354

HISTORY OF LACE.

owner, had a label attached to it, “ Queen Elizabeth’s lace,” withthe tradition that it was made in commemoration of the defeat ofthe Spanish Armada. At this we beg to demur, as no similar lacewas made at that period; but we do not doubt its having beenmade in honour of that victory, for the building is decidedly oldTilbury Fort, familiar to all by the pencil of Stanfield. The laceis point d’Argentan, and was probably the handiwork of someEnglish lady, sent as a present to Queen Charlotte.

“ Since the Reformation the clothing trade declined,” writesDefoe, of Sherborne. “ Before 1700, making buttons, haberdasherywares, and bone laces employed a great many hands.” Otherauthors, such as Anderson, declare, at a far later date, Sherborneto carry on a good trade in lace, and how, up to 1780, muchblonde, both white and black, and of various colours, was madethere, of which a supply was sent to all markets.

The points of Lyme Regis rivalled, in the last century, thoseof Honiton and Blandford, and when the trade of the last-namedtown passed away, Lyme and Honiton laces held their own, sideby side, in the London market. The fabric of Lyme Regis, for aperiod, came more before the public eye, for that old, deserted, andhalf forgotten mercantile city, in the eighteenth century, once moreraised its head as a fashionable watering-place. Frizes wereawarded by the Anti-Gallican Society 6 to its townswomen forruffles of needle point and bone lace, and the reputation of thefabric reached even the court; for when Queen Charlotte firstset foot on English ground, she wore a head and lappets of Dorsetmanufacture. Some years later, a splendid lace dress was madefor her Majesty by the workers of Lyme. 7

The laces of Lyme, like all good articles, were expensive. Anarrow piece set quite plain round a cap would cost four guineas,nor were five guineas a yard considered an exorbitant price.

The making of such expensive lace being scarcely found remu-nerative, the trade gradually expired; and when the order for themarriage lace of H. M. Queen Victoria reached the southern coun-ties, not one lace-maker was to be found to aid in the work in theonce flourishing town of Lyme Regis.

• In 1752.

7 Roberts' “ Hist, of Lyme Regis.”