[164] “Georgics,” iv. 334; Yates, p. 35.
[165] “Comptes Rendus de la Commission Impériale Archéologique,” St. Petersburg, 1881. Much of this Gobelin weaving has lately been found in Egypt. See “Katalog der Teodor Graf’schen Fünde in Ægypten,” von Dr. J. Karabacek.
[166] Semper considers that the famous Babylonian and Phrygian stuffs were all woollen, and that gold was woven or embroidered on them. See “Der Stil,” i. p. 138.
[167] Worcester cloth was forbidden to the Benedictines by a Chapter of that Order at Westminster Abbey in 1422, as being fine enough for soldiers, and therefore too good for monks. See Rock’s Introduction, p. lxxviii.
[168] Both these fabrics are represented in Egyptian and Greek fragments, and are equally well preserved.
[169] Boyd Dawkins, “Early Man in Britain,” pp. 268, 275.
[170] See Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. iii. p. 116; Yates, p. 23.
[171] It appears that the art of printing textiles was known in Egypt in the time of Pliny. See Yates, p. 272, quoting Apuleius, Met. l. xi.; also see Wilkinson, “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. ii. p. 196, pl. xii.
[172] See Yates, “Textrinum Antiquorum,” pp. 268, 335; Herodotus, ii. 86. Herodotus and Strabo speak of Babylonian linen, cited by Yates, p. 281.
[173] “Textrinum Antiquorum,” pp. 267-80. A peculiarity of Egyptian linen is that it was often woven with more threads in the warp than in the woof. A specimen in the Indian Museum, South Kensington, shows in its delicate texture 140 threads in the inch to the warp, and 64 to the woof. Another piece of fine linen has 270 to the warp, and 110 to the woof. Generally there are twice or three times as many threads, but sometimes even four times the number. Wilkinson gives a probable reason for this peculiarity. See Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. i. chap. ix. pp. 121-226. See Rock’s Introduction, p. xiv.