352

HISTORY OP LACE.

of lace-making; three separate towns, in their day—Blandford,Sherborne, and Lyme Regis—disputing the palm of excellence fortheir productions.

Of Blandford the earliest mention we find is in Owen’s “ MagnaBritannia” of 1720, where he states: “ The manufacture of thistown was heretofore ‘band-strings,’ which were once risen to agreat price, but now times hath brought both bands tbemselvesand their strings out of use, and so the inhabitants have turnedtheir hands to making straw works and bone lace, which perhapsmay come to nothing, if the fickle humour of fashionmongers taketo wearing Flanders lace.”

Only four years later, Defoe writes of Blandford:—“ This cityis chiefly famous for making the finest bone lace in England, andwhere they showed us some so exquisitely fine as I think I neversaw better in Flanders, France, or Italy, and which, they said,they rated above 307 sterling a yard; but it is most certain thatthey make exceeding rich lace in this county, such as no part ofEngland can equal.” In the edition of 1702, Defoe adds, “ Thiswas the state and trade of the town when I was there in my firstjourney ; but on June 4, 1731, the whole town, except twenty-sixhouses, was consumed by fire, together with the church.”

1’ostlethwayt, 3 Hutchins, 4 Lysons, and Knight (“ ImperialCyclopaedia ”), all tell the same story. Feuchet cites the Bland-ford laces as “ comparables a celles qu’on fait en Flandre (excepteBruxelles), en France et meme dans les Rtats de Venise;” andAnderson mentions Blandford as “ a well-built town, surpassingall England in fine lace.” More reliance is to be placed on thetwo last-named authorities than the former, who have evidentlycopied Defoe without troubling themselves to inquire more deeplyinto the matter.

It is generally supposed that the trade gradually declined afterthe great fire of 1731, when it was replaced by the manufacture ofbuttons, and no record of its former existence can be found amontrthe present inhabitants of the place. 5

3 “At Bland, on the Stour, betweenSalisbury and Dorchester, they made thefinest laee in England, valued at 301. peryard.”— Universal Diet, of Trade andCommerce, 1774.

4 “ Much bone luce was made here, andthe finest point in England, equal, if not

superior, to that of Flanders, and valued

at 301. per yard, till the beginning of thiscentury.”— Hutchins’ Ilist. of the Countyof Dorset, 2nd edit. 17011.

3 V> hat this celebrated point was, wecanuot ascertain. Two samplers sent tous ns Blandford point were of geometricpattern, resembling the sampler, ColouredPlate I, p. 19.