Then followed the Civil War and the Puritanical repression of luxuries and festivals, only to break out with renewed vigour under Charles II.

"In the Privy Garden saw the finest smocks and linnen petticoats of my Lady Castlemaine's, laced with rich lace at the bottom, that ever I saw; and it did me good to look at them."

"With cambric sleeves rich poynt to joyn

(For she despises Colbertine);

Twelve more for night, all Flanders laced,
Or else she'll think herself disgraced."

From which we learn that French laces were once more to the front, and continued under James II., with Point d'Espagne and de Venice. The English design seems to have deteriorated, as in 1680 a writer in a "Discourse upon Trade" says:"The manufacture of linen was once the huswifery of English ladies,' gentlewomen and other women"; but now "the huswifery employ themselves in making an ill sort of lace, which serves no national or natural necessity." It was Charles II. and his Parliament, passing acts prohibiting the importation of foreign laces, that brought about Brussels lace being called "Point d'Angleterre." Finding that the nobility would have Brussels point, they first got Flemish workers over, but the necessary flax could not be obtained in England to produce the finest quality of lace; a better expedient was found in smuggling over the required lace and calling it. "Point d'Angleterre," or "English Point." The name seems to have soon dropped out in England, but continued in France for many years.

William III. and Mary spent extensive sums on foreign laces, and their subjects followed suit. The laced Steinkirk became the rage among all classes, and the army boasted of large numbers of military dandies going campaigning in lace-trimmed suits. Extensive robberies of such easily-disposed-of valuables now took place, and many were the losses which fine ladies had to deplore. Queen Anne purchased

Flanders for her coronation, and in her reign we first hear of Brussels and "Macklin" points.

Under the House of Hanover lace continued one of the fashionable manias, Brussels being chiefly in request, till, under the latter part of George II.'s reign, a patriotic revival set in. In 1736, at the marriage of Frederick, Prince of Wales, the laces worn by the Court were of English make; and in 1750 the Society of the Anti-Gallicans was founded to encourage English manufactures, with a view of superseding the taste for foreign ones. Here again history is repeating itself in the present day in the many philanthropic endeavours to set the fashion in home productions. The Society referred to held meetings and distributed prizes for bone

and point lace, among other articles or home production, and it proved of great benefit to the lace trade during the many years it continued in activity. At one of its meetings the first prize for bone-lace was won by Mr. William Marriott, of Newport Pagnell, Bucks, and was allowed to be the best ever made in England. After this, Newport Pagnell became one of the towns most noted for good lace. Its neighbour, Stony Stratford, had before that time been quoted by Defoe as supplying the best adornment in that line for the tradesman's wife.

Owing to the prohibition of foreign laces and the strictness of the customs, smuggling, of course, became rampant. Ladies insisted upon having French laces. and the nobility on wearing foreign clothes. George III. ordered all the clothes worn at his sister's marriage in 1764 to be of English make. A few days beforehand the Custom House officials visited the Court milliner, and took away nearly all the stuffs and lace, since they were seen to be French importations. The French milliner is said to have returned with her fortune to her native land, and built herself a villa, calling it "La Folie des Dames Anglaises"! People were stopped in their coaches and relieved of their foreign lace; and many were the devices used to convey the precious fabric unobserved. Men wore lace as much as women, and made collections of ruffles and cravats with great pride; but, like all fashions when carried to an extravagant height, it was but climbing to fall "balch," to use an expressive old Northamptonshire word. From the introduction of the classic style of dress at the French Revolution lace fell into utter neglect and disrepute. Probably, however, the decline had set in previously, since we find the poet Cowper sending up a petition from his native town of Owldney on behalf of the lace makers, and saying that "hundreds in this little town are upon the point of starving." At so great a discount was the taste for lace that many choice collections were handed over to dependants as rubbish, and valuable pieces given to children to trim their dolls with!

At the beginning of this century, however, taste turned back to the rich fabrics and lace of preceding centuries. Old hoards and wardrobes were eagerly routed out, and English ladies once more wore their lace, till the pendulum of fashion swung again, and now has returned for this second revival in the nineteenth century.

PILLOW LACE MAKING.

Many people living in what were once the thriving lace districts know little of and care less for this languishing industry. Machinery and the desire of buying in the cheapest market have done their best to extinguish it altogether; but recently a few ladies have banded together to arrest the decay and revive the trade, in response to the growing appreciation of the superiority of well-made pillow lace over the monotonous yards turned out by the machines. Not only is everlasting wear to be obtained from hand-made lace, as is shown by the survival of what was so carefully made hundreds of years ago, but the designs exhibit much greater beauty and variety, since each "down" can be slightly varied in the pattern.

A "down" in Northamptonshire is the parchment pattern, generally about twelve inches long. In Buckinghamshire they have two "eachs," ten inches long, and putting one in front of the other so work round the pillow, which to many commends itself as a better plan than having one "down" and moving the lace back on reaching the end of the "down." The pillow is a hard round cushion, stuffed with straw and well hammered to make it hard for the bobbins to rattle on. It is then covered with the butcher-blue "pillow cloth" all over; a "lace cloth " of the same, for the lace to lie on, goes over the top; then follows the lace paper to pin it in as made, covered with the "lacing," which is a strip of

with words tattooed round in columns, and great pleasure is taken in having a nice collection of bobbins. The usual one is plain, turned wood, with coloured beads at the end for the necessary weight. The number used varies from twenty to five hundred, according to the width of pattern. The simple wheel used for winding the thread on to the bobbins is shown in one of the illustrations, where a girl is in the act of winding.

Very marvellous it is to the uninitiated to see the bobbins flying backwards and forwards under the hands of a skilled worker, almost faster than the eye can follow them. Owing to the quickness and facility required, it is necessary to learn when young if great proficiency is to be acquired. Till the middle of the century, in the lace-making districts, almost the only schools were the lace schools and there were several in most of the villages-where lace-making was the principal thing taught, and a little reading added. I am indebted to Mrs. Roberts of Spratton, near Northampton, for the following description, which she kindly allows me to reprint:

"The following are a few particulars of the old lace school for which this village was at one time famous. Indeed, it may be borne in mind that, owing to the great interest taken in education by a former squire and a former vicar, Spratton fifty years ago was far ahead of its neighbours in the matter of education; and the Spratton school, and Mr. Pridmore, the Spratton schoolmaster, with his somewhat VOL. VIII.-No. 35.

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