are usually said, on the authority of Howel,[906] to have put an end to the
fashion of yellow ruffs, but the following extracts show they were worn for
some years later.
As late as 1620 the yellow starch, supposed to give a rich hue to the lace
and cut-work of which ruffs were "built," gave scandal to the clergy. The
Dean of Westminster ordered no lady or gentleman wearing yellow ruffs to be
admitted into any pew in his church; but finding this "ill taken," and the
King "moved in it," he ate his own words, and declared it to be all a
mistake.[907] This fashion, again, gave great offence even in France. Since
the English[908] {318}alliance, writes the _Courtisane à la Mode_,
1625,[909] "cette mode Anglaise sera cause qu'il pourra advenir une cherté
sur le safran qui fera que les Bretons et les Poitevins seront contraints
de manger leur beurre blanc et non pas jaune, comme ils sont accoutumés."
The Bishops, who first denounced the ruff, themselves held to the fashion
long after it had been set aside by all other professions. Folks were not
patriotic in their tastes, as in more modern days; they loved to go "as far
as Paris to fetch over a fashion and come back again."[910]
The lace of Flanders, with the costly points and cut-works of Italy,[911]
now became the rage, and continued so for nigh two centuries. Ben Jonson
speaks of the "ruffs and cuffs of Flanders,"[912] while Lord Bacon,
indignant at the female caprice of the day, writes to Sir George
Villiers:--"Our English dames are much given to the wearing of costly
laces, and if they may be brought from Italy, or France, or Flanders, they
are in much esteem; whereas, if like laces were made by the English, so
much thread would make a yard of lace, being put into that manufacture,
would be five times, or perhaps ten or twenty times the value."[913] But
Bacon had far better have looked at home, for he had himself, when
Chancellor, granted an exclusive patent to Sir Giles Mompesson, the
original of Sir Giles Overreach, for the monopoly of the sale and
manufacture of gold and silver thread, the abuses of which caused in part
his fall.[914]
James had half ruined the commerce of England by the granting of
monopolies, which, says Sir John Culpepper, are "as numerous as the frogs
of Egypt. They have got possession of our dwellings, they sip in our cups,
they dip in our {319}dish. They sit by our fire. We find them in the
dye-vat, wash-bowl, and powdering-tub, etc.; they have marked and sealed us
from head to foot."[915] The bone-lace trade suffered alike with other
handicrafts.[916] In 1606 James had already given a license to the Earl of
Suffolk[917] for the import of gold and silver lace. In 1621, alarmed by
the general complaints throughout the kingdom,[918] a proposition was made
"for the erection of an Office of Pomp, to promote home manufactures," and
to repress pride by levying taxes on all articles of luxury.[919] What
became of the Pomp Office we cannot pretend to say: the following year we
are somewhat taken aback by a petition[920] from two Dutchmen, of Dort,
showing "that the manufacture of gold and silver thread, purle, etc., in
England" was "a great waste of bullion," the said Dutchmen being, we may
infer, of opinion that it was more to their advantage to import such
articles themselves. After a lapse of three years the petition is
granted.[921] In the midst of all this granting and rescinding of
monopolies, we hear in the month of April, 1623, how the decay of the
bone-lace trade at Great Marlow caused great poverty.[922]
Though the laces of Flanders and Italy were much patronised by the court
and high nobility, Queen Anne of Denmark appears to have given some
protection to the fabrics of the country. Poor Queen Anne! When, on the
news of Elizabeth's death, James hurried off to England, a correspondence
took place between the King and the English Privy Council regarding the
Queen's outfit, James considering, {320}and wisely--for the Scotch court
was always out of elbows--that his wife's wardrobe was totally unfit to be
produced in London. To remedy the deficiency, the Council forwarded to the
Queen, by the hands of her newly-named ladies, a quantity of Elizabeth's
old gowns and ruffs, wherewith to make a creditable appearance on her
arrival in England. Elizabeth had died at the age of seventy, wizened,
decayed, and yellow--Anne, young and comely, had but just attained her
twenty-sixth year. The rage of the high-spirited dame knew no bounds; she
stormed with indignation--wear the clothes she must, for there were no
others--so in revenge she refused to appoint any of the ladies, save Lady
Bedford, though nominated by the King, to serve about her person in
England. On her arrival she bought a considerable quantity of linen, and as
with the exception of one article,[923] purchased from a "French mann," her
"nidell purle worke," her "white worke," her "small nidell worke," her
"pece of lawin to bee a ruffe," with "eighteen yards of fine lace to shewe
(sew) the ruffe," the "Great Bone" lace, and "Little Bone" lace were
purchased at Winchester and Basing, towns bordering on the lace-making
counties, leading us to infer them to have been of English
manufacture.[924]
The bill of laced linen purchased at the "Queen's lying down" on the birth
of the Princess Sophia, in 1606, amounts to the sum of £614 5s. 8d.[925] In
this we have no mention of any foreign-made laces. The child lived but
three days. Her little monument, of cradle-form, with lace-trimmed
coverlets and sheets (Fig. 125), stands close to the recumbent effigy of
her sister Mary[926] (Fig. 126), with ruff, collar, and cap of geometric
lace, in the north aisle of Henry VII.'s Chapel.[927]
PLATE LXXX.
[Illustration: HENRY WRIOTHESLEY, THIRD EARL OF SOUTHAMPTON,
1573-1624.--Probably painted in Holland about 1620, by Michiel Van
Miereveldt. National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 320._
{321}[Illustration: Fig. 125.
MONUMENT OF THE PRINCESS SOPHIA. + 1606. FOURTH DAUGHTER OF JAMES I.
(Westminster Abbey.)]
After a time--epoch of the Spanish marriage[928]--the ruff {322}gave way to
the "falling band," so familiar to us in the portraits of Rubens and
Vandyke.
"There is such a deal of pinning these ruffs, when a fine clean fall is
worth them all," says the Malcontent. "If you should chance to take a nap
in the afternoon, your falling band requires no poking-stick to recover
it."[929] Cut-work still continued in high favour; it was worn on every
article of linen, from the richly-wrought collar to the nightcap. The
Medicean ruff or gorget of the Countess of Pembroke ("Sidney's sister,
Pembroke's mother"), with its elaborate border of swans (Fig. 127), is a
good illustration of the fashion of her time.
[Illustration: Fig. 126.
MONUMENT OF THE PRINCESS MARY. + 1607. THIRD DAUGHTER OF JAMES I.
(Westminster Abbey.)]
Among the early entries of Prince Charles, we have four nightcaps of
cut-work, £7,[930] for making two of which for his {323}Highness, garnished
with gold and silver lace, Patrick Burke receives £15;[931] but these
modest entries are quite put to shame by those of his royal father, who,
for ten yards of needlework lace "pro le edginge" of his "galiriculis vulgo
nightcaps," pays £16 13s. 4d.[932] Well might the Water-Poet exclaim--
"A nightcap is a garment of high state."[933]
[Illustration: Fig. 127.
MARY, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. + 1621. (From her portrait in Walpole's _Royal
and Noble Authors_.)]
When Queen Anne died, in 1619, we have an elaborate {324}account of her
funeral,[934] and of the sum paid to Dorothy Speckart for dressing a hearse
effigy with a large veil, wired and edged with peak lace and lawn,
curiously cut in flowers, etc. Laced linen, however, was already discarded
in mourning attire, for we find in the charges for the king's mourning
ruffs, an edging at 14d. the piece is alone recorded.[935]
Towards the end of James I.'s reign a singular custom came into fashion,
brought in by the Puritan ladies, that of representing religious subjects,
both in lace, cut-work, and embroidery, a fashion hitherto confined to
church vestments. We find constant allusions to it in the dramatists of the
day. Thus, in the _City Match_,[936] we read--
"She works religious petticoats, for flowers
She'll make church histories. Her needle doth
So sanctify my cushionets, besides
My smock sleeves have such holy embroideries,
And are so learned, that I fear in time
All my apparel will be quoted by
Some pious instructor."
Again, in the _Custom of the Country_--[937]
"Sure you should not be
Without a neat historical shirt."
{325}We find in a Scotch inventory[938] of the seventeenth century: "Of
Holland scheittes ii pair, quhairof i pair schewit (sewed) with hollie
work."[939]
The entries of this reign, beyond the "hollie work," picked[940] and
seaming[941] lace, contain little of any novelty; all articles of the
toilet were characterised by a most reckless extravagance.
"There is not a gentleman now in the fashion," says Peacham,[942] "whose
band of Italian cut-work now standeth him not in the least three or four
pounds. Yes, a semster in Holborn told me that there are of threescore
pounds." We read how two-thirds of a woman's dower was often expended in
the purchase of cut-work and Flanders lace.
In the warrant of the Great Wardrobe for the marriage expenses of the
ill-fated Princess Elizabeth, on which occasion it is recorded of poor
Arabella Stuart, the "Lady Arabella, though still in the Tower, has shewn
her joy by buying four new gowns, one of which cost £1,500,"[943] in
addition to "gold cheine laze, silver spangled, silver looped, myllen bone
lace, drawneworke poynte, black silk Naples lace," etc., all in the most
astonishing quantity, we have the astounding entry of 1,692 ounces of
silver bone lace.[944] No wonder, in {326}after days, the Princess caused
so much anxiety to the Palatine's Privy Purse, Colonel Schomberg, who in
vain implores her to have her linen and lace bought beforehand, and paid at
every fair.[945] "You brought," he writes, "£3,000 worth of linen from
England, and have bought £1,000 worth here," and yet "you are ill
provided."[946]
CHARLES I.
"Embroider'd stockings, cut-work smocks and shirts."
--Ben Jonson.
Ruffs may literally be said to have gone out with James I. His son Charles
is represented on the coins of the two first years of his reign in a stiff
starched ruff;[947] in the fourth and fifth we see the ruff unstarched,
falling down on his shoulders,[948] and afterwards, the falling band (Fig.
128) was generally adopted, and worn by all classes save the judges, who
stuck to the ruff as a mark of dignity and decorum, till superseded by the
peruke.[949]
PLATE LXXXI.
[Illustration: ELIZABETH, PRINCESS PALATINE, GRANDDAUGHTER OF JAMES I.,
1618-1680.--Probably about 1638. By Gerard Honthorst. National Portrait
Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 326._
{327}[Illustration: Fig. 128.
FALLING COLLAR OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.--(After Abraham Bosse.)]
Even loyal Oxford, conscientious to a hair's-breadth--always behind the
rest of the world--when Whitelock, in 1635, addresses the Quarter Sessions
arrayed in the new fashion, owned "one may speak as good sense in a falling
band as in a ruff." The change did not, however, diminish the extravagance
of the age. The bills for the King's lace and linen, which in the year 1625
amounted to £1,000, in course of time rose to £1,500.[950] Falling bands of
Flanders bone lace and cut-work appear constantly in the accounts.[951] As
the foreign materials are carefully specified (it was one of these
articles, then a novelty, that Queen Anne of Denmark "bought of the French
Mann"), we may infer much of the bobbin or bone lace to have been of home
produce. As Ben Jonson says, "Rich apparel has strong virtues." It is, he
adds, "the birdlime of fools." There was, indeed, no article of toilet at
this period which was not encircled with lace--towels, sheets, shirts,
caps, cushions, boots (Fig. 129), cuffs (Fig. 130)--and, as too often
occurs in the case of excessive luxury, when the bills came in money was
wanting to {328}discharge them, Julian Elliott, the royal lace merchant,
seldom receiving more than half her account, and in 1630--nothing.[952]
There were, as Shakespeare says,
"Bonds entered into
For gay apparel against the triumph day."[953]
The quantity of needlework purl consumed on the king's hunting collars,
"colares pro venatione," scarcely appears credible. One entry alone makes
994 yards for 12 collars and 24 pairs of cuffs.[954] Again, 600 yards of
fine bone lace is charged for trimming the ruffs of the King's
night-clothes.[955]
[Illustration: Fig. 129.
From an Engraving of Abraham Bosse.]
[Illustration: Fig. 130.
From an Engraving of Abraham Bosse.]
The art of lace-making was now carried to great perfection in England; so
much so, that the lease of twenty-one years, granted in 1627 to Dame
Barbara Villiers, of the duties on gold and silver thread, became a
terrible loss to the holder, who, in 1629, petitions for a discharge of
£437 10s. arrears due to the Crown. The prayer is favourably received by
the officers of the Customs, to whom it was referred, who answer they
"conceive those duties will decay, for the invention of making Venice gold
and silver lace within the kingdom is come to that perfection, that it will
be made here more cheap than it can be brought from beyond seas."[956] The
fancy for foreign articles still prevailed. "Among the goods brought in by
Tristram Stephens," writes Sir John Hippisley, from Dover Castle, "are the
bravest French bandes that ever I did see for ladies--they be fit for the
Queen."[957]
[Illustration: Fig. 131.
ENGLISH NEEDLE-MADE LACE.
_To face page 328._]
{329}Gold lace was exported in considerable quantities to India in the days
of James I.;[958] and now, in 1631, we find the "riband roses," edged with
lace, notified among the articles allowed to be exported. These lace
rosette-trimmed shoes were in vogue in the time of James I., and when first
brought to that monarch he refused to adopt the fashion, asking, "If they
wanted to make a ruffe-footed dove of him." They were afterwards worn in
all the extravagance of the French court. (See France to Louis XIV.). Mr.
Brooks, in his speech in the House of Commons against costly apparel (18
James I.), says, "Nowadays, the roses worn by Members of the House on their
shoes are more than their father's apparel." Peacham speaks of "shoe ties,
that goe under the name of roses, from thirty shillings to three, four, and
five pounds the pair. Yea, a gallant of the time, not long since, paid
thirty pounds for a pair.[959] Well might Taylor say they
"Wear a farm in shoe-strings edged with gold,
And spangled garters worth a copyhold."
It was not till the year 1635 that an effort was made for {330}the
protection of our home fabrics, "at the request and for the benefit of the
makers of those goods in and near London, and other parts of the realm, now
brought to great want and necessity, occasioned by the excessive
importation of these foreign wares." Foreign "Purles, Cutworks, or
Bone-laces, or any commodities laced or edged therewith," are strictly
prohibited. Orders are also given that all purles, cut-works, and bone
laces English made are to be taken to a house near the sign of the "Red
Hart" in Fore Street, without Cripplegate, and there sealed by Thomas Smith
or his deputy.[960]
An Act the same year prohibits the use of "gold or silver purles" except
manufactured in foreign parts, and especially forbids the melting down any
coin of the realm.
The manufacture of bone lace in England had now much improved, and was held
in high estimation in France. We hear of Henrietta Maria sending ribbons,
lace, and other fashions from England, in 1636, as a present to her
sister-in-law, Anne of Austria;[961] while, in a letter dated February 7th,
1636, the Countess of Leicester writes to her husband, then in France, who
had requested her to procure him some fine bone lace of English make:--"The
present for the Queen of France I will be careful to provide, but it cannot
be handsome for that proportion of money which you do mention; for these
bone laces, if they be good, are dear, and I will send the best, for the
honor of my nation and my own credit."
Referring to the same demand, the Countess again writes to her lord, May
18th, 1637, Leicester House:--"All my present for the Queen of France is
provided, which I have done with great care and some trouble; the expenses
I cannot yet directly tell you, but I think it will be about £120, for the
bone laces are extremely dear. I intend to {331}send it by Monsieur
Ruvigny, for most of the things are of new fashion, and if I should keep
them they would be less acceptable, for what is new now will quickly grow
common, such things being sent over almost every week."
We can have no better evidence of the improvement in the English lace
manufacture than these two letters.
An Act of 1638 for reforming abuses in the manufacture of lace, by which
competent persons are appointed, whether natives or strangers, "who shall
be of the Church of England," can scarcely have been advantageous to the
community.
Lace, since the Reformation, had disappeared from the garments of the
Church. In the search warrants made after Jesuits and priests of the Roman
faith, it now occasionally peeps out. In an inventory of goods seized at
the house of some Jesuit priests at Clerkenwell, in 1627, we find--"One
faire Alb of cambric, with needle worke purles about the skirts, necke, and
bandes."
Smuggling, too, had appeared upon the scene. In 1621 information is laid,
how Nicholas Peeter, master of the "Greyhound, of Apsom," had landed at
Dover sundry packets of cut-workes and bone laces without paying the
Customs.[962]
But the
"Rebatoes, ribbands, cuffs, ruffs, falls,
Scarfes, feathers, fans, maskes, muffs, laces, cauls,"[963]
of King Charles's court were soon to disperse at the now outbreaking
Revolution. The Herrn Maior Frau (Lady Mayoress), the noble English lady
depicted by Hollar,[964] must now lay aside her whisk, edged with broad
lace of needle point, and no longer hie to St. Martin's for lace:[965] she
must content herself with a plain attire.
"Sempsters with ruffs and cuffs, and quoifs and caules
And falls,"[966]
must be dismissed. Smocks of three pounds a-piece,[967] {332}wrought
smocks,[968] are no longer worn by all--much less those "seam'd thro' with
cutwork,"[969] or "lace to her smocks, broad seaming laces,"[970] which,
groans one of the Puritan writers, "is horrible to think of."
The ruff and cuffs of Flanders, gold lace cut-work and silver lace of
curle,[971] needle point, and fine gartering with blown roses,[972] are now
suppressed under Puritan rule.
The "fop" whom Henry Fitz-Geoffrey describes as having
"An attractive lace
And whalebone bodies for the better grace,"
must now think twice before he wears it.[973]
The officer, whom the poor soldier apostrophises as shining--
"One blaze of plate about you, which puts out
Our eyes when we march 'gainst the sunne, and armes you
Compleatly with your own gold lace, which is
Laid on so thick, that your own trimmings doe
Render you engine proof, without more arms"--[974]
must no longer boast of
"This shirt five times victorious I have fought under,
And cut through squadrons of your curious Cut-work,
As I will do through mine."[975]
In the Roundhead army he will scarce deign to comb his cropped locks. All
is now dingy, of a sad colour, soberly in character with the tone of the
times.
PLATE LXXXII.
[Illustration: JAMES HARRINGTON, Author of "Oceana," 1611-1677. Between
1630-1640. By Gerard Honthorst. National Portrait Gallery.
Photo by Walker and Cockerell.]
_To face page 332._
{333}THE COMMONWEALTH.
The rule of the Puritans was a sad time for lace-makers, as regards the
middle and lower classes: every village festival, all amusement was put
down, bride laces and Mayings--all were vanity.
With respect to the upper classes, the Puritan ladies, as well as the men
of birth, had no fancy for exchanging the rich dress of the Stuart Court
for that of the Roundheads. Sir Thomas Fairfax, father of the General, is
described as wearing a buff coat, richly ornamented with silver lace, his
trunk hose trimmed with costly Flanders lace, his breastplate partly
concealed by a falling collar of the same material. The foreign Ambassadors
of the Parliament disdained the Puritan fashions. Lady Fanshaw describes
her husband as wearing at the Court of Madrid, on some State occasion, "his
linen very fine, laced with very rich Flanders lace."[976]
Indeed, it was not till the arrival of the Spanish envoy, the first
accredited to the Protectorate of Cromwell, that Harrison begged Colonel
Hutchinson and Lord Warwick to set an example to other nations at the
audience, and not appear in gold and silver lace. Colonel Hutchinson,
though he saw no harm in a rich dress, yet not to appear offensive, came
next day in a plain black suit, as did the other gentlemen, when, to the
astonishment of all, Harrison appeared in a scarlet coat so laden with
"clinquaint" and lace as to hide the material of which it was made,
showing, remarks Mrs. Hutchinson, "his godly speeches were only made that
he might appear braver above the rest in the eyes of the strangers."
Nor did the mother of Cromwell lay aside these adornments. She wore a
handkerchief, of which the broad point-lace alone could be seen, and her
green velvet cardinal was edged with broad gold lace.[977] Cromwell
himself, when once in power, became more particular in his dress; and if he
lived as a Puritan, his body after death was more gorgeously attired than
that of any deceased sovereign, with purple velvet, ermine, and the richest
Flanders lace.[978] His effigy, {334}carved by one Symonds, was clad in a
fine shirt of Holland, richly laced; he wore bands and cuffs of the same
materials, and his clothes were covered with gold lace.[979]
The more we read the more we feel convinced that the dislike manifested by
the Puritan leaders to lace and other luxuries was but a political
necessity, in order to follow the spirit of the age.
As an illustration of this opinion we may cite that in the account of the
disbursements of the Committee of Safety, 1660, a political _jeu d'esprit_
which preceded the Restoration, we find entered for Lady Lambert--
"Item, for seven new whisks lac'd with Flanders lace of the last Edition,
each whisk is valued at fifty pound, £350."
Followed up by--
"Six new Flanders lac'd smocks, £300."
The whisk, as the gorget was now termed, was as great an object of
extravagance to the women as was the falling band to the men. It continued
in fashion during the reign of Charles II., and is often mentioned as lost
or stolen among the advertisements in the public journals of the day. In
the _Mercurius Publicus_, May 8th, 1662, we find: "A cambric whisk with
Flanders lace, about a quarter of a yard broad, and a lace turning up about
an inch broad, with a stock in the neck, and a strap hanging down before,
was lost between the new Palace and Whitehall. Reward, 30_s_." Again, in
_The Newes_, June 20th, 1664: "Lost, a Tiffany whisk, with a great lace
down, and a little one up, large Flowers, and open Work, with a Roul for
the head and Peak."
{335}CHAPTER XXV.
CHARLES II. TO THE HOUSE OF HANOVER.
----
CHARLES II.
"The dangling knee-fringe, and the bib-cravat."
--Dryden. _Prologue._ 1674.
The taste for luxury only required the restoration of the Stuarts to burst
out in full vigour.
The following year Charles II. issued a proclamation[980] enforcing the Act
of his father prohibiting the entry of foreign bone lace; but, far from
acting as he preached, he purchases Flanders lace at eighteen shillings the
yard, for the trimming of his fine lawn "collobium sindonis,"[981] a sort
of surplice worn during the ceremony of the anointment at the coronation.