DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67419#0313
THE DAYS OF “ GOOD QUEEN BESS/
291
silks, in the figures of birds, animals, or antiques;
and the ornamental needlework alone of a pair of
these boots would cost from four to ten pounds
The making of a single shirt would frequently cost
10Z., so richly were they ornamented with “ needle-
worke of silke, and so curiously stitched with other
knackes.”
“ Woman’s triflings,’’ too, their handkerchiefs,
reticules, workbags, &c., -were decorated richly. We
have seen within these few days a workbag which
would startle a modern fair one, for, as far as regards
size, it has a most “ industrious look,” but which,
despite the ravages of near three centuries, yet gives
token of much original magnificence. It is made of
net, lined with silk; the material, the net itself, ^a
sort of honeycomb pattern, like what we called a
few years ago the Grecian lace,) was made by the
fair workwoman in those days, and was a fashionable
occupation both in France and England. This bag
is wrought in broad stripes with gold thread, and
between the stripes various flowers are embroidered
in different coloured silks. The bag stands in a
sort of card-board basket, covered in the same style ;
it is drawn with long cords and tassels, and is large
enough perhaps, on emergency, to hold a good sized
baby.
It is more than probable that female skill was in
request in various matters of household decoration.
The Arras looms, indeed, had long superseded the
painful fingers of notable dames in the construc-
tion of hangings for walls, which were universally
used, intermingled and varied in the palaces and
nobler mansions by “ painted cloth,” and cloth of
o 2
291
silks, in the figures of birds, animals, or antiques;
and the ornamental needlework alone of a pair of
these boots would cost from four to ten pounds
The making of a single shirt would frequently cost
10Z., so richly were they ornamented with “ needle-
worke of silke, and so curiously stitched with other
knackes.”
“ Woman’s triflings,’’ too, their handkerchiefs,
reticules, workbags, &c., -were decorated richly. We
have seen within these few days a workbag which
would startle a modern fair one, for, as far as regards
size, it has a most “ industrious look,” but which,
despite the ravages of near three centuries, yet gives
token of much original magnificence. It is made of
net, lined with silk; the material, the net itself, ^a
sort of honeycomb pattern, like what we called a
few years ago the Grecian lace,) was made by the
fair workwoman in those days, and was a fashionable
occupation both in France and England. This bag
is wrought in broad stripes with gold thread, and
between the stripes various flowers are embroidered
in different coloured silks. The bag stands in a
sort of card-board basket, covered in the same style ;
it is drawn with long cords and tassels, and is large
enough perhaps, on emergency, to hold a good sized
baby.
It is more than probable that female skill was in
request in various matters of household decoration.
The Arras looms, indeed, had long superseded the
painful fingers of notable dames in the construc-
tion of hangings for walls, which were universally
used, intermingled and varied in the palaces and
nobler mansions by “ painted cloth,” and cloth of
o 2