of worsted and silk...;-)

Ja gives us detaisl of some silk stockings she bought in London while staying with her brother Henry in 1811:

and three pair silk stockings for a little less than 12s. a pair.

Sloane St.: Thursday,April 18, 1811.

In Barbara Johnson's Album of Styles and Fabrics the follwing prices for worsted stockings are given, in the accounts made by George Thompson( Miss Johnson used his accounts book as the place she could record all details of her clothes, including inserting fabric swatches):

March 1740 pair worsted( wool) stockings 5 shillings

March 1740 pair silk stockings 14 shillings

May 1741 pair silk stockings 14 shillings

January 1744 2 pair silk stockings 14 shillings a pair

November 1748 2 paiir worsted stockings at 5 shillings a pair.

Mr Thompson seems to have been a man of some means( there are frequent trips to the opera mentioned in his accounts) and so his price of 14 shillings per pair( which remains stable, note, during this accounting period) would probably indicate silk stockings of some quality.

Jas were two shillings cheaper over half a cenrury on in time.I'm not sure about the exact rate of inflation( I think it had risen due to the war with Napoleon) but I think we may be able to deduce that either JA was an able neogitator or had bought stockings of a lesser quality.

JA of course had no income of her own at this point( indeed the only money she could legitimately call her own, as it were, was her profits from her books):she was dependant on gifts of money from her father and others like kind Mrs Knight who "adopted" her brothee Edward.

Charles was also making his way in the world.So if he was treating his sisters to a gift of some stockigns made of silk I think he as being kind and very generous.He knew of his sisters liking for clothes and also her finacial situation.

He is being a good brother:-)