tedious, as well as difficult, and to me a very unpleasant labour; as I should be obliged to controvert a great many received opinions. I shall only endeavour to answer the question, Where and at what time did hops begin to be used as an addition to beer? This subject has already engaged the attention of two learned men[917], whose researches I shall employ and enlarge by my own observations. Hops at present are so well known, that a formal description of them would be superfluous. I think it necessary, however, for the sake of perspicuity, to state what follows. This plant at present grows wild in the greater part of Europe, and in Germany is common in the hedges and fences. It clings to the trunks of trees, and often climbs round poles, if long enough, to the height of twenty or thirty feet. It is almost everywhere rough and sharp to the touch, and sometimes clammy. The leaves are generally divided into three, and often into five indented lobes; but the upper ones are shaped like a heart and undivided. The male plants bear flowers, like those of the currant-bush or of the male hemp; the female plants produce their flowers in cones, which are not unlike those of the fir, except that the latter are woody, while the former are foliaceous. These cones only are used for beer; on that account the female plants alone are cultivated, and from these they are picked and dried as soon as they begin to become pulverulent. They are transplanted or propagated by means of seedlings, in hop-grounds properly prepared, where the cones become larger and better than those of the wild plants, which however are not entirely useless. They are added to beer to render it more palatable, by giving it an agreeable bitter taste; and, at the same time, to make it keep longer; and it must indeed be confessed, that of the numerous and various additions which since the earliest periods have been tried, none has better answered the purpose, or been more generally employed. Among the botanists of the last two centuries, who perused the writings of the Greeks and the Romans, and endeavoured to discover those plants which they meant to describe, many imagined that they found in them hops. But when one takes the trouble to examine without prejudice their opinions, nothing appears but a very slight probability; and some even of these learned botanists, such as Matthioli and others, have acknowledged that it cannot be proved that the Greeks and the Romans were acquainted with our hops. The plant which perhaps has been chiefly considered as the hop is the _Smilax aspera_[918] of Dioscorides[919], the same no doubt as that described by Theophrastus under the name of _smilax_, without any epithet[920]. That the description agrees for the most part with our hops cannot be denied; but it is equally true that it might be applied, with no less propriety, to many other creeping plants, and certainly with the greatest probability to that which in the Linnæan system has retained the name _Smilax aspera_. What the Grecian writer says of the fruit is particularly applicable to this plant; but, on the other hand, it differs from the fruit of the hop. One might with more probability conjecture that hops occur in Pliny[921], under the name _Lupus salictarius_. But the whole of what he says of this plant is, that it was esculent, and grew in the willow plantations. This is undoubtedly true of hops, for that the young shoots are eaten in spring as salad is well known; but the name _lupus_ alone has induced the commentator to apply all this, though equally applicable to other plants, to our hop, which at present is called _lupulus_. Much more unfounded is the conjecture, that the hop is that wild plant which, according to the account of Cato, was used as fodder for cattle[922]. But the word in manuscripts is differently written, and consequently uncertain; besides, there are many plants which might be employed in the place of straw. It is certainly possible that hops might have been in use among the northern nations, at the time of these writers, without their having any knowledge of them; for the Romans were acquainted with beer only from the accounts given of the Germans and their manners[923], and they considered that beverage merely as an unsuccessful imitation of their wine. But I agree in opinion with Conring, Meibomius, and others, that hops were not used till a much later period. The names _humulus_ and _lupulus_ also are of no great antiquity. The former is the oldest, and seems to belong to the people who first added this improvement to beer. The _humble_ and _humle_ of the Swedes and Danes, the _chumel_ of the Bohemians, the _houblon_ of the French and the Spanish, Hungarian and Persian appellations, all seem to be derived from the same origin, as well as the Latin names of later times, _humelo_, _humolo_, _humulo_, _humlo_[924]. _Lupulus_ does not occur till a much later period. The German word, which the English also have adopted, appears first to have been written _hoppe_, from which was formed afterwards in High German _Hopfen_, by converting, as it commonly does, the double _p_ into the harder _pf_. Thus from _toppe_ it has made _topf_, and from _koppe_, _kopf_, &c. As far as I know, this word is found, for the first time, in a dictionary which seems to be of the tenth century[925], and which has _Timalus_, _Hoppe_ and _Brandigabo Feldhoppe_. According to my conjecture, _timalus_ has been erroneously printed for _humulus_; but in regard to _brandigabo_ I can give no explanation. It is derived perhaps from _brace_ or _bracium_. The former was known to Pliny[926]; and the latter occurs in the same dictionary along with the translation, malt. No mention is made of hops either in Walafrid Strabo, who died in 849, or in Æmilius Macer, who cannot have lived earlier than the year 850; in the laws of the old Franks, in which beer and malt are often mentioned, or in the Capitulare de Villis Imperatoris, which are ascribed to Charles the Great. Had beer been then used and brewed in Germany, it would certainly have been at any rate mentioned by the emperor. Haller says[927] it is related by Isidorus that the experiment of adding hops to beer was first made in Italy. Were this the case, it would be the oldest mention of that circumstance, for Isidorus died in the year 636. It is however not only highly improbable that the use of hops should be discovered in Italy, which is a wine country, but it can be proved to be false. Not the smallest notice of it is to be found in the whole work of Isidorus; and in the Bibliotheca Botanica, when Haller had the book before him and extracted from it many things remarkable, he does not repeat this assertion[928]. The passage which has given rise perhaps to this error, appears to be that where the author describes a kind of beer called by him _celia_, and where the germination of corn, the shooting of malt, and the sweet wort made from it, together with its fermentation, are clearly mentioned, but not hops[929]. Some one perhaps thought that hops also ought to be supposed in this passage, else beer would not acquire that strong taste and intoxicating quality spoken of by Isidorus, who very properly ascribes both to fermentation. The same account has been repeated by Vincentius[930], without any change or addition. But as Isidorus scarcely contains anything which is not borrowed from earlier writers, I endeavoured to discover the source of that information, and at length found it in the history of Orosius[931], who, as is well known, lived in the fifth century. In the Latin translation of the works of the Arabian physician Mesue[932] is a description, but as is commonly the case, a defective one, of a creeping plant, with rough indented leaves under the name of _lupulus_, which indeed corresponds exceedingly well with our hops. The cones in particular are exactly described. The author, however, speaks there only of the medicinal qualities of the plant, and makes no mention of its application to beer. Mesue lived about the year 845, consequently is the first who uses the term _lupuli_. But we have only a wretched old translation of the writings of this physician; it is probable that the word _lupulus_ comes only from the translator. This passage therefore can prove nothing. It is however certain that hops were known in the time of the Carolingian dynasty, for a letter of donation by King Pepin speaks of _humolariæ_, which without doubt must have been hop-gardens[933]. In like manner Adelard, abbot of Corbey, in the year 822, freed the millers belonging to his district from all labour relating to hops, and on this occasion employed the words _humlo_ and _brace_, by which is to be understood corn and malt used for beer. In the Frisingen collection of ancient documents, there are many which were written in the time of Ludovicus Germanicus, consequently in the middle of the ninth century; and in some of these, hop-gardens, which were then called _humularia_, are mentioned[934]. In the tax registers of the two following centuries, among the articles delivered to churches and monasteries, _modii_ and _moldera humuli_ are very often named[935]. Hop-fields and the delivery of hops occur much oftener in the thirteenth century, under the appellations _humuleta_, _humileta_, and _humularia_[936]. In the Sachsenspiegel[937] and the municipal law of Magdeburg (Weichbildsrechte[938]), there is an order in regard to the hop-plants which grew over hedges. I shall omit the still more numerous instances where they occur in the fourteenth century as well as the proofs that hops were then cultivated in many parts of Germany; and it is perhaps true, as said by Möhsen, and after him by Fischer, on whose bare word however I do not entirely rely, that many towns in Germany were indebted for the great sale of their beer to the use of hops (which undoubtedly appears to be a German discovery), and to their peculiar goodness. However, it is certain that this method of seasoning beer was adopted at a much later period by our neighbours the English, Dutch, Swedes, and others. If the two passages above quoted, where the word _lupuli_ occurs, be rejected because they are doubtful, I must consider this name of hops to be more modern than the word _humulus_; and if this be true, it is impossible to believe, with Du Cange, that the latter was formed from the first by throwing away the initial letter. As yet I had not found the name _lupulus_ given to hops earlier than the thirteenth century. About this time lived Simon of Genoa, commonly called _Johannes de Janua_ or _Januensis_, who also had the surname of _Cordus_. He was physician to Pope Nicholas IV.; afterwards chaplain and sub-deacon to Pope Boniface VIII.; and therefore flourished at the end of the thirteenth century. Of his writings none is better known, or was formerly more esteemed, than his Catholicon, a book in which he describes, in alphabetical order, all the substances then used in medicine, and on which, as he says himself, he was employed thirty years. In this dictionary, which is commonly considered as the first of the Materia medica, there is an article under the head _lupulus_, copied however from the before-mentioned Latin translation of Mesue, but with the addition, that this plant by the French and Germans is named _humilis_, and that the flowers of it were used in a beverage which he calls _medo_[939]. This Italian, however, does not seem to have been properly acquainted with the subject; for he tells us himself[940], that under the name _medo_ or mead, is understood a beverage made of diluted honey, for which hops are never employed. In Italy also, at that time, hops were not in use. About the same period, Arnold de Villanova, in his commentary on the work on Regimen, published by John of Milan, in the name of the celebrated school of Salerno, mentions _lupuli_, and the use of them in brewing beer[941]. Professor Tychsen, to whose friendship I have been frequently indebted for assistance in my researches, suggested to me the conjecture that _lupulus_ perhaps is derived from _lupinus_, because Columella says that the bitter seeds of this plant were added, in Egypt, to beer in order to moderate its sweetness[942]. This use is confirmed also by G. W. Lorsbach, from the Arabic historian Ebn Chalican[943]. At any rate, this proves that in Egypt at that time bitter things began to be added to beer. It is also well known that in Italy lupines were rendered fit for the use of man as well as of animals, by macerating them in water[944]; and I am of opinion, that on this account Varro required water to be in the neighbourhood of a farm-yard[945]. Lupines softened in water are still employed for making dough. But if _lupulus_ was formed from _lupinus_, it must however be proved that the use of it for beer was common beyond the boundaries of Egypt. Even if we admit with Schöttgen, that the poet employs _zythum_ for beer in general, this beverage was never used in Italy, and I have met with no other mention of lupines in brewing. In the breweries of the Netherlands, hops seem to have been first known in the beginning of the fourteenth century; for about this time we find many complaints that the new method of brewing with hops lessened the consumption of _gruit_, and also the income arising from _gruitgeld_. The word _gruit_ seems to have many meanings: in the first place it signifies malt; but though I formerly considered this as the proper meaning, and though some approved my opinion, I must confess that on further examination I am not able fully to prove it. In the second place, it signified a certain tax paid at each time of brewing: thirdly, a certain addition of herbs used for beer in the fourteenth century: and in the last place, the beer brewed with it was itself sometimes called _gruit_. That this word always denoted malt is impossible; for it is said that after hops were introduced, less _gruit_ was used and sold than formerly had been the case. But how could hops be employed instead of malt? John, bishop of Liege and Utrecht, complained to the emperor Charles IV., that for thirty or forty years a new method of brewing, that is to say, with the addition of a certain plant called _humulus_ or _hoppa_, had been introduced, and that his income arising from _gruitgeld_ had been thereby much lessened. The emperor, therefore, in the year 1364, permitted him, for the purpose of making good his loss, to demand a _groschen_ for each cask of hops; and this right was confirmed to bishop Arnold by pope Gregory[946]. By this and similar accounts I am induced to conjecture that a beverage composed of different herbs was at that time prepared, and that the sale of this mixture and of _gruit_ was converted into a so-called _regale_. Nay, it almost appears that _gruit_ was a fermenting substance, indispensably necessary to beer, instead of the yeast used at present. According to every appearance the ancient beer could not be long kept; and beer fit to be preserved seems to have come into use after the