358

HISTORY OF LACE.

broke into the house of one William Bard, a dealer in bonelace, and there stole merchandise to the amount of 325Z. 17s. 9 d. u

“ The valuable manufactures of lace, for which the inhabitantsof Devon have long been conspicuous, are extending now fromExmouth to Torbay,” 12 writes Defoe in 1724. These must, how-ever, have received a check as regards the export trade, for, saysSavary, who wrote about the same date:—“ Depuis qu’on imiteles dentelles nominees point d’Angleterre en Flandre, Picardie etChampagne, on n’en tire plus de Londres pour la France.”

Great distress, too, is said to have existed among the Honitonlace-makers after the two great fires of 1756 and 1767, which con-sumed a considerable part of their town. Three years previous tothis calamity, among a number of premiums awarded by the Anti-Gallican Society 13 for the encouragement of our lace trade, thefirst prize of fifteen guineas is bestowed upon Mrs. Lydia Maynard,of Honiton, “in token of six pairs of ladies’ lappets of unpre-cedented beauty, exhibited by her.” About this time we read inBowen’s “ Geography ” u that at Honiton “ the people are chiefiy

seen above the shop-windows of Colyton, Mtirch, Spiller. Rochett, Boatcli, Ketlel,similar to those of Honiton: Stocker, Woram, and others.

Fig. 13G.

Monument of Lady Pole. + 1623. Colyton Church.

Mfei

£VS.<

11 Don Manuel Gonzales mentions“ bone lace ” among the commodities ofDevon.

12 The lace manufacture now extendsalong the coast, from the small watering-place of Seaton, by Baer, Branseombe,Saleombe, Sidmouth, and Ollerton, toExmouth, including the Vale of Honiton

and the towns above mentioned.

13 1753.

14 “Complete System of Geography,”Emanuel Bowen, 1747.

This extract is repeated verbatim in“ England's Gazetteer,” by 1’bilip Luck-ombe. London, 1790.