Note 28 — TEXTILE FABRICS (continued 2)

An amusing passage in Fernandez Navarrete's Conservación de Monarquías (a.d. 1626) tells us that most of the costlier dress-materials used in Spain about this time proceeded from abroad, and that they were “of so fine a texture that the heat of an iron scorches them and wears them out in a couple of days; while a great number of men employ themselves in the effeminate office of dressing collars, who, ceasing also to be men, forsake the plough or warlike exercises; for it is certain that when the Spaniards kept the world in awe, this land produced a greater number of armourers, and less persons who busied themselves with looking after womanish apparel” (p. 232).