The Virginia Gazette

Though the hair and wool of animals were probably the first, yet they were not long the only materials that were used for making cloth for garments. The attention and industry of mankind soon discovered several other things that were fit for answering that purpose, particularly the long, slender, and flexible filaments of flax and hemp. These plants were cultivated with this view, and their fibrous stores (after they were separated from the woody parts and prepared) were put into yarn, and woven into cloth, in Egypt, Palestine, and other eastern countries, in very ancient times. From thence these arts of cultivating, dressing, and spinning flax, and weaving linen cloth were communicated to several European nations, by slow degrees, and at different times. It was even long after they had been practised in the east, that they made their way into Italy, and were generally received in that country. For some of the greatest families among the old Romans boasted that they made no use of linen in their houses, or about their persons; and the use of it was long considered as a mark of effeminacy, and a piece of criminal luxury, by that brave and hardy people. By slow degrees, however, the manufacture and use of this pleasant, cleanly, and beautiful kind of cloth prevailed, not only over all Italy, but also in Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Britain.