GLOVES.
About the year 790, Charlemagne granted an unlimited right of hunting to the Abbot and Monks of Sithin, for making their Gloves and Girdles of the Skins of the Deer they killed, and Covers for their Books. [Mabillon de Re Diplom. p. 611. Grose.]
Anciently richly adorned and decorated with precious Stones,—as in the Rolls of Parliament, anno 53 Hen. III. A. D. 1267. "Et de 2 Paribus Chirothecarum cum lapidibus." [Warton's History of Poetry, vol. I. p. 182, note. Grose.]
Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford, according to Mr. Walpole's account, on the authority of Stowe,—"having travelled into Italy, is recorded to have been the first that brought into England embroidered Gloves and Perfumes; and presenting the Queen [Elizabeth] with a Pair of the former, she was so pleased with them, as to be drawn with them in one of her Portraits." [Royal and Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 159. Note to Winter's Tale, edit. Johnson and Steevens, 1778, p. 388.]
"Give Gloves to the Reapers, a Largesse to cry."
[Tusser, v. Hist. of Hawsted. 190.]
The Monastery of Bury allowed its Servants two pence apiece for Glove-Silver in Autumn. [Hist. of Hawsted. 190.]
The rural Bridegroom, in Laneham's (or Langham's) Account of the Entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Kenelworth Castle, 1575, had—a Payr of Harvest Gloves on his Hands, as a sign of good Husbandry. Id. in eod.
When Sir Thomas Pope, the Founder of Trinity College, Oxford, visited it, 1556, "The Bursars offered him a present of embroidered Gloves." [Warton's Life of Sir Thomas Pope, p. 119.]
When Sir Thomas Pope had founded the College, the University complimented him with a Letter of Thanks, which was accompanied with a Present of rich Gloves, 1556. [Warton's Life, p. 132, note.] The Gloves were sent both to himself and Lady, and cost 6s. 8d. [Id. in eod.]