adorned with lace-a practice which may account for the number of perforated shirts in the market. Throughout this period the lace of the beautiful "Vandyke" style prevailed. The ruff having given place to the falling collar, favoured the employment of lace, which extended to the wristbands and to the tops of the funnel-shaped boots then in fashion. When Cinq-Mars, that favourite of Louis whom not even the king himself could shield from the long arm of Richelieu, bowed his handsome head on the block, he died the possessor of three hundred pairs of lace-trimmed boots, and an enormous collection of Italian point-lace cuffs and collars!

twenty years the "Vandyke" point disappeared entirely, its place being usurped by the new rose-point; the latter being in turn supplanted by French point, the famous point d'Alençon and d'Argentan, both of which were simply imitations, first of Venice rose-point, and afterwards of the "point de Venise à réseau," as Brussels needle-point is an imitation of point d'Alençon. The Venise point "à réseau " marks a change in the taste for lace, which went on in the same direction for at least a century. In the early lace period the design or pattern-Gothic or florid, flat or raised-was the principal object, and the "brides," or connecting links, comparatively unimportant, the On full-dress occasions the boots were effect aimed at being the contrast between dispensed with, and low shoes with rich masses of needle-work and the material immense lace rosettes were worn; the over which they were displayed, and which garters being, also, of the richest point. appeared through the wide intervening With Marie de Medicis, Richelieu, and spaces. By degrees the connecting links fell Louis the Thirteenth, the grand, early into a sort of pattern of their own, and from period of point-lace came to an end in being entirely subsidiary in character grew favour of a rich and florid style of work, into a kind of importance. Little by little, which supplanted the ancient Gothic de- the raised flowers and scrolls were flattened, signs with great rapidity. The "Vene- and the "brides" multiplied into a regular tian,' rose," "Spanish," or "bone-ground-work, until the "point de Venise point," as it is called, is the "punto à réseau" was produced. The main features tagliato a fogliami" of the Italians, and its peculiarity consists in its high relief. The pattern is of flowers and scroll-work, admirably designed and raised high above the level of the "brides," which keep the whole together. Sumptuously beautiful, the Venetian point defies imitation in any other material, the most delicate ivory carving failing to convey a correct idea of its combined lightness and richness of effect. The relief is produced by a buttonhole stitch, with very slight variations. Colbert imported the manufacture into This beautiful rose-point was all the rage France through the agency, it is said, of a under the regency of Anne of Austria, certain Madame Gilbert, a native of Alençon. and during the early part of the reign Not only is the identity of the lady doubtful, of Louis the Fourteenth. Ladies wore but clouds hang over the following story: wristbands of three or four tiers of point- "In a short time Madame Gilbert arrived lace, and the immensely wide boot-tops, at Paris with the first specimens of her worn by the sterner sex, were literally work; the king, inspired by Colbert with filled up with lace. The eccentricity a desire to see it during a supper at which marked the fashion of the young king's court was the "canon," a species of skirt or frill descending from the garter to half way down the calf of the leg. There were single, double, and triple canons," some of which cost as much as seven thousand livres the pair. Satirists -Molière among them-attacked these canons," but in vain; the fashion lasted for about twenty years, and then went out as suddenly as it had come in. During this

of this elegant lace were the conventional treatment of the flowers and other ornaments, the general flat look of the work, the extreme fineness of the stitches, the outlining thread or "cordonnet," stitched to the edges of the patterns and worked in flatly, and the square and excessively fine meshes of the "réseau" or ground-work itself. This was the lace, par excellence, of the Regency and the earlier part of the reign of Louis the Fifteenth.

Versailles-announced to his courtiers that he had just established a manufacture of point more beautiful than that of Venice, and appointed a day when he would inspect the specimens. The laces were artistically arranged over the walls of a room, hung with crimson damask. The king expressed himself delighted. He ordered a large sum to be given to Madame Gilbert, and desired that no other lace should appear at court except the new fabric, upon which he

bestowed the name of 'point de France." "Siamese ambassadors, the keenest obIt is needless to say that the royal manu- servers putting them down as "bogus facture became the fashion. The ladies of envoys, dressed up to please the fancy of the royal household could henceforth only the king by his too obsequious courtiers. appear in trimmings and head-dresses, In 1679 the king gave a fête at Marly to the gentlemen in cuffs and cravats, of point his brilliant court. When, at sunset, the de France. All this is pleasant to write, and ladies retired to repair their toilettes, each easy to repeat, but it is odd that Madame found in her room a fresh toilette of Gilbert's name does not occur in any of the exquisite point-lace. Everybody-of rank, State papers now extant, and that the that is-wore lace in profusion. The statue names of other persons occur very fre- of Louvois, by Girardon, represents him in a quently. It would seem that, as a matter muslin cravat with falling lace ends of a bold of fact, a local historian either found a and handsome pattern; the Princess de Soutradition of the apocryphal Madame Gilbert, bise, a predecessor of the lady who preserved or invented that lady altogether. What is the name of Soubise for ever in onion sauce, clear is, that under Colbert the lace manu- appears, in an engraving in the Bonnard facture of Alençon was either launched collection, almost covered with lace. The with great success, or, as is more probable, head-dress of fine "guipure de Valenciennes" was developed from an earlier industry. towers aloft, à la Maintenon-whose cutlets The great minister established a lucrative also are celebrated. The body of the manufacture, which brought large sums dress is very low, with a gorget and edging of money into the kingdom, and justified of quilled "point d'Angleterre ;" and the him in his favourite remark that "Fashion train of rich brocade discovers in front a was to France what the mines of Peru petticoat of French point; the shoulders were to Spain." Favoured not only by are covered with a mantelet in double fashion but by prohibitive laws, the "point flounces of English (i.e., Flemish) lace. de France" speedily supplanted that of In another contemporary engraving apVenice; but its high price confined its use pears the dressing-room of a lady of to the rich-persons of moderate means quality, with a washstand completely contenting themselves with the cheaper covered with flounce upon flounce of the pillow-lace. Pictures and engravings of richest needle-point; on the dressing-table the time of Louis the Fourteenth bear is a looking-glass, draped with curtains of witness to the profuse employment of lace. heavy guipure. Again, we see a lady of It decorated the Church and its ministers. quality in "bathing dress." The wrapper Ladies gave "tours de chaire" of French-entirely of guipure, flowered with Valenpoint to the parish church; albs and altar- ciennes, low-necked and open in front to cloths, of point d'Argentan-a variety of the waist-is trimmed towards the top and Alençon-appear in the church registers. down to the bottom of the opening with At the marriage of Mademoiselle de Blois, point-lace; while the short sleeves, and the toilette presented by the king was "so the bottom of the peignoir, are also of rich trimmed with French point, that the stuff point. The same rich trimming hangs could not be seen." The valance and cover-around the bath itself. Even the domestics let of the bed were of the same material. It was the custom, on the birth of a Dauphin, for the papal nuncio to go to the palace and present to the new-born child a consecrated "layette" of baby-linen, on behalf of the pope. The shirts, handkerchiefs, and other linen were in half-dozens, and trimmed with the richest point. At the audience given by the Dauphiness to the Siamese ambassadors, she received them in a bed almost covered with superb point, and the king, proud of his manufacture, presented the astonished yellow men with cravats and ruffles of the finest work. Perhaps, however, the ambassadors understood those costly presents better than the less wellinformed of the French court imagined, for there were odd rumours about the

of the court of Louis the Fourteenth were dressed in sumptuous lace. In the collection just referred to, may be seen the four women in waiting on the baby Duc d'Anjou: the rocker, the nurse, the holder, and the promenader are all covered with rich lace. The nurse and the rocker of the Duc de Bourgoyne are in very low dresses, with bodies and petticoats trimmed with needle-point. The cradle and the clothes of the prince are covered with lace.

Madame de Maintenon wore magnificent lace, as did the fair Fontanges, who, by tying a lace handkerchief round her head to confine her hair while hunting, produced the famous coiffure which bears her name even unto this day. Lace was still considered the common property of

take a

of Valenciennes, and ten described as-but the favour of the Great Napoleon, "Angleterre." Everybody had ruffles who desired to "bring luxury back again,' nobles, sharpers, and lackeys even restored Alençon to life. Meanwhile, "Monsieur de Paris," the executioner, Brussels point appeared as a serious rival, mounted the scaffold in a velvet suit as it still remains, to the more ancient provided with point-lace "jabot " and manufacture. In 1801 we hear of the ruffles. Madame de Créquy, describing Princess Caroline Murat, in her white her visit to the Dowager Duchess de la mantelet of Brussels needle-point; and the Ferté, says that when that lady received appearance of Madame Récamier, when her, she was lying in a state bed under a she received her guests reclining in her coverlet of Venice point made in one piece. bed, has been recorded in enthusiastic "I am persuaded," she adds, "that the terms. The bed-curtains were of the trimmings of her sheets, which were of finest Brussels lace, bordered with garpoint d'Argentan, were worth at least lands of honeysuckle, and lined with satin forty thousand crowns.' To such a pitch of the palest rose. The "couvrepied" was had the taste for lace-trimmed linen of the same material, and from the pillow reached, that, in 1739, when the eldest of embroidered cambric fell cascades of daughter of Louis the Fifteenth was Valenciennes. It has been estimated that married to the Prince of Spain, the bill to reproduce now the laces made for the for these articles alone amounted to marriage of Marie Louise would cost a twenty-five thousand pounds sterling, to million of francs; but although the emperor the horror of Cardinal Fleury. Nearly strove to drive taste in the direction of half a century later Swinburne writes the national manufacture, fashion was too from Paris: "The trousseau of Mademoi-strong to be controlled, and took more selle de Matignon will cost a hundred kindly to the light than to the heavier thousand crowns. The expense here of and better class of laces. We find the rigging out a bride is equal to a hand- Princess Pauline refusing to some portion in England. Five thousand quantity of lace she had ordered, and pounds' worth of lace, linen, &c., is a leaving the emperor to buy it, and give it common thing among them." away. In every description of the toilette of a lady of fashion, we find her in Indian muslin, trimmed with "Angleterre." Indian muslin of excessive fineness was greatly in request for the famous "toilettes diaphanes," and appears in all the portraits and fashion plates of the period. The Duchess d'Abrantes gives a minute account of her trousseau. There was plenty of Indian muslin, embroidered and trimmed with Valenciennes, Malines, and Angleterre; but the "garnitures" in needle-point were of Brussels, not of French, manufacture. At the civil marriage, before the mayor, the bride wore 66 a dress of Indian muslin" (fearfully scanty, we must recollect), "embroidered with the needle, in openwork, as was then the fashion. This dress had a train, was high at the neck, and with long sleeves-the front breadth embroidered all over, as well as the body and the bottom of the sleeves— then called 'amadis.' The ruff was in magnificent needle-point, and upon my head I had a cap of Brussels point. To the top of the cap was attached a little crown of orange flowers, from which hung a long veil of 'point d'Angleterre,' which fell down to my feet, and in which I could almost enfold myself. . . . . . This profusion of rich laces, so fine and soft, seemed

Towards the latter part of the reign of Louis the Well-beloved, French point was rivalled by the Flemish laces, generically termed "Angleterre" in France, and "Mechlin" in England. Argentan and Alençon were pronounced winter laces, the lighter pillow-lace being deemed more appropriate for hot weather. Madame Dubarry's lace accounts give a grand idea of her consumption of "Angleterre" and "Malines." When the star of Marie Antoinette rose on the murky atmosphere of the French court, a tremendous reaction set in in favour of simplicity. Indian muslin supplanted the fine point of the old school, and the lace makers of Alençon actually set themselves to work to imitate the inferior laces made on the pillow. At this period the rich garnitures shrank to narrow edgings-"semé de pois; the only article of lace which escaped degradation being the "lappets,' worn on occasions of ceremony. Whether of point or pillow lace, these were always rich and handsome, and their arrangement was rigidly prescribed by the etiquette for various occasions.

During the French Revolution, the French lace manufacture was suspended the finest of all, that of Argentan, for ever