ART AND COTTAGE INDUSTRIES. 439 



As types of two different methods of industrial organisation, the following 

 account of the Royal Irish School of Art Needlework and of the Dalkey 

 Embroidery Society may be quoted from the pens, respectively, of the 

 Countess of Mayo and the Lady Betty Balfour. 



The Countess of Mayo writes : — 



" I have been asked to tell you the history of the School of Art Needle- 



■n^ 1 T^- u o 1 ^-.1 ^f work, over which I preside, and I do so all the more 



Koyal Irish School Of , j, u ^- In i u u \a 



Art Needlework fe^^^^jy because to me needlework has ever held a 

 special attraction. 



" I love those beautiful designs — those delicate traceries which adorn the 

 wonderfully-wrought vestments, the quilts and the screens, to execute which 

 (with marvellous and complicated stitches introduced) formed the principal 

 occupation of the lady of the olden time. Her frame was her close and 

 intimate companion, and these elaborate art pieces filled the long hours of 

 solitude imposed upon her by her household tyrant. Who can say whether 

 she was a whit less happy than we in our advanced freedom ? 



*' Another well-loved friend is the dear old sampler, made beautiful by the 

 introduction of every possible combination of stitch, over which our grand- 

 mothers spent many weary hours and indulged in many a childish tear. The 

 sampler went out of fashion some time in the thirties, and with its departure 

 we must perforce associate the gradual decline in art needlework. Frames 

 were hidden away in lumber-rooms ; the covering of chairs and sofas with vile 

 pieces of tapestry grounded in cross-stitch, took the place of the beautiful 

 embroideries ; and the making of crochet lace absorbed all attention ! 



" This condition lasted over a long period, but light began once more to 

 appear, and refined art needlework again came to the front. South Kensington 

 Museum led the way in improving the standard of taste. Schools were estab- 

 lished, and now there is every prospect that if the public will support the 

 w^orkers, art needlework will once more take its place in the front rank of Art. 

 The School of Needlework in which I take so deep an interest owes its exis- 

 tence to the Countess Cowper, who, when in Dublin, as the wife of the Lord 

 Lieutenant, was so much struck with the skill displayed in the production of 

 embroidery by certain Irish ladies that she collected these ladies under one 

 roof, and in 1882, with a committee to superintend the financial and business 

 arrangements, inaugurated the ' Royal Irish School of Art Needlework.' The 

 school worked well for some twelve years, and then the interest in it began to 

 fail. There were many reasons why it was not so successful as it had been. 

 In the first place, the times were out of joint, especially in Ireland. Money 

 was scarce, and, above all, taste was still struggling in the quagmire of 

 ignorance ; while the fact that the Art School had been started to relieve ladies 

 who had suddenly become penniless gave to the undertaking an eleemosynary 

 element fatal to success. The system under which the School was managed, 

 moreover, was not found to work satisfactorily At the same time it was felt 

 that to close it entirely would be a great hardship to those ladies who for 

 twelve years had been dependent upon it for their livelihood. It was, therefore, 

 determined to re-organise the whole system, and to re-open a school upon a 

 sounder financial basis. A small sum of money was collected as a starting 

 point and for the purchase of stock, etc. ; the affairs were carefully looked into, 

 and, with a smaller executive committee, the new school was opened in 1894, 

 with a paid manager and fourteen workers. Now, I am glad to say, we have 

 twenty-three workers, and the embroidery that is sent out from our house will 

 prove to future generations that the women of the nineteenth century are not 

 behind those of previous times in the artistic and skilful use of their needle. 



