110

HISTORY OF LACE.

is one of the prettiest laces imaginable. It is of a brilliant white,composed of pillow-made flowers united by “ barrettes,” or “bridesa picot.” It may be termed the Belgian Honiton, which lace itexactly resembles in workmanship. The patterns are larger, lessdelicate, and less firm, than those of the Devonshire product, butit is less costly. West Flanders has now a hundred and eightymanufactories and four hundred lace schools. Of these, 157 arethe property of religious communities, and number upwards of30,000 apprentices. 62

FLANDERS (EAST).

No traveller has passed through the city of Ghent, for the lasthundred years, without describing the Beguinage and its laceschool. “ The women,” writes the author of the “ Grand Tour,”1756, “number nigh 5000, go where they please, and employ theirtime in weaving lace.”

Savary cites the “ fausses Valenciennes,” which he declares toequal the real in beauty. They are, continues he, “ moins serrees,un peu moins solides, et un pen moins cheres.”

The best account, however, we have of the Ghent manufacturesis contained in a letter addressed to Sir John Sinclair by Mr. HeySchoulthem, in 1815. “ The making of lace,” he writes, “ at thetime the French entered the Low Countries, employed a con-siderable number of people of both sexes, and great activityprevailed in Ghent. The lace was chiefly for daily use; it wassold in Holland, France, and England. A large quantity of‘ sorted ’ laces of a peculiar quality were exported to Spain andthe colonies. It is to be feared that, after an interruption oftwenty years, this lucrative branch of commerce will be at anend: the changes of fashion have even reached the West Indiancolonists, whose favourite ornaments once consisted of Flemishlaces and fringes. 63 These laces were mostly manufactured in thecharitable institutions for poor girls, and by old women whose eyesdid not permit them to execute a finer work. As for the younggirls, the quality of these Spanish laces, and the facility of their

,J “L’lndu.-tiic di ntelliere beige, par sends “some Flanders lace of a goodli. v. <1. Dussen. Bruxelles, 18C0.” value,” ns a present to the wife and

•* Robinson Crusoe, when at Lisbon, daughter of his partuer in the Brazils.