made in and about Honyton, and weekly returned to London.... Modern is the
use thereof in England, and that not exceeding the middle of the reign of
{402}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 livelihood thereby; not to say that it saveth some thousands of
pounds yearly, formerly sent over seas to fetch lace from Flanders."
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 preceding 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 time.
"The making of Bone-lace 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 in England who get their living by it, and earn by mere Labour
£500,000 a year, according to the lowest computation that can be made; and
the Persons employed on 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 last 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....
"... 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 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."[1143]
PLATE LXXXVIII.
[Illustration: ENGLISH, DEVONSHIRE. REPRODUCTIONS OF OLD HONITON WITH THE
VRAI RÉSEAU.--Made under Mrs. Fowler's direction. Widths about 4 inches.
Photo by A. Dryden.]
_To face page 402._
{403}Even in 1655, when the variety of points furnished matter for a letter
from the members of the Baptist Church assembled at Bridgewater, the
"Beleeven men," unwilling to injure so nourishing a commerce, merely
censure "points and more laces than are required on garments," and these
they desired might be proceeded against "with all sweetness and tenderness
and long-suffering."[1144] The conciliatory measures of the Puritans,
maybe, affected the trade less than the doing of Lord Cambury and Lord
Churchill's dragoons in the suppression of Monmouth's rebellion in 1680, by
which time the lace-making art was carried on in many small country places
in Devon. They pillaged the lace-makers right and left, and, when quartered
at Colyton,[1145] these unruly soldiers broke into the house of one William
Bard, a dealer in bone lace, and there stole merchandise to the amount of
£325 17s. 9d.[1146]
"The valuable manufactures of lace, for which the inhabitants of Devon have
long been conspicuous, are extending now from Exmouth to Torbay,"[1147]
writes Defoe in 1724. {404}These must, however, have received a check as
regards the export trade, for, says Savary, who wrote about the same date,
"Depuis qu'on imite les dentelles nommées point d'Angleterre en Flandres,
Picardie et Champagne, on n'en tire plus de Londres pour la France."
Great distress, too, is said to have existed among the Honiton lace-makers
after the two great fires of 1756 and 1767. The second was of so
devastating a character that the town had to be rebuilt. Shawe declares,
writing at the end of the eighteenth 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, 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."
[Illustration: Fig. 150.]
Three years previous to the Great Fire,[1148] among a number of premiums
awarded by the Anti-Gallican Society for the encouragement of our lace
trade, the first prize of fifteen guineas is bestowed upon Mrs. Lydia
Maynard, of Honiton, "in token of six pairs of ladies' lappets of
unprecedented beauty, exhibited by her." About this time we read {405}in
Bowen's _Geography_[1149] that at Honiton: "the people are chiefly employed
in the manufactory of lace, the broadest sort that is made in England, of
which great quantities are sent to London." "It acquired," says Lysons,
"some years since, the name of Bath Brussels lace."
To give a precise description of the earliest Devonshire lace would now be
impossible. The bone or bobbin lace at first consisted of a small and
simple imitation of the beautiful Venetian geometrical cut-works and
points, mere narrow strips made by coarse threads plaited and interlaced.
They became wider and more elaborate as the workers gained experience.
Specimens may be seen on two Devonshire monuments, though whether the lace
of the district is imitated on the effigies is another matter; in any case
similar patterns were probably made there at the time. One is on the
monument of Lady Pole, in Colyton Church, where the lady's cape is edged
with three rows of bone lace. The other, which is in excellent
preservation, is on the recumbent effigy of Lady Doddridge (a member of the
Bampfylde family) in Exeter Cathedral, her cuffs and tucker being adorned
with geometric lace of a good pattern. Both belong to the first part of the
seventeenth century.
In the same Cathedral is the monument of Bishop Stafford.[1150] His collar
appears to be of a net-work, embroidered in patterns of graceful design
(Fig. 151).
Belgium was noted for her linens and delicately spun flax. In consequence
the Flemings soon departed from the style of their Italian masters, and
made laces of their own fine threads. They worked out their own designs
also, and being great gardeners and fond of flowers, it naturally came
about that they composed devices of blossoms and foliage.
{406}[Illustration: Fig. 151.
MONUMENT OF BISHOP STAFFORD, EXETER CATHEDRAL.]
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 open-work stitches, substituted
heavy guipure bars. By this period "cordonnet" or "gimp" had come into use
in Brussels lace. The "_vrai réseau_" or pillow-net ground, succeeded the
"bride" about the end of the seventeenth century. This fashion enabled the
flowers to be made separately and worked in with the net afterwards, or
rather the net was worked into the flowers on the pillow. It was from the
introduction of these separate sprigs that Honiton lace was able to compete
with Brussels. The pattern in Fig. 153 is sewn on the plain pillow
ground,[1151] which was very beautiful and regular, but very expensive. It
was made of the finest thread procured from Antwerp, the market price of
which, in 1790, was £70 per pound,[1152] and an old lace-maker told the
author her father {407}had, during the war, paid a hundred guineas a pound
to the smugglers for this highly-prized and then almost unattainable
commodity.
Nor were the lace-worker's gains less remunerative. She would receive as
much as eighteen shillings a yard for the workmanship alone of a piece of
this elaborate net, measuring scarce two inches in width;[1153] and one of
the old lace-dealers showed Mrs. Treadwin a piece of ground eighteen inches
square, for the making of which she was paid fifteen pounds shortly before
the establishment of the machine net manufacture.[1154] The price of lace
was proportionately high. A Honiton veil would often cost a hundred
guineas.
[Illustration: Fig. 152.
MONUMENT OF LADY DODDRIDGE. + 1614. (Exeter Cathedral.)]
The Flemish character of Fig. 158 is unmistakable. The {408}design of the
flower vase resembles those of the old Angleterre à bride, and in execution
this specimen may fairly warrant a comparison with the productions of
Brabant. If really of English make, we should place its fabrication at the
beginning of the eighteenth century, for it was long before the Devonshire
lace-makers could rival in beauty the "cordonnet" of the Flemish workers.
Fig. 154 is an example of the pattern worked in the favourite design of the
butterfly and the acorn, already familiar to us in the old point
d'Angleterre and in the smock of Queen Elizabeth.
[Illustration: Fig. 153.]
The American War had an evil effect upon the lace trade, and still worse
was the French Revolution, which was followed by the fashion of classical
dress. Lace became no longer necessary to a lady's wardrobe, and the demand
for it declined to a serious extent for the workers. Worse than these,
however, was the introduction of the machine net, the first factory being
set up at Tiverton in 1815. Lysons writes shortly afterwards in 1822: "The
manufactory of lace has much declined, although the lace still retains its
superiority. Some years ago, at which time it was much patronised by the
Royal family, the manufacturers of Honiton employed 2,400 hands in the town
and in the neighbouring villages, but they do not now employ above 300."
For twenty years the lace trade suffered the greatest depression, and the
Honiton lace-workers, forsaking the designs of their forefathers,
introduced a most hideous set of patterns, designed, as they said, "out of
their own heads." "Turkey tails," "frying pans," "bullocks' hearts," and
the most senseless sprigs and borderings took the place of the graceful
compositions of the old school. Not a leaf, not a flower was copied from
nature. Anxious to introduce a purer taste, Queen Adelaide, to whom a
petition had been sent on behalf of the distressed lace-makers, gave the
order for a dress to be made of Honiton sprigs,[1155] and commanded that
the flowers should all be copied from nature. The order was executed by
Mrs. Davey, of Honiton. The skirt was encircled with a wreath of elegantly
designed sprigs, the initial of each flower forming the name of her
Majesty.[1156]
[Illustration: Fig. 154.
OLD DEVONSHIRE.
_To face page 408._]
{409}The example of the Queen found new followers, and when, in the
progress of time, the wedding lace was required for Queen Victoria, it was
with difficulty the necessary number of workers could be obtained to make
it. It was undertaken by Miss Jane Bidney, who caused the work to be
executed in the small fishing hamlet of Beer[1157] and its environs. The
dress cost £1,000. It was composed entirely of Honiton sprigs, connected on
the pillow by a variety of open-work stitches; but the patterns were
immediately destroyed, so it cannot be described.
The bridal dresses of their Royal Highnesses the Princess Royal, the
Princess Alice, and the Princess of Wales were all of Honiton point, the
patterns consisting of the national flowers, the latter with prince's
feathers intermixed with ferns, and introduced with the most happy effect.
The application of Honiton sprigs upon bobbin net has been of late years
almost entirely superseded by the modern guipure (Fig. 155). The sprigs,
when made, are sewn upon a piece of blue paper, and then united either on
the pillow by "cut-works" or "purlings," or else joined with the needle by
various stitches--lacet point, réseau, cut-work, and buttonhole stitch (the
most effective of all). Purling is made by the yard. The Honiton guipure
has an original character almost unique. The large pieces surpass in
richness and {410}perfection any lace of the same kind made in Belgium. The
reliefs are embroidered with the greatest delicacy, and the beauty of the
workmanship is exquisite; and whereas the guipure applications of Belgium
require to be whitened with lead, the Honiton workers give up their lace in
all its original brilliancy and whiteness.[1158] The fault in the Honiton
lace has been its crowded and spiritless designs, but in these great
improvement was manifested in the Exhibition of 1867.
Captain Marryat took much pains during a residence at Sidmouth to procure
for the lace-makers new patterns of flowers, insects, and other natural
objects. The younger members of the community accepted with gratitude these
new patterns, and one even reproduced a piece of braidwork in imitation of
Spanish point, and also a collar from Vecellio's book, in a manner most
creditable to her ingenuity. In consequence of this movement, some
gentlemen connected with the Bath and West of England Society[1159]
proposed that an exhibition should take place at the Annual Agricultural
Show, held at Clifton, of Honiton lace, "designs strictly after nature."
Prizes to the amount of £100 were given. The exhibition was most
successful. Queen Victoria expressed a desire that the articles exhibited
should be sent to Windsor for her inspection, and graciously commanded that
two flounces with a corresponding length of trimming lace should be made
for her. A design executed by Miss Cecilia Marryat having been approved of
by her Majesty, the order for the lace was given to Mrs. Hayman, of
Sidmouth. (Fig. 156 is from one of the honeysuckle sprigs selected.)
[Illustration: Fig. 155.
HONITON GUIPURE.
_To face page 410._]
{411}The Honiton lace-makers show great aptitude in imitating the Brussels
designs, and[1160] through the efforts of Mrs. Treadwin have succeeded in
reproducing the ancient lace in the most wonderful manner. Fig. 158 is a
lappet in the Brussels style shown in the International Exhibition of 1874.
Mrs. Treadwin produced admirable specimens after the pillow-made lace of
Genoa and Flanders, and also a reproduction of the Venetian point in
relief.
[Illustration: Fig. 156.
HONEYSUCKLE SPRIG OF MODERN HONITON.]
A new branch of industry has lately opened to the Devonshire
lace-maker--that of restoring or re-making old lace. The splendid mantles,
tunics, and flounces which enrich the shop-windows of the great
lace-dealers of London are mostly concocted from old fragments by the
Devonshire lace-workers. It is curious to see the ingenuity they display in
re-arranging the "old rags"--and such they are--sent from London for
restoration. Carefully cutting out the {412}designs of the old work, they
sew them upon a paper pattern of the shape required. The "modes," or fancy
stitches, are dexterously restored, any deficient flower supplied, and the
whole joined together on the pillow.
[Illustration: Fig. 157.
OLD DEVONSHIRE POINT.]
TROLLY LACE.
Trolly lace comes next in order. It was quite different from anything else
made in Devonshire, and resembled many of the laces made in the midlands at
the present time. It was made of coarse British thread, and with heavier
and larger bobbins, and worked straight on round and round the pillow. The
origin of "Trolly" 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 during the eighteenth century. The origin of "trolly"
is from the Flemish "Trolle Kant," where the design was outlined with a
thick thread, or, possibly, it may be derived from a corruption of the
French _toilé_, applied to distinguish a flat linen pattern from the ground
or _treille_, a general term for a net ground. It is now almost extinct in
Devonshire, remaining in the hands of the midland counties,[1161] where it
more properly belongs.[1162]
[Illustration: Fig. 158.
LAPPET MADE BY THE LATE MRS. TREADWIN, OF EXETER, 1864.
_To face page 412._]
{413}Trolly lace was not the work of women alone. In the flourishing days
of its manufacture, every boy, until he had attained the age of fifteen,
and was competent to work in the fields, attended the lace schools
daily.[1163] A lace-maker of Sidmouth, in 1869, had learned her craft at
the village dame school,[1164] in company with many boys. The men,
especially the sailor returned from sea, would again resume the employment
of their boyhood, in their hours of leisure, and the labourer, seated at
his pillow on a summer's evening, would add to his weekly gains.
Mrs. Treadwin, in her younger days, saw some twenty-four men lace-makers in
her native village of Woodbury, two of whom, Palmer by name, were still
surviving in 1869, and one of these worked at his pillow so late as 1820.
Captain Marryat also succeeded in finding out a man of sixty, one James
Gooding, dweller in Salcombe parish, near Sidmouth, who had in his day been
a lace-maker of some reputation. "I have made hundreds of yards in my
time," he said, "both wide and narrow, but never worked regularly at my
pillow after sixteen years of age." Delighted to exhibit the craft of his
boyhood, he hunted out his patterns, {414}and, setting to work, produced a
piece of trolly edging, which soon found a place in the albums of sundry
lace-collecting ladies, the last specimen of man-worked lace likely to be
fabricated in the county of Devon.[1165]
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. 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 sixpence a week for
a time and had their own lace, then threepence, and so on, according to the
amount of teaching they still required. The young children went first from
ten to twelve in the morning, to accustom them to work by degrees. At
Honiton the full hours were from eight to eight in the summer and in the
depth of winter, but in the spring and autumn less, on account of the
light, as candles were begun only on September 3rd--Nutting day--till
Shrovetide. The old rhyme runs:--
"Be the Shrovetide high or low,
Out the candle we will blow."
At Sidbury it was _de rigueur_ that directly a young girl married, however
young, she wore a cap, but till then the lace-makers were famous for the
beautiful dressing of their hair. When school began they stood up in a
circle to read the "verses." If any of them 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; but all these are now things of the past.
[Illustration: Fig. 159.
VENETIAN RELIEF IN POINT.--Reproduced by the late Mrs. Treadwin.
_To face page 414._]
{415}Speaking of the occupation of lace-making, Cooke, in his _Topography
of Devon_, observes: "It has been humanely remarked as a melancholy
consideration that so much health and comfort are sacrificed to the
production of this beautiful though not necessary article of decoration.
The sallow complexion, the weakly frame and the general appearance of
languor and debility of the operatives, are sad and decisive proofs of the
pernicious nature of the employment. The small unwholesome rooms in which
numbers of these females, especially during their apprenticeship, are
crowded together are great aggravations of the evil." He continues at some
length, as indeed do many writers of the eighteenth century, to descant on
this evil, but times are changed, sanitary laws and the love of fresh air
have done much to remedy the mischief.[1166] The pillows, too, are raised
higher than formerly, by which means the stooping, so injurious to health,
is avoided. Old lace-makers will tell stories of the cruel severities
practised on the children in the dame schools of their day--of the length
of time they sat without daring to move from the pillow, of prolonged
punishments imposed on idle apprentices, and other barbarities, but these
are now tales of the past.[1167]
Ever since the Great Exhibition of 1851 drew attention to the industry,
different persons have been trying to encourage both better design and
better manufacture, but {416}the majority of the people have sought a
livelihood by meeting the extensive demand for cheap laces. Good patterns,
good thread, and good work have been thrown aside, the workers and small
dealers recking little of the fact that they themselves were ruining the
trade as much as the competition of machinery and machine-made lace, and
tarnishing the fair name of Honiton throughout the world, among those able
to love and appreciate a beautiful art. Fortunately there are some to lead
and direct in the right path, and all honour must be given to Mrs.
Treadwin, who started reproducing old laces. She and her clever workers
turned out the most exquisite copies of old Venetian rose point,
Valenciennes, or Flemish. Her successor, Miss Herbert, carries it on; and
while we have Mrs. Fowler and her school at Honiton, and Miss Radford at
Sidmouth, it would be easier to say what the heads and hands of the Devon
lace-workers could not do than to enumerate the many beautiful stitches and
patterns they achieve; needlepoint or pillow, tape guipure or _vrai
réseau_--there are able fingers to suit all tastes.[1168]
Mrs. Fowler, of Honiton, has made a spirited attempt to teach some young
people.[1169] She employs women and girls all the year round, who work
under the Factory Acts. The girls are taught needlework in addition, and to
put together the sprigs made by the out-workers, the arrangement of which
requires great taste and careful superintendence. The County Council grants
courses of lessons in various places, some for all ages, others for
children.[1170] The Italian laces made at Beer is a new branch, established
by Miss Bowdon, and ably carried on by Miss Audrey Trevelyan of Seaton.
This Italian lace is made entirely on the pillow, and the way in which the
women of Beer have picked up the stitches and mode of making speaks volumes
for their skilfulness and adaptability. There are still a good number of
workers left in this most picturesque village.[1171]
PLATE LXXXIX.
[Illustration: ENGLISH, DEVONSHIRE. MADE AT BEER FOR THE PARIS EXHIBITION
OF 1900.--Miss A. Trevelyan adapted an Italian design to the old Honiton
stitches.]
_To face page 416._
{417}A beautiful county and a beautiful art have come down to us hand in
hand. Let us do our best to prevent the one being marred and the other
lost, and keep them both together to be a joy and a pleasure for all time.
JAPAN.
The versatile Japanese have copied the Honiton method of making bobbin
lace. The Government have encouraged a school at Yokohama for pillow lace
making, under the supervision of an English lady, where they turn out lace
of a distinctive Japanese character.
{418}CHAPTER XXXIII.
SCOTLAND.
"With the pearlin above her brow."--Old Scotch Song.
"Pearlin-lace as fine as spiders' webs."--_Heart of Midlothian._
From her constant intercourse with France, lace must have been early known
in Scotland.