other side of the Atlantic, where, says a writer of the eighteenth
century, "very much fine lace was made in Long Island by the
Protestant settlers."
[1100] See Chap. XXII.
[1101] The richly-laced corporax cloths and church linen are sent to be
washed by the "Lady Ancress," an ecclesiastical washerwoman, who is
paid by the churchwardens of St. Margaret's, Westminster, the sum of
8d.; this Lady Ancress, or Anchoress, being some worn-out nun, who,
since the dissolution of the religious houses, eked out an existence
by the art she had once practised within the convent.
[1102] In 1753 prizes were awarded for 14 pairs of curious needlework point
ruffles.
[1103] One society confers a prize of ten guineas upon a "gentlewoman for
an improvement in manufacture by finishing a piece of lace in a very
elegant manner with knitting-needles."
[1104] The lace of the three counties is practically equal--that is, it is
all made in a similar fashion, and the same patterns are met with in
each county. The "point" or "net" ground is met with in all, and
worked level with the pattern in the same way with bobbins.
[1105] Who fled from the Alva persecutions, and settled, first at Cranfield
in Bedfordshire, then at Buckingham, Stoney Stratford, and
Newport-Pagnel, whence the manufacture extended gradually over
Oxford, Northampton, and Cambridge. Many Flemish names are still to
be found in the villages of Bedfordshire.
[1106] Queen Katherine died 1536.
[1107] She retired to Ampthill early in 1531 while her appeal to Rome was
pending, and remained there till the summer of 1533.
[1108] Lace of the heavy Venetian point was already used for ecclesiastical
purposes, though scarcely in general use. The earliest known
pattern-books date from fifteen years previous to the death of
Katherine (1536).
[1109] Dr. Nicolas Harpsfield. Douay, 1622. (In Latin.)
Again we read that at Kimbolton "she plied her needle, drank her
potions, and told her beads."--_Duke of Manchester. Kimbolton
Papers._
[1110] A lady from Ampthill writes (1863): "The feast of St. Katherine is
no longer kept. In the palmy days of the trade both old and young
used to subscribe a sum of money and enjoy a good cup of Bohea and
cake, which they called 'Cattern' cake. After tea they danced and
made merry, and finished the evening with a supper of boiled stuffed
rabbits smothered with onion sauce." The custom of sending about
Cattern cakes was also observed at Kettering, in Northamptonshire.
[1111] _Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain_, by a Gentleman. 3
vols. 1724-27. Several subsequent editions of Defoe were published,
with additions, by Richardson the novelist in 1732, 1742, 1762,
1769, and 1778. The last is "brought down to the present time by a
gentleman of eminence in the literary world."
[1112] _Magna Britannia et Hibernia, or a New Survey of Great Britain,
collected and composed by an impartial hand_, by the Rev. Thos.
Owen. Lond. 1720-31.
[1113] State Papers Dom. Jac. I. Vol. 142. P. R. O.
[1114] Savary and Peuchet.
[1115] _Worthies._ Vol. i., p. 134.
[1116] _Magna Britannia_, Daniel and Samuel Lysons. 1806-22.
[1117] Describing the "lace and edgings" of the tradesman's wife, she has
"from Stoney Stratford the first, and Great Marlow the last."--_The
Complete English Tradesman_, Dan. Defoe. 1726.
[1118] Edition 1762.
[1119] In _Sheahan's History of Bucks_, published in 1862, the following
places are mentioned as being engaged in the industry:--"Bierton
(black and white lace), Cuddington, Haddenham, Great Hampden,
Wendover, Gawcott (black), Beachampton, Marsh Gibbon, Preston
Bisset, Claydon, Grendon, Dorton, Grandborough, Oving (black and
white), Waddesdon, Newport-Pagnell, Bletchley, Hopton, Great
Horwood, Bon Buckhill, Fenny Stratford, Hanslope (where 500 women
and children are employed--about one-third of the population),
Levendon, Great Sandford, Loughton, Melton Keynes, Moulsoe, Newton
Blossomville, Olney, Sherrington, and the adjoining villages, Stoke
Hammond, Wavendon, Great and Little Kimble, Wooleston, Aston Abbots,
Swanbourne, Winslow, Rodnage."
[1120] _The Voyage to Great Britain of Don Manuel Gonzales, late Merchant
of the City of Lisbon._--"Some say Defoe wrote this book himself; it
is evidently from the pen of an Englishman."--_Lowndes'
Bibliographers' Manual._ Bohn's Edition.
[1121] _Annual Register._
[1122] See _Britannia Depicta_, by John Owen, Gent. Lond. 1764, and others.
[1123] In 1785 there appears in the _Gentleman's Magazine_* "An essay on
the cause and prevention of deformity among the lace-makers of Bucks
and North Hants," suggesting improved ventilation and various other
remedies long since adopted by the lace-working population in all
countries.
* In 1761 appeared a previous paper, "to prevent the effects of
stooping and vitiated air," etc.
[1124] _Dict. of Commerce._
[1125] In Flanders also these glasses were made and used. The "mediæval
'ourinals' are alike the retorts of the alchemist and the
water-globes of the poor Flemish flax-thread spinners and lace
makers." _Old English Glasses._ A. Hartshorne.
[1126] The larger pins had heads put to them with seeds of _galium_ locally
called Hariffe or goose-grass; the seeds when fingered became hard
and polished.
[1127] Bobbins are usually made of bone, wood or ivory. English bobbins are
of bone or wood, and especially in the counties of Bedford, Bucks,
and Huntingdon, the set on a lace pillow formed a homely record of
their owner's life. The names of her family, dates and records,
births and marriages and mottoes, were carved, burnt, or stained on
the bobbin, while events of general interest were often commemorated
by the addition of a new bobbin. The _spangles_, _jingles_ (or
_gingles_) fastened to the end of the bobbin have a certain
interest; a waistcoat button and a few coral beads brought from
overseas, a family relic in the shape of an old copper seal, or an
ancient and battered coin--such things as these were often attached
to the ring of brass wire passed through a hole in the bobbin. The
inscriptions on the bobbins are sometimes burned and afterwards
stained, and sometimes "pegged" or traced in tiny leaden studs, and
consist of such mottoes as "Love me Truley" (_sic_), "Buy the Ring,"
"Osborne for Ever," "Queen Caroline," "Let no false Lover win my
heart," "To me, my dear, you may come near," "Lovely Betty," "Dear
Mother," and so forth.--R. E. Head. "Some notes on Lace-Bobbins."
_The Reliquary_, July, 1900.
[1128] Too much stress cannot be laid on the importance of using fine linen
thread. Many well-meant efforts are entirely ruined by the coarse
woolly cotton thread used for what ought to be a fine make of lace.
That good thread can be got in Great Britain is evident from the
fact that the Brussels dealers employ English thread, and sell it to
Venice for the exquisite work of Burano. Needless to say, no
Englishman has attempted to make a bid for the direct custom of the
8,000 lace-workers there employed.
[1129] Catalogue of lace (Victoria and Albert Museum).
[1130] _The Conversion and Experience of Mary Hurll', or Hurdle, of
Marlborough, a maker of bone lace in this town_, by the Rev. ----
Hughes, of that town.
[1131] Waylen's _History of Marlborough_.
[1132] "At Bland, on the Stour, between Salisbury and Dorchester, they made
the finest lace in England, valued at £30 per yard."--_Universal
Dict. of Trade and Commerce._ 1774.
[1133] "Much bone lace was made here, and the finest point in England,
equal, if not superior, to that of Flanders, and valued at £30 per
yard till the beginning of this century."--_Hutchins' Hist. of the
County of Dorset._ 2nd Edition, 1796.
[1134] What this celebrated point was we cannot ascertain. Two samplars
sent to us as Blandford point were of geometric pattern resembling
the samplar, Fig. 5.
[1135] In 1752.
[1136] Roberts' _Hist. of Lyme Regis_.
[1137] Burd, Genest, Raymunds, Brock, Couch, Gerard, Murck, Stocker,
Maynard, Trump, Groot, etc.
[1138] "We may rather infer that laces of silk and coarse thread were
already fabricated in Devonshire, as elsewhere; and that the
Flemings, on their arrival, having introduced the fine thread, then
spun almost exclusively in their own country, from that period the
trade of bone-lace-making flourished in the southern as well as in
the midland counties of England" (Mrs. Palliser, 1869).
[1139] Ker's _Synopsis_, written about the year 1561. Two copies of this
MS. exist, one in the library of Lord Haldon at Haldon House (Co.
Devon), the other in the British Museum. This MS. was never printed,
but served as an authority for Westcote and others.
[1140] "She was a daughter of John Flay, Vicar of Buckrell, near Honiton,
who by will in 1614 bequeaths certain lands to Jerom Minify (_sic_),
son of Jerom Minify, of Burwash, Sussex, who married his only
daughter."--Prince's _Worthies of Devon_. 1701.
Up to a recent date the Honiton lace-makers were mostly of Flemish
origin. Mrs. Stocker, _ob._ 1769; Mr. J. Stocker, + 1788, and four
daughters; Mrs. Mary Stocker, + 179-; Mr. Gerard, + 1799, and
daughter; Mrs. Lydia Maynard (of Anti-Gallican celebrity), + 1786;
Mrs. Ann Brock, + 1815; Mrs. Elizabeth Humphrey, + 1790, whose
family had been in the lace manufacture 150 years and more. The
above list has been furnished to the author by Mrs. Frank Aberdein,
whose grandfather was for many years in the trade. Mrs. Treadwin, of
Exeter, found an old lace-worker using a lace "Turn" for winding
sticks, having the date 1678 rudely carved on the foot, showing how
the trade was continued in the same family from generation to
generation.
[1141] _View of Devon._ T. Westcote.
[1142] Her bequest is called "Minifie's Gift."
[1143] Here follows the numbers of the people in a few places who get their
living by making lace. Among those quoted in Devonshire as
interesting to compare with the present day are:--
"Coumbraligh 65, Sidmont 302, Axmouth 73, Sidbury 321, Buckerall 90,
Farway 70, Utpotery 118, Branscombe Beare and Seaton 326, Honyton
1341, Axminster 60, Otery St. Mary, 814."
[1144] Church Book of the Baptist Chapel of Lyme Regis.
[1145] Colyton and Ottery St. Mary were among the first. Wherever the say
or serge decayed, the lace trade planted itself.
In the church of Colyton, under a fine canopied tomb, repose back to
back in most unsociable fashion the recumbent figures of Sir John
and Lady Pole. "Dame Elizabeth, daughter of Roger How, merchant of
London, ob. 1623," wears a splendid cape of three rows of bone lace
descending to the waist. Her cap is trimmed with the same material.
As this lace may be of Devonshire fabric, we give a wood-cut of the
pattern (Fig. 150).
Sundry Flemish names may still be seen above the shop-windows of
Colyton similar to those of Honiton--Stocker, Murch, Spiller,
Rochett, Boatch, Kettel, Woram, and others.
[1146] Don Manuel Gonzales mentions "bone lace" among the commodities of
Devon.
[1147] The lace manufacture now extends along the coast from the small
watering-place of Seaton, by Beer, Branscombe, Salcombe, Sidmouth,
and Ollerton, to Exmouth, including the Vale of Honiton and the
towns above mentioned.
[1148] 1753.
[1149] _Complete System of Geography._ Emanuel Bowen, 1747.
This extract is repeated verbatim in _England's Gazetteer_, by
Philip Luckombe. London, 1790.
[1150] Died 1398.
[1151] The best _réseau_ was made by hand with the needle, and was much
more expensive.
[1152] Mrs. Aberdein, of Honiton, informed Mrs. Palliser that her father
often paid ninety-five guineas per lb. for the thread from Antwerp
(1869).
[1153] The manner of payment was somewhat Phoenician, reminding one of
Queen Dido and her bargain. The lace ground was spread out on the
counter, and the worker herself desired to cover it with shillings;
and as many coins as found place on her work she carried away as the
fruit of her labour. The author once calculated the cost, after this
fashion, of a small lace veil on real ground, said to be one of the
first ever fabricated. It was 12 inches wide and 30 inches long,
and, making allowance for the shrinking caused by washing, the value
amounted to £20, which proved to be exactly the sum originally paid
for the veil. The ground of this veil, though perfect in its
workmanship, is of a much wider mesh than was made in the last days
of the fabric. It was the property of Mrs. Chick.
[1154] "The last specimen of 'real' ground made in Devon was the marriage
veil of Mrs. Marwood Tucker. It was with the greatest difficulty
workers could be procured to make it. The price paid for the ground
alone was 30 guineas" (1869).
[1155] With the desire of combining the two interests, her Majesty ordered
it to be made on the Brussels (machine-made) ground.
[1156] _A_MARANTH, _D_APHNE, _E_GLANTINE, _L_ILAC, _A_URICULA, _I_VY,
_D_AHLIA, _E_GLANTINE.
[1157] The workers of Beer, Axmouth, and Branscombe, have always been
considered the best in the trade.
[1158] Exposition Universelle de 1867. Rapport du Jury International,
"Dentelles," par Felix Aubry.
[1159] For the encouragement of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures, and
Commerce. The prizes were offered for the best Sprigs, Nosegays,
Borders for shawls, veils, or collars, Lappets, collars and cuffs,
Pocket-handkerchiefs, etc., "of good workmanship and design, worked
either in Flowers, Fruits, Leaves, or Insects, strictly designed
from nature." Three prizes were awarded for each description of
article. The Society also offered prizes for small application
sprigged veils, and for the best specimens of braidwork, in
imitation of Spanish point.
[1160] _Honiton Lace_, by Mrs. Treadwin. London, 1874. _Honiton
Lace-making_, by Devonia, London, 1874.
[1161] Lappets and scarfs were made of trolly lace from an early date. Mrs.
Delarey, in one of her letters, dated 1756, speaks of a "trolly
head." Trolly lace, before its downfall, has been sold at the
extravagant price of five guineas a yard.
[1162] "Fifty years since Devonshire workers still make a 'Greek' lace, as
they termed it, similar to the 'dentelles torchons' so common
through the Continent. The author has seen specimens of this fabric
in a lace-maker's old pattern-book, once the property of her mother"
(Mrs. Palliser, 1869).
[1163] Though no longer employed at lace-making, the boys in the schools at
Exmouth are instructed in crochet work (1869).
[1164] Of Otterton.
[1165] In Woodbury will be found a small colony of lace-makers who are
employed in making imitation Maltese or Greek lace, a fabric
introduced into Devon by order of her late Majesty the Queen Dowager
on her return from Malta. The workers copy these coarse geometric
laces with great facility and precision. Among the various cheap
articles to which the Devonshire workers have of late directed their
labours is the tape or braid lace, and the shops of the country are
now inundated with their productions in the form of collars and
cuffs (1869.)
[1166] The Honiton pillows are rather smaller than those for
Buckinghamshire lace, and do not have the multiplicity of starched
coverings--only three "pill cloths," one over the top, and another
on 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 pin-cushion is on one side,
and stuck into the pillow is the "needle-pin"--a large sewing needle
in a wooden handle, and for picking up loops through which the
bobbins are placed. The pillow has to be frequently turned round in
the course of the work, so that no stand is used, and it is rested
against a table or doorway; and 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.
The bobbins used in Honiton lace-making are delicately-fashioned
slender things of smooth, close-grained wood, their length averaging
about three and a half inches. They have no "gingles," and none of
the carving and relief inlayings of the Buckinghamshire and
Bedfordshire bobbins; but some of them are curiously stained with a
brown pigment in an irregular pattern resembling the mottlings of
clouded bamboo or those of tortoise-shell.
[1167] "The author has visited many lace-schools in Devon, and though it
might be desired that some philanthropist would introduce the infant
school system of allowing the pupils to march and stretch their
limbs at the expiration of every hour, the children,
notwithstanding, looked ruddy as the apples in their native
orchards; and though the lace-worker may be less robust in
appearance than the farm-servant or the Cheshire milkmaid, her life
is more healthy far than the female operative in our northern
manufactories" (1875).
[1168] "A good lace-maker easily earns her shilling a day, but in most
parts of Devonshire the work is paid by the truck system, many of
the more respectable shops giving one-half in money, the remaining
sixpence to be taken out in tea or clothing, sold often considerably
above their value. Other manufacturers--to their shame, be it
told--pay their workers altogether in grocery, and should the
lace-maker, from illness or any other cause, require an advance in
cash, she is compelled to give work to the value of fourteen-pence
for every shilling she receives. Some few houses pay their workers
in money" (1875).
[1169] Medals were won at the Chicago World's Fair for Devonshire lace by
Mrs. Fowler and Miss Radford, of Sidmouth. The latter has also
received the freedom of the City of London for a beautiful lace fan,
her sprigs being the finest and most exquisite models of flowers and
birds it is possible to produce in lace. A third medal was won by
the Italian laces at Beer.
[1170] Those held at Sidbury and Sidford are very successful, and the
children, ranging in age from, nine to fifteen, come regularly for
their "lace." It is interesting to watch the improvement in the work
of the "flys," the first lesson, and as a rule each child makes
forty to fifty before going on to anything further.
[1171] At Beer, where fishing is the staple industry, in bad fish seasons
the women can earn more than the men; and at Honiton in the hard
winter of 1895 the lace-makers kept themselves and their families,
and were spared applying for relief--all honour to their skill and
self-helpfulness.
[1172] "1539. Ane uther gowne of purpour satyne with ane braid pasment of
gold and silver," etc.
"Twa Spanye cloikis of black freis with ane braid pasment of gold
and silver."
"1542. Three peces of braid pasmentes of gold and
silver."--_Inventories of the Royal Wardrobe and Jewel House._
1488-1606. Edinb. 1815.
[1173] 1542. Same Inv.
[1174] In the Inv. of the Earl of Huntley, 1511-12, there is mention of
dresses "passamenté d'or."
[1175] Chap. X., note.
1537. James V. and Lord Somerville at Holyrood:--"Where are all your
men and attendants, my Lord?"
"Please, your Majesty, they are here"--pointing to the lace which
was on his son and two pages' dress. The King laughed heartily and
surveyed the finery, and bade him "Away with it all, and let him
have his stout band of spears again."
[1176] Croft's _Excerpta Antiqua_.
The Countess of Mar, daughter of the first Duke of Lennox and
granddaughter by her mother's side to Marie Touchet. She was
daughter-in-law to the preceptress of James VI., and in 1593 had the
honour, at the baptism of Prince Henry, of lifting the child from
his bed and delivering him to the Duke of Lennox. A portrait of this
lady, in the high Elizabethan ruff, and with a "forepart" and tucker
of exquisite raised Venice point, hung (circ. 1870) in the
drawing-room of the late Miss Katherine Sinclair.
[1177] "Une robe de velours vert couverté de Broderies, gimpeures, et
cordons d'or et d'argent, et bordée d'un passement de même.
"Une robe veluat cramoisi bandée de broderie de guimpeure d'argent.
"Une robe de satin blanc chamarrée de broderie faite de guimpeure
d'or.
"Id. de satin jaune toute couverte de broderye gumpeure, etc.
"Robe de weloux noyr semée de geynpeurs d'or."--_Inv. of
Lillebourg._ 1561.
[1178] "Chamarrée de bisette."--_Inv. of Lillebourg._ 1561.
"Ane rabbat of wolvin thread with passmentet with silver."
[1179] Chap. III.
[1180] See LACIS, Chap. II.
[1181] See NEEDLEWORK, Chap. I.
[1182] Her lace ruffs Mary appears to have had from France, as we may infer
from a letter written by Walsingham, at Paris, to Burleigh, when the
Queen was captive at Sheffield Castle, 1578: "I have of late granted
a passport to one that conveyeth a box of linen to the Queen of
Scots, who leaveth not this town for three or four days. I think
your Lordship shall see somewhat written on some of the linen
contained in the same, that shall be worth the reading. Her Majesty,
under colour of seeing the fashion of the _ruffes_, may cause the
several parcels of the linen to be held to the fire, whereby the
writing may appear; for I judge there will be some such matter
discovered, which was the cause why I did the more willingly grant
the passport."
[1183] In 1575.
[1184] There was some demur about receiving the nightcaps, for Elizabeth
declared "that great commotions had taken place in the Privy Council
because she had accepted the gifts of the Queen of Scots. They
therefore remained for some time in the hands of La Mothe, the
ambassador, but were finally accepted."--Miss Strickland.
[1185] "Inventaire of our Soveraine Lord and his dearest moder.
1578."--Record Office, Edinburgh.
[1186] _Records of Life_, by Miss H. Pigott. 1839.
[1187] Similar to the New Year's Gift of the Baroness Aletti to Queen
Elizabeth:--
"A veil of lawn cutwork flourished with silver and divers
colours."--Nichols' _Royal Progresses._
[1188] "Twa quaiffs ane of layn and uther of woving thread.
Ane quaiff of layn with twa cornettes sewitt with cuttit out werk of
gold and silver.
Twa pair of cornettes of layn sewitt with cuttit out werk of gold.
Ane wovin collar of thread passementit with incarnit and blew silk
and silver."--_Inv. of 1578._
[1189] "Ane rabbat of cuttit out werk and gold and cramoisie silk with the
handis (cuffs) thereof.
Ane rabbat of cuttit out werk of gold and black silk.
Ane rabbat of cuttit out werk with purpure silk with the handis of
the same."--_Ibid._
[1190] "Twa towell claiths of holane claith sewitt with cuttit out werk and
gold.
Four napkinnes of holane claith and cammaraye sewitt with cuttit out
werk of gold and silver and divers cullours of silk."--_Ibid._
[1191] Published by Prince Labanoff. "Recueil de Lettres de Marie Stuart."
T. vii., p. 247.
[1192] _Marriage Expenses of James VI._, 1589. Published by the Bannatyne
Club.
[1193] _Accounts of the Great Chamberlain of Scotland._ 1590.--Bannatyne
Club.
[1194] In 1581, 1597, and 1621.
[1195] The same privilege was extended to their wives, their eldest sons
with their wives, and their eldest daughters, but not to the younger
children.
[1196] 1633. In the _Account of Expenses for the young Lord of Lorne_, we
find:--
"2 ells Cambridg' at 8s. the ell for ruffles, 16s.
"2 ells of Perling at 30s., the uther at 33s. 4d., £3 3s.
4d."--Innes' _Sketches of Early Scotch History._
[1197] January, 1686.
[1198] "In 1701, when Mistress Margaret, daughter of the Baron of
Kilravock, married, 'flounced muslin and lace for combing cloths,'
appear in her outfit."--Innes' _Sketches_.