20G

HISTORY OF LACE.

ARRAS (Artois; Dfcp. Pas-de-Cai,ais\

“ Arras of ryche arrnye,

Fresh as floures in Mayc.”

Shelton.

Arras, from the earliest ages, has been a working city. Hercitizens were renowned for the tapestries which bore their name:the nnns of her convents excelled in all kinds of needlework. Inthe history of the Abbaye du Viviter, 24 we are told how the abbess,Madame Sainte, dite la Sauvage, set the sisters to work ornamentsfor the church :—

“ Les filles dans I'ouvroir tons les jours assemblcesN’y paroissent pas moins que l’Abbesse zele'es,

Celle cy d’une aiguille ajuste au petit pointUn bel etuy d’autel quo l’eglise n’a point,

Broclie d'or 1 1 de soye un voile de Oaliee;

L’autre fait un tapis du point de haute lice,

Dont elle fait un rielie et precieux frontal;

Une autre coud une aube, ou fait un corporal;

Une autre une chasuble, ou cliappe nompareille,

Oil l’or, l'argent, la soye, arranges a merveille,

Representant des saints vestus plus richeraentQue leur eclat n’uuroit souffert de leur vivant;

L’autre do son Carrcau detachant la deutelle,

En orne les surplis de quelque aube nouvelle.”

Again, among the first rules of the institution of the “ Fillesde Sainte-Agnes,” in the same city, it is ordained that the girls“aprendront a filer ou coudre, faire passement, tapisseries ouchoses semblables.” 25

The Emperor Charles V. is said, however, to have first intro-duced the lace manufacture into Arras. 26 It flourished in theeighteenth century, when, writes Arthur Young, in 1788, weremade “ coarse thread laces, which find a good market in England.

84 “L’Abbaye du Vivier, etablie dansla Ville d’Arras, Poeme par le Pere DomMartin du Buisson,” in “Mcmoires etPieces pour servir h l’Histoire de la Villed’Arras.” Bib. Nat. MSS. Fonds Fran-cois, 8930.

85 Bib. Nat. MSS. Fonds Fran^aisi8930.

86 We find in the 11 Colbert Corre-

spondence” (1009) the directors of thegeneral hospital at Arras had enticedlace-workers of point de France, with aview to establish the manufacture in theirhospital, but the jealousy of the othercities threatening to overthrow theircommerce, they wrote to Colbert forprotection.