GEOItGE III.

331

value and richness of their points. The former at one timecommenced a history of lace, though what was the ultimate fateof the MS. the author is unable to state. The Countess of Bless-ington, at her death, left several chests filled with the finestantique lace of all descriptions.

The “dames du grande monde,” both in England and France,now began to wear lace. But, strange as it may seem, never atany period did they appear to so little advantage as during thecounter-revolution of the lace period. Lace was the fashion, andwear it somehow they would; though that somehow often gavethem an appearance, as the French say, “ du dernier ridicule,”simply from an ignorance displayed in the manner of arranging it.That lace was old seemed sufficient to satisfy all parties. Theycovered their dresses with odds and ends of all fabrics, withoutattention either to date or texture. We recollect one English ladyappearing at a ball given by the French embassy at Borne, boastingthat she wore on the tablier of her dress every description of lace,from point coupe, of the sixteenth, to Alenpon, of the eighteenthcentury. H. B. H. the Count of Syracuse was accustomed tosay : “ The English ladies buy a scrap of lace as a souvenir of everytown they pass through, till they reach Naples, they sew it on theirdresses, and make one grand toilette of the whole to honour ourfirst ball at the Academia Nobile.”

The taste for lace has again become universal, and the qualitynow produced renders it within the reach of all classes of society ;and though by some the taste may be condemned, it gives employ-ment to thousands and ten thousands of women, who find it moreprofitable and better adapted to their strength than the field labourwhich forms the occupation of the women in agricultural districts.To these last, in a general point of view, the lace-maker of oursouthern counties, who works at home in her own cottage, issuperior, both in education, refinement, and morality:—

“ Here the in edle plies its busy task;

The pattern grows, the well-depicted flower,Wrought patiently into the snowy lawn,

Unfolds its bosom; buds, and leaves, and sprigs,And curling tendrils, gracefully dispos’d,

Follow the nimble fingers of the fair—

A wreath that cannot fade, of flowers that blowWith most succ.ss when all besides decay.” u

C'owper, “The Winter Evening.'