QUEEN ELIZABETH.
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lace, 8 in endless and to us, we must own, most incomprehensiblevariety.
The “ Surtees Wills and Inventories ” add to our list the laces ofWaborne 6 and many others. Lace was no longer confined to thecourt and high nobility, hut, as these inventories show, it hadalready found its way into the general shops and stores of theprovincial towns. In that of John Johnston, merchant, of Dar-lington, already cited, we have 12 yards of “ loom ” lace, value 4s.,black silk lace, “ statute ” lace, &c., all mixed up with entries ofpepper, hornbooks, sugar-candy, and spangles. About the samedate, in the inventory taken after the death of James Backhouse,of Kirby-in-Lonsdale, are found enumerated “ In y® great shoppe,”thread lace at 16s. per gross; 4 dozen and 4 “ pyrled ” lace, 4s.; 4quarterns of “statching ” (stitching or seaming?) lace; lace edging;crown lace; hollow lace; copper lace; gold and silver “ chean ”(chain) lace, &c. This last-mentioned merchant’s store appearsto have been one of the best-furnished provincial shops of theperiod. That of John Farbeck, of Durham, mercer, taken thirtyyears later, adds to our list 78 yards of velvet lace, coloured silk“ chayne ” lace, “ coorld ” lace, petticoat lace, all cheek by jowlwith “ Venys ” gold and turpentine.
To follow the “ stitches ” and “ works ” quoted in the wardrobeaccounts of Elizabeth—all made out in Latin, of which wesincerely trust, for the honour of Ascham, the queen herself wasguiltless—would be but as the inventory of a haberdasher’s shop.
We have white stitch, “opus ret’ alb,” of which she had akirtle, “ pro le hemmynge et edginge ” of which, with “ laqueo
the craft of making byllament lace;”Rich. Thomas, Dutch, “a worker ofBillament lace.”
In 1573, a country g. ntleman, by hiswill dejiosited in the Prerogative Court ofCanterbury (I! ray ley and Britton’s“ Graphic Illustrations ”) bequeaths ;“ To my son Tyble my abort gown facedwith wolfskin and laid with Billementslace.”
In John Johnston’s shop, we have :“3 doz. of velvet Billemunt lace, 12«.”In that of John Farbeck, 9 yards of thesame. (“ Surtees Wills and Inv.”)Widow Chapman of Newcastle’s inven-tory, 1533, contains; “One old cassock
of broad cloth, with billements lace, 10s.”—Ibid.
5 95 dozen rich silver double dimnondand cross laces occur also iu the “ Extra-ordinary Expenses for Prince Charles’sJourney to Spain,” 1623. P. R. O.
6 “ 1571. In y' Great Shop, 8 peces of‘waborne ’ lace, 16d .”—Mr John Wilkin-son's Goods, of Newcastle, Merchant.
“ 1580. 100 Gross and a half of ‘ wa-borne ’ lace.”— Inv. of Cuthbert Ellyson.
1519, John do Tronch, Abbot of Kil-mainham Priory, is condemned to pay 100marks fine for detaining 2 lbs. of Wabornethread, value 3s., and other articles, theproperty of W. Sacy.