his first book of lyric odes, he lived in many different houses, in
Southampton Row (1793); Tavistock Row (1794); Chapel Street, Portland
Place (1800); 8, Delany Place, Camden Town (1802); 94, Tottenham Court
Road (1807); and Latham Place, Somer’s Town, where he died on the 14th
January, 1819.
Of his personal appearance much has been said. He has been described as
“a thick, squat man with a large, dark and flat face and no speculation
in his eye.” There are many portraits of him published, most of them by
his _protégé_, Opie, the “Cornish boy,” as he calls him, whom he both
educated and boomed in the press, a genius of undoubted merit as a
painter. Unless these pictures outrageously flatter him, his must have
been a fine physiognomy. We have seen eight or nine portraits, taken at
different periods of his life, and in all he appears like a well-bred
and handsome man of the style and period of George the Fourth. There is
a miniature of him, however, in the National Portrait Gallery, which is
said with candour to express many of the disagreeable features of his
character. Our own portrait appended to this sketch is from a painting
by Opie, engraved by C. H. Hodges, and reproduced in photography by
Bailey, of Kingsbridge. One of his most faithful portraits is a
miniature by Lethbridge, a Kingsbridge artist of some fame, who was born
at Goveton, a little hamlet not far from the town.
Probably the last public compliment ever received by Peter Pindar was
the dedication by his scholarly neighbour to him of the well-known
_History of Kingsbridge_, published in 1819 (the year of Pindar’s death)
by A. Hawkins, Esq., F.H.S. With the terms of that dedication we might
fitly close our notice:—
To JOHN WOLCOT, M.D., long accredited at the Court of Apollo as Peter
Pindar, Esq., these pages commemorative of the History and Topography
of the vicinity of his native earth, are by his permission dedicated
as a mark of sincere respect for his superior genius and talents.
If in our sketch of Peter Pindar we have “extenuated aught,” we have
been wishful to “set down naught in malice,” and can only endorse the
universal opinion as to his talent, with the unconcealed wish that such
great power had been allowed to exert itself on a higher plane and to a
nobler purpose.
O quantum est in rebus inane!
—_Pers. I._ 1.
How vain are all his cares!
And oh! what bubbles, his most grave affairs.
—_Gifford._
WILLIAM THOMAS ADEY.
HONITON LACE.
BY MISS ALICE DRYDEN.
Situated in the fertile vale of the Otter, surrounded by wooded hills
and combes, the quiet little town of Honiton slopes down a hill, crosses
the river, and ends at the old Hospital of St. Margaret. The picturesque
street seems to have a repose amid its beautiful surroundings
commensurate with the peaceful industry that has made its undying fame;
for thanks to its having been the head-quarters of the beautiful lace
manufacture, the name of Honiton is better known than that of many a big
city. That its renown should have overshadowed other places is doubtless
owing to its being situated on the great coach roads from London and
from Bath to Exeter and the ports beyond; travellers were brought to the
spot, who would alight while their horses rested; they would then be
offered a box of lace at the inn to select from, while the work-girls
themselves looked out for the arrival of the coaches and pressed their
wares on the occupants, who took away their purchases to other parts of
the country as a speciality of Honiton.
Risdon[12] speaks of it as “a great Market and Thorough-Fair, from East
to West,” and Westcote[13] writes:—“It is a great thoroughfare from
Cornwall, Plymouth, and Exeter to London; and for the better receipt of
travellers, very well furnished with Inns.”
-----
Footnote 12:
_Survey of Devon_, 1605–20 (printed editions, 1785, 1811).
Footnote 13:
_View of Devon_, _circiter_ 1630 (first printed, 1845).
-----
[Illustration
_From a Photograph_] [_By Miss Alice Dryden._
HONITON LACE.
]
Lace-making has been practically limited to that part of the county
south of Exeter which lies between Dorset and the Exe. The industry
found its way to Devonshire, if the generally accepted theory be
correct, by the Flemish refugees flying from the persecutions of the
Duke of Alva. Lace was made on the pillow in the Low Countries about the
middle of the sixteenth century, so by the date of the Alva persecution
(1568–77) the people might have learnt it in sufficient numbers to start
it wherever they set up their new home.
There is much probability to support this theory, and some names of
undoubted Flemish origin did and do still exist in Honiton, as Gerard,
Murch, Groot, Trump. On the other hand, if there had been any
considerable number of Flemings in Devonshire they would surely have
founded a Company of their Reformed Church, and no reference is found in
the published books of the Archives of the London Dutch Church of any
such Company in Devonshire; whereas references abound to places in the
eastern counties and Midlands where Flemings were established.
It was not till we read of bone[14] lace that it may be taken to mean
pillow lace, made either with fish bones as pins or sheep’s trotters as
bobbins. That bones were used as bobbins is stated by Fuller;[15] but
the fish bone theory is also possible; pins were very high priced at
that time, and it would have been perfectly possible to use fish bones
fine enough for the geometrical laces of the sixteenth century.
-----
Footnote 14:
The term _bone_ lace is wrongly interpreted as representing the raised
Venetian points, which have been likened to carved ivory or bone.
Footnote 15:
_Worthies_, 1662.
-----
Queen Elizabeth was much addicted to the collecting and wearing of
beautiful clothes, but no definite mention of English lace seems to
occur in the Royal Wardrobe Accounts.
The earliest mention of Honiton lace is by Westcote—“At Axminster you
may be furnished with fine flax thread there spun. At Honiton and
Bradnidge with bone lace much in request”;[16] and, referring again to
Honiton—“Here is made abundance of bone-lace, a pretty toye now greatly
in request”; and therefore the town may say with merry Martial—
In praise for toyes such as this,
Honiton second to none is.
-----
Footnote 16:
_View of Devon._
-----
The famous inscription on a tombstone in Honiton Churchyard, together
with Westcote, proves the industry to have been well established in the
reign of James I. The inscription runs:—
Here lyeth ye body of James Rodge, of Honinton in ye County of
Devonshire, (Bonelace Siller, hath given unto the poore of Honinton
P’ishe the benyfitt of £100 for ever) who deceased ye 27 of July A^o
D^i 1617 ÆTATÆ SVAE 50. Remember the Poore.
There have been traditions that Rodge was a valet who accompanied his
master abroad and there, learning the fine Flemish stitches, taught some
Devonshire women on his return home, and was enabled to make a
comfortable competence by their work.
Rodge was not the only benefactor to the town connected with the
industry; there are two others recorded in the seventeenth century.
“Although the earliest known MS., Ker’s _Synopsis_, 1561, giving an
account of the different towns in Devonshire, makes no mention of lace,
we find from it that Mrs. Minifie, one of the earliest named
lace-makers, was an Englishwoman.”[17] “She was a daughter of John Flay,
Vicar of Buckrell, near Honiton.”[18] She died in 1617, and left money
for the indigent townspeople, as did Thomas Humphrey, of Honiton,
lace-maker, in 1658.
-----
Footnote 17:
_History of Lace._ Mrs. Palliser, 1901.
Footnote 18:
_Worthies of Devon._ Prince, 1701.
-----
The advantages of the lace trade were realized by the time of the
Commonwealth. Fuller,[19] writing during that period, says of bone
lace:—
Much of this is made in and about Honyton, and weekly returned to
London. Some will have it called Lace, _à Lacinia_, used as a fringe
on the borders of cloathes. Bone-lace it is named, because first made
with bone (since wooden) bobbins ...
Modern the use thereof in England, and not exceeding the middle of the
Raign of Queen Elizabeth. Let it not be condemned for a superfluous
wearing, because it doth neither hide nor heat; seeing it doth adorn.
Besides, though private persons pay for it, it stands the State in
nothing; not expensive of Bullion, like other lace, costing nothing
save a little thread descanted on by art and industry. Hereby many
children who otherwise would be burthensome to the Parish prove
beneficial to their Parents. Yea, many lame in their limbs, and
impotent in their arms, if able in their fingers, gain a livelyhood
thereby; not to say that it saveth some thousands of pounds yearly,
formerly sent over Seas to fetch Lace from Flanders.
-----
Footnote 19:
_Worthies_, 1662.
-----
The English were always ready to protect their own trades and
manufactures, and various were the Acts passed to prohibit the
importation of foreign lace, for the encouragement of home workers. In
1698 it was proposed to repeal the last Prohibition, and from the text
of a Petition sent to the House of Commons, some interesting light is
thrown on the extent of the trade at that date.
The making Bonelace has been an ancient Manufacture of England and the
Wisdom of our Parliaments all along thought it the interest of this
Kingdom to prohibit its Importation from Foreign Parts.... This has
revived the said Languishing Manufacture and there are now above one
hundred thousand People in England who get their living by it and Earn
by meer Labour £500,000 a year, according to the lowest computation
that can be made; and the Persons employed in it, are for the most
part Women and children who have no other means of Subsistence. The
English are now arrived to make as good Lace in Fineness and all other
respects, as any that is wrought in Flanders; and particularly since
the late Act so great an improvement is made that way that in
_Buckinghamshire_ the highest prized lace they used to make was about
eight shillings per yard, and now they make lace there of above thirty
shillings per yard and in Dorsetshire and Devonshire they now make
lace worth Six pound per yard and in other Places proportionable. The
Laws formerly made not proving effectual, one more strict passed 36
Years since in the 14th of King Charles II. which said Act recites
“That great numbers of the Inhabitants of this Kingdom were then
employed in making the said manufacture. Since that time the same has
encreased to a great Degree, till of late Years the Art of Smuggling
being grown to greater Perfection than formerly, larger quantities of
_Flanders_-lace have been clandestinely imported, which occasioned the
Enforcing of the former Prohibition Acts by a late one made in the
10th year of his Present Majesty.
Secondly, the Lace which used to come for England is but a small part
of their [Flanders] whole Lace-Trade, for they send it to Holland,
Germany, Sweden, Denmark, France, Spain, Portugal, etc., whereas we
make it chiefly to serve our own Country and Plantations.
... The Lace Manufacture in England is the greatest next to the
Woollen and maintains a multitude of People, which otherwise the
Parishes must, and that would soon prove a heavy burthen, even to
those concerned in the Woollen Manufacture ... on the Resolution which
shall be taken in this affair depends the Well-being or ruin of
numerous families in their own Country. Many laws have been made to
set our Poor on Work and it is to be hoped none will be made to take
away work from Multitudes who are already Employed.”
Here follows the numbers of the people in a few places which get their
living by making of lace. Those quoted in Devonshire as interesting to
compare with the present day are:—
Gittesham 139
Culliton 353
Coumbraleigh 65
Northleigh 32
Sidmouth 302
Axmouth 73
Sidbury 321
Buckerall 90
Farway 70
Upotery 118
Shut and Musbery 25
Southley 45
Fennyton 60
Branscombe Beare and Seaton 326
Widworthy and Offerell 128
Broad Hembury 118
Honyton 1,341
Luppit 215
Axminster 60
Otrey St. Mary 814
Shut and Musbery 25
The Dragoons suppressing Monmouth’s Rebellion in 1680 are stated to have
despoiled the poor lacemakers greatly, and at Colyton broke into the
house of a dealer in bone lace, Burd by name, and stole his goods to the
value of £325.
The trade was still advancing when Defoe wrote in 1724:—
The valuable manufactures of Lace, for which the inhabitants of Devon
have long been conspicuous, are extending now from Exmouth to Torbay.
Later still we find the people at Honiton make “the broadest sort that
is made in England.”[20] Just previously, in 1753, the first prize was
awarded by the Anti-Gallican Society, which encouraged home trade, to
Mrs. Lydia Maynard, of Honiton, “in token of six pairs of ladies’
Lappets of unprecedented beauty.” This date seems to have been the
zenith of the lace prosperity, and reverses soon after set in.
-----
Footnote 20:
_Complete System of Geography._ Bowen, 1747.
-----
Two fires occurred in Honiton, causing much distress, and the second, in
1765, was of so devastating a character that the town had to be rebuilt.
Shawe says, writing at the end of last century:—
For its present condition Honiton is indebted to that dreadful fire
which reduced three parts of it to ashes. The houses now wear a
pleasing aspect, and the principal street extending from East to West,
is paved in a remarkable manner, forming a canal, and well shouldered
up on each side with pebbles and green turf, which holds a stream of
clear water with a square dipping place opposite each door, a mark of
cleanliness and convenience I never saw before.
The American war had an evil effect upon the lace trade; still worse was
the French Revolution, and also the change of the fashion in dress; lace
was no longer used in profusion in the ladies’ wardrobe, and the demand
for it declined to a serious extent for the workers. Worse yet, however,
was the introduction of machine net, the first factory being set up at
Tiverton in 1815. Lysons[21] writes just afterwards:—
The manufactory of lace has much declined, although the lace still
retains its superiority. Some years ago, at which time it was much
patronized by the Royal Family, the manufactures of Honiton employed
2,400 hands in the town and in the neighbouring villages; they do not
now employ above 300. The lace here made had acquired some time ago
the name of Bath Brussels lace; but it is now generally known by its
original appellation of Honiton bone (or thread) lace. It has always
been manufactured from thread made at Antwerp; the present market
price of which is 70l. per lb.; an inferior lace is made in the
villages along the coast, of British thread, called Trolly lace.
-----
Footnote 21:
_Britannia_, 1822.
-----
No other reference to Bath Brussels lace is forthcoming; the reason of
the name Bath is not apparent. The thread seems always to have been and
is still a difficulty to contend with in English lace. It seems
impossible to get the very fine, silky, pure flax thread in the home
market. A greater part of the lace made at the present time is wasted
labour by reason of the coarse cottony thread used.
The evolution (if it may be termed so) of Honiton lace is briefly this.
The bone or bobbin lace before mentioned at first consisted of a small
and simple imitation of the early Italian pillow laces—mere narrow
strips made by coarse threads plaited and interlaced. They got wider and
more elaborate as the workers gained experience. Specimens may be seen
on three Devonshire monuments of the first part of the seventeenth
century. Whether the lace of the district is imitated or not it is
probably similar to what would have been made there at that time. On the
effigy of a Lady Pole in Colyton Church, her cape is edged with three
rows of bone lace. Another, which is in excellent preservation, is on an
effigy of Lady Dodderidge in Exeter Cathedral, her cuffs and tucker
being a good pattern of geometric design. The third is on an effigy in
Combe Martin Church, 1637.[22]
-----
Footnote 22:
There is an example of _opus araneum_ or _lacis_, net work embroidered
with a simple floral design, on the collar of Bp. Stafford, 1308, in
Exeter Cathedral.
-----
Bobbin laces soon became popular, as they were so much cheaper than the
elaborate points; they became so eminently the speciality of Belgium as
to make her the classic country of pillow work. Belgium was noted for
her linens and delicately spun flax; in consequence, the Flemings
departed from the style of their Italian masters, and made laces of
their own fine threads; the fashion of wearing flat linen collars, in
the early part of the seventeenth century, encouraged the new style.
They worked out their own designs, and being fond of flowers, it
naturally came about they composed devices of blossoms and foliage.
These alterations, in course of time, found their way to England, there
being much intercourse between their brethren here established and those
remaining in Flanders. The lace continued to get finer and closer in
texture, the flax thread being required so fine that it became necessary
to spin it in damp underground cellars. That the workers in England
could not compete successfully against the foreigner with their
home-made threads we find over and over again. They also altered the
Brussels designs, and instead of the beautiful _fillings_ and openwork
stitches substituted heavy guipure bars. The _vrai réseau_ or pillow net
ground succeeded the _bride_ towards the end of the seventeenth century.
During the eighteenth century the flowers were made separately and
worked in with the net afterwards, or rather the net was worked into the
flowers on the pillow. The best _réseau_ was made by hand with the
needle, and was much more expensive. The advantages of making the net
separately soon declared themselves, and it formed an extensive branch
of the trade. The mode of payment seems tedious but primitive in its
simplicity; the net was spread out on the dealer’s counter, and the
worker covered it with shillings; as many as it took to cover it she had
as the value of her work. “A piece bought previous to the introduction
of machine net, 18 ins. square, cost £15. At the commencement of machine
net, in 1808, it could be bought for as many shillings, and in 1851 for
as many pence.”[23]
-----
Footnote 23:
_Antique Point and Honiton Lace._ Mrs Treadwin. No date.
-----
Trolly lace comes next in order; it was quite different from the Honiton
type, and resembled many of the laces made in the Midlands at the
present time. It was made with coarse British thread, heavier, larger
bobbins, and worked straight on round the pillow. The origin was
undoubtedly Flemish, but it is said to have reached Devonshire at the
time of the French Revolution through the Normandy peasants, driven by
want of employment from their own country, where lace was a great
industry in the eighteenth century. Be this as it may, lappets and
scarves were certainly made of Trolly lace at an earlier date; Mrs.
Delaney, in one of her letters (1756) speaks of a “trolly head.” Trolly
lace, before its downfall, has been sold at the extravagant price of
five guineas a yard.[24] The origin of _Trolly_ is from the Flemish
_Trolle Kant_, where the design was outlined with a thick thread.
-----
Footnote 24:
_History of Lace._ Mrs. Palliser, 1901.
-----
The most startling change in the lace industry occurred after 1816, when
the introduction of machine net caused the _vrai réseau_ to go out of
fashion. The cheap mechanical net took the place of the hand-made
ground, throwing hundreds of hands out of work in a few years, and
upsetting the social economy of the district. Application on machine net
became universal, and the prices decreasing, the workers lost heart, and
gave up their good old patterns, taking to inventions out of their
heads, and frequently down to the present time copying some frightful
design from a wall paper!
Queen Adelaide, in answer to a petition sent up by the lace makers,
ordered a dress made of Honiton sprigs on machine net, in which every
flower was to be copied from nature. It was executed at Honiton.[25] The
bridal dress of Queen Victoria, which she ordered from Devonshire, was
carried out at Beer, and cost £1,000. It was made in the _guipure_
fashion, the sprigs being connected by openwork stitches on the pillow.
The trade from that time revived, as lace came once more into fashion,
the _guipure_ being the description made, the sections of the pattern
united on the pillow, or sewn on to paper and joined by the needle with
the various lace stitches; _purling_ is made by the yard, for the edge.
-----
Footnote 25:
Queen Adelaide also caused to be introduced the Maltese lace, that
continued to be made for years here and there.
-----
The lace schools of this time were a great feature, there being many in
every village, and as few other schools existed, boys in addition to the
girls of the place attended and learnt the industry.[26] The usual mode
of procedure was this. The children commenced attending at the age of
five to seven, and were apprenticed to the mistress for an average of
two years, who sold all their work for her trouble; they then paid 6d. a
week for a time, and had their own lace, then 3d., and so on according
to the amount of teaching they still required. The young children went
first from 10 to 12 in the morning to accustom them to work by degrees.
At Honiton the full hours were 8 to 8 in the summer and in the depth of
winter, but in spring and autumn less on account of the light; as
candles were used only from nutting day, the 3rd of September, till
Shrove Tide. The old rhyme runs:—
Be the Shrove Tide high or low Out the candle we will blow.
-----
Footnote 26:
Mrs. Treadwin in her younger days saw some twenty-four men lace makers
in Woodbury, one of whom had worked at his pillow so late as 1820.
From being taught as boys, the sailors used to employ themselves in
the winter making some of the coarse laces.
-----
At Sidbury it was _de rigeur_ that directly a girl married, however
young, she wore a cap; but till then the lace-makers were famous for
their good hair being beautifully dressed. When school began they stood
up in a circle to read the “Verses”; if any one read “jokily” they were
given a penalty, and likewise for idleness—so much extra work. In nearly
all schools they were taught reading from the Bible, and in some they
learnt writing.
The Honiton pillows run rather smaller than those for Buckingham lace,
and do not have the multiplicity of starched coverings—only three “pill
cloths” over the top, and another each side of the lace in progress; two
pieces of horn, called “sliders,” go between to take the weight of the
bobbins from dragging the stitches in progress; a small square
pincushion is on one side, and stuck into the pillow is the “needle
pin,” a large sewing needle in a wooden handle, used for picking up
loops through which the bobbins or “sticks” are placed. These last are
mostly turned box-wood, small and light, and no coloured beads or
“gingles” at the end, as that would make them too heavy for the fine
threads. Some of them are of great age. Mrs. Treadwin found an old
lace-maker using a lace “turn” for winding sticks, having the date of
1678 rudely carved on the foot.
The pillow has to be frequently turned round in the course of the work,
so no stand is used, and it is rested against a table or doorway, or
formerly, in the golden days, in fine weather there would be rows of
workers sitting outside their cottages resting their “pills” against the
back of the chair in front.