180

HISTORY OF LACE.

CHAPTER XV.

ISLE DE FRANCE.-PAR IS (Df:r. Seine).

“ Quelle honre cst-il ?

Passe midi.

Qui vous l’adit?

Une petite souris.

Quo fait-elle ?

De la dentelle.

Pour qui ?

Ln reiue de Paris.”

Old Nursery Song.

Early in the seventeenth century, lace was extensively made inthe environs of Paris, at Louvres, Gisors, Villiers-le-Rel, Mont-morency, and other localities. Of this we have confirmation in awork 1 published 1634, in which, after commenting upon the sumsof money spent in Flanders for “ ouvrages et passemens, 2 tant depoint coupp6 que d’autres,” which the king had put a stop to bythe sumptuary law of 1633, the author says :—“ Pour empeschericelle despence, il y a toute l’Isle de France et autres lieux quisont remplis de plus de dix mille families dans lesquels les enfansde l’un et l’autre sexe, des l’age de dix ans ne sont instruits qu’ala manufacture desdits ouvrages, dont il s’en trouve d’aussi beauxet biens faits que ceux des etrangers ; les Espagnols, qui le sfavent,ne s’en foumissent ailleurs.”

Who first founded the lace-making of the Isle de France,it is difficult to say; a great part of it was in the hands of theHuguenots, leading us to suppose it formed one of the numerous‘•'industries” introduced or encouraged by Henry IV. and Sully.

1 “ Nouveau Keglement Ge'ueral suroutrcs sortes do Marcliandises et Manu-factures qui sont utiles et necessairesdans ce Royaumo etc., par M. loMarquis do la Gombordicro.” Paris, 1G34.In 8vo.

2 M. Fournier says that France wasat this time tributary to Flanders for

“passemens do fil,” very flue and deli-cately worked. Laffemas, in his “ Regle-nient General pour dresser les Manu-factures du Royaume, 1597,” estimatesthe annual cost of these “ passemens ” ofevery sort, silk stockings, &c., at S00,000crowns; Montchrestien, at above a mil-lion.