CHARLES I.

295

had requested her to procure him some fine bone lace of Englishmake:—“ The present for the Queen of France I will be careful toprovide, but it cannot be handsome for that proportion of moneywhich you do mention ; for these bone laces, if they be good, aredear, and I will send the best, for the honor of my nation and myown credit."’

Referring to the same demand, the countess again writes toher lord, ISth May 1637:—“ Leicester House.—All my present forthe Queen of France is provided, which I have done with greatcare and some trouble; the expenses I cannot yet directly tell you,but I think it will be about 120 1 ., for the bone laces are extremelydear. I intend to send it by Monsieur Ruvigny, for most of thethings are of new fashion, and I should keep them, they would beless acceptable, for what is new now will quickly grow common,such things being sent over almost every week.”

We can have no better evidence of the improvement in theEnglish lace manufacture than these two letters.

An act of 1638 for reforming abuses in the manufacture oflace, by which competent persons are appointed, whether nativesor strangers, “ who should be of the Church of England,” canscarcely have been advantageous to the community.

Lace, since the Reformation, had disappeared from the garmentof the Church. In the search warrants made after Jesuits andpriests of the Roman faith, it now occasionally peeps out. In aninventory of goods seized at the house of some Jesuit priests atClerkenwell, in 1627, we find—“ One faire Alb of cambric, withneedle worke purles about the skirt, necke, and bamles.”

Smuggling, too, had appeared upon the scene. In 1621,information is laid how Nicholas Peeter, master of the “Grey-hound, of Apsom,” had landed at Dover sundry packets of “ cut-workes ” and bone laces without paying the customs. 69

Hut the

“ Ilebntoes, ribbands, cuffs, ruffs, falls,

Scarfes, leathers, fans, raaskes, muffs, luces, cauls,” 78

of King Charles’s court were soon to disperse at the now outbreak-ing revolution. The Herrn Maior Frau (Lady Mayoress), the

secretly brought into the monastery. TheAbbess (“ Vie de la Mere d’Arbousc ”)declared that this same casket came fromthe Queen of England, and that it onlycontained lace, ribbons, and other trim-mings of English fashion, sent by Hen-

lietfa Maria as a present to the Queen.“G'alerie de rAneienno Cour,” 1791.

80 “State Papers, Dom.” vol. exxiii.No.

18 “ Khodon and Iris, a Pastoral,”

1031 .