ace schools now sprang up, the counties of
Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Northampton specially becoming known.
Valenciennes and Mechlin were the varieties of laces principally copied;
a very pretty lace, very reminiscent of Mechlin, being the "Baby lace,"
which received its name from being so much used to trim babies' caps.
Although very much like Valenciennes and Mechlin, the laces were much
coarser both in thread and design than their prototypes. Bedfordshire
and Northamptonshire did not long retain the art of lace-making, but
Buckingham lace remained a staple manufacture, and is much esteemed even
to-day, many connoisseurs considering it far better as a lace than the
somewhat clumsy laces of Devonshire. The specimen shown is a piece of
old Buckingham lace closely copying the reseau and sprigs of Lille which
most lace-lovers consider it excels. The net of Buckinghamshire is an
exact copy of the Lille mesh, being made of two threads twisted in a
diamond pattern, the sprays being worked on the pillow at the same time.
The patterns of the old Buckingham lace are not very varied, the best
known being what is called "Spider lace," a coarse kind of open mesh
being worked in the pattern. The principal town engaged in the
eighteenth century was Newport Pagnel, which was cited as being most
noted for making Bobbin lace. Old Brussels designs were used, and some
quaint lace of early Flemish design, was made. The early English run
lace, which was even so late as fifty years ago very popular, was mostly
made here. Aylesbury, Buckingham, and High Wycombe also made lace, and
in the last-named old town cottage lace-making may be seen to this day.
Very quaint are the old lace bobbins that may be purchased in the
"antique" shops of these lace-making towns. The lace-workers apparently
indulged many a pretty fancy in shaping them in a diversity of ways,
very few bobbins being alike. Some were made of bone, really prettily
turned, with dotted and pierced patterns on them. Others were
silver-studded, and again others were banded in silver. The wooden ones
were always decorated, if possible, each one differently from the
others, so that the worker might distinguish each thread without looking
at it. Nearly every bobbin was ended with a bunch of coloured beads
strung on wire, and a collection of these bobbins, with their "gingles,"
often yields up a pretty and quaint necklace. One in my possession has a
quaint bead made of "ancient Roman