ENGLAND TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.

259

the sum of 8 d.; this Lady Ancress, or Anchoress, being someworn-out old nun who, since the dissolution of the religious houses,eked out an existence by the art she had once practised within thewalls of her convent.

At the burial of King Edward VI., Sir Edward Waldgraveenters on his account a charge of fifty yards of gold passemenlace for garnishing the pillars of the church.

The sumptuary laws of Henry VIII. were again renewed byQueen Mary: 37 in them, ruffles made or wrought out of England,commonly called cutwork, are forbidden to any one under thedegree of a baron ; while to women of a station beneath that of aknight’s wife, all wreath lace or passeinent lace of gold and silverwith sleeves, partlet or linen trimmed with purles of gold andsilver, or whiteworks, alias cutworks, &c., made beyond the sea, isstrictly prohibited. These articles w'ere, it seems, of Flemishorigin, for among the New Year’s gifts presented to Queen Mary,1556, we find enumerated, as given by Lady Jane Seymour, “ afair smock of white work, 38 Flanders making.” Lace, too, is nowin more general use, for on the same auspicious occasion, Mrs.Penne, King Edward’s nurse, gave “ six handkerchers edged witlipassamayne of golde and silke.” 39 Two years previous to theseNew Y'ear’s gifts, Sir Thomas Wyatt is described as wearing, athis execution, “ on his head a faire hat of velvet, with broad bone-work lace about it.” 40

Lace now seems to be called indifferently “purle,” “passa-mayne,” “ bobbin-lace,” or “ bone-work,” the two first-mentionedterms occurring most frequently. The origin of this last ap-pellation is generally stated to have been derived from the customof using sheep’s trotters previous to the invention of woodenbobbins. Fuller so explains it, and the various dictionaries havefollowed his theory.

The employing anything so heavy and cumbersome as sheeps’trotters for bobbins, of which some 300 to 400 are used on apillow, is perfectly absurd. More simple to suppose the bobbins

31 1 & 2 Ph. & Mary.

38 “ White workappears also amongQueen Elizabeth’s New Year’s gifts:—

“ 1578. Lady Ratcliff. A veil ofwhite work, with spangles and small bonelace of silver. A swete bag, being ofchangeable silk, with a small bone laceof gold.

“ 158D. Lady Shandowes (Chandos).A cushion cloth of lawne wrought withwhitework of branches and trees, edgedwith bone work, wrought with crowns.”—Nichols' Royal Progresses.

“ Roll of New Year’s Gifts, 1556.

,0 Stowe, “Queen Mary,” an. 1551.