Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/541

 Rh 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 centuries 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 countries.

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 monumental sculptures, show that it was much worn in the fifteenth century; 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 centuries it was extensively made in all the leading countries of Europe. Two distinct kinds of lace were made by two essentially 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. The 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 separate 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 bobbin, 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, whence the threads become united sideways in meshes. By repeating the process the fabric gains the length and width required."