90

HISTORY OF LACE.

the Low Countries as her dower, 9 appears in her portraits (Fig. 48)most resplendent in lace, and her ruff rivals in size those of ourQueen Elizabeth, or Reine Margot.

But to return to our subject. Of the lace schools, there arenow nearly DUO, either in the convents or founded by privatecharity. At the age of five, small girls commence their apprentice-ship ; by ten, they earn their maintenance; and it is a pretty sight,an “ecole dentelliere,” the children seated before their pillows,twisting their bobbins with wonderful dexterity (Fig. 49).

in a tract of the seventeenth century, entitled “England's

Fig. 49.

A Belgian lace school.

Improvement by Sea and Land, to outdo the Butch withoutFighting,” 10 we have an amusing account of one of these establish-ments. “ Joining to this spinning school is one for maids weavingbone lace; and in all towns there are schools according to thebigness and multitude of the children. I will show you how theyare governed. First, there is a large room, and in the middlethereof a little box like a pulpit. Second, there are benches builtabout the room as they are in our playhouses. And in the box inthe middle of the room, the grand mistress, with a long white wand

9 Married, 1599, Albert, Archduke ofAustria.

19 By Andrew Yarrnnton, Gent. Lon-don, 1077. A proposal to erect schoolsfor teaching and improving the linenmanufacture as they do “ in Flandersand Holland, whero littte girls from sixyears old upwards learn to employ (heir

fingers.” Hadrianus Junius, a mostlearned writer, in his description of theNetherlands, highly extols the fineneedlework and linen called cambric ofthe Belgian nuns, which in whitenessrivals the snow, in texture satin, and inprice the sea-silk—Byssus, or beard ofthe Pinna.