(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

The great Napoleon, while reviving the lace-making of Alencon, specially
admired fine old Brussels, and at the birth of his only son, the little
"King of Rome," ordered a christening garment covered with the
Napoleonic "N's," crowns and cherubs. This was sold in 1903 at
Christie's for L120. At the same sale a Court train realised L140.

In the "Creevy Papers, 1768-1838," mention is made of Lord Charles
Somerset complaining of not having slept all night, "not having had a
minute's peace through sleeping in 'Cambrik sheets,' the Brussels lace
with which the pillows were trimmed tickling his face"! This occurred at
Wynyards, the seat of the Earl of Londonderry.

Queen Anne followed the extravagant fashion of wearing the costliest
laces which William III. and Queen Mary carried to such an excess. In
1710 she paid L151 for 21 yards of fine Brussels edging, and two years
later the account for Brussels and Mechlin laces amounted to L1,418.

In the succeeding reign the ladies of George I.'s period wore lappets
and flounces, caps, tuckers, aprons, stomachers, and handkerchiefs, all
made of Brussels.

In the time of George II. lace was even more worn, but English lace
began to rival Brussels, not in quality, but as a substitute.

George III. and his wife, Queen Charlotte, were economists of the first
order, and personal decoration was rigidly tabooed; hence the almost
total extinction of lace as an article of apparel, while in George IV.'s
time dress had evolved itself into shimmery silks and lawns, lace being
merely a trimming, and the enormous head-dress decorated more frequently
with a band of ribbon.

An exquisite portrait of Louis Philippe's Queen, Marie Amelia, by the
early Victorian painter Winterhalter (whose paintings are again by the
revival of fashion coming into favour) shows this fine old _grande dame_
in black velvet dress covered with three graduated flounces of Brussels
lace, cap and lappets and "tucker" of the same lace, lace fan, and, sad
to relate, a scarf of English machine-made net, worked with English run
embroidery!

Although good Queen Adelaide had a pretty fancy for lace, she wore
little of it, and it was left to Queen Victoria to revive the glory of
wearing Brussels to any extent; and she, alas! was sufficiently
patriotic to encourage home-made products by wearing almost exclusively
Honiton, which I personally am not good Englishwoman enough to admire
except at its late