LACE AND LACE-MAKING. 523 



orated with it. An eye-witness of the disinterment of St. Cuthbert in 

 the twelfth century says : " There had been put over him a sheet 

 which had a fringe of linen thread of a finger's length ; upon its sides 

 and ends was woven a border of the thread, bearing the figures of 

 birds, beasts, and brandling trees." This sheet was kept for centu- 

 ries in the cathedral of Durham as a specimen of drawn or cut work. 

 Darned-netting and drawn and cut work are still made by the peasants 

 in many countri^. 



The skill and labor required in the production of these ornamental 

 tissues gave them immense value, and only kings and nobles were able 

 to buy them. But, as this kind of manufacture was encouraged and 

 rewarded by the courts, it reached great perfection centuries ago. A 

 search among court records, and a study of old pictures and monu- 

 mental sculptures, show that it was much worn in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury ; but it was not known as lace. The plain or figured network 

 which we call lace was for a long time called passement, a general 

 term for gimps and braids as well as lace, and this term continued in 

 use till the middle of the seventeenth century. 



Lace was not only known and worn in the fifteenth century, but 

 its manufacture at that time was an important industry in both Italy 

 and Flanders (Belgium) ; while in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu- 

 ries it was extensively made in all the leading countries of Europe. 

 Two distinct kinds of lace were made by two essentiall)'- different 

 methods. One was called point-lace, and was made with the needle, 

 while the other was made upon a stuffed oval board, called a pillow, 

 and the fabric was hence called pillow-lace. " On this pillow a stiff" 

 piece of parchment is fixed, with small holes pricked through to work 

 the pattern. Through these holes pins are stuck into the cushion.' 

 Tile threads with which the lace is made are wound upon 'bobbins,' 

 small, round pieces of wood, about the size of a pencil, having around 

 their upper ends a deep groove on which the thread is wound, a sepa- 

 rate bobbin being used for each thread. By the twisting and crossing 

 of these threads the ground of the lace is formed." The pattern is 

 made by interweaving a much thicker thread than that of the ground, 

 according to the design pricked out on the pattern. 



The making of plain lace-net upon the pillow is thus described: 

 "Threads are hung round the pillow in front, each attached to a bob- 

 bin, from which it is supplied and acting as a weight. Each pair of 

 adjacent threads is twisted three half-turns by passing the bobbins 

 over each other. Then the twisted threads are separated and crossed 

 over pins on the front of the cushion in a row. The like twist is then 

 made by every adjacent pair of threads not before twisted, w^hence 

 the threads become united sideways in meshes. By repeating the 

 process the fabric gains the length and width required." 



' Sometimes lace-makers who were the wives of fishermen, not being able to buy pins, 

 used the bones of fish as substitutes. Hence the term bone-lace. 



