Thomas Coryat, in his _Crudities_, vol. i. p. 134., gives us a curious
notice of the early use of the umbrella in Italy. Speaking of fans, he
says:
"These fans are of a mean price, for a man may buy one of the
fairest of them for so much money as countervaileth one English
groat. Also many of them (the Italians) do carry other fine
things of a far greater price, that will cost at the least a
ducat, which they commonly call in the Italian tongue
_umbrellaes_, that is, things that minister shadow unto them for
shelter against the scorching heat of the sun. These are made of
leather, something answerable to the form of a little canopy,
and hooped in the inside with diverse little wooden hoops that
extend the _umbrella_ in a pretty large compass. They are used
especially by horsemen, who carry them in their hands when they
ride, fastening the end of the handle upon one of their thighs:
and they impart so long a shadow unto them, that it keepeth the
heat of the sun from the upper parts of their bodies."
Lt.-Col. (afterwards Gen.) Wolfe, writing from Paris, in the year 1752,
says:
"The people here use umbrellas in hot weather to defend them
from the sun, and something of the same kind to secure them from
snow and rain. I wonder a practice so useful is not introduced
in England, (where there are such frequent showers,) and
especially in the country, where they can be expanded without
any inconveniency." {415}
Query, what is the date of the first introduction of the _umbrella_ into
England?