Monument of the Princess Sophia. + 1606. Fourth Daughter of James I. (Westminster Abbey.)
After a time—epoch of the Spanish marriage[[928]]—the ruff gave way to the "falling band," so familiar to us in the portraits of Rubens and Vandyke.
"There is such a deal of pinning these ruffs, when a fine clean fall is worth them all," says the Malcontent. "If you should chance to take a nap in the afternoon, your falling band requires no poking-stick to recover it."[[929]] Cut-work still continued in high favour; it was worn on every article of linen, from the richly-wrought collar to the nightcap. The Medicean ruff or gorget of the Countess of Pembroke ("Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother"), with its elaborate border of swans (Fig. 127), is a good illustration of the fashion of her time.
Fig. 126.
Monument of the Princess Mary. + 1607. Third Daughter of James I. (Westminster Abbey.)
Among the early entries of Prince Charles, we have four nightcaps of cut-work, £7,[[930]] for making two of which for his Highness, garnished with gold and silver lace, Patrick Burke receives £15;[[931]] but these modest entries are quite put to shame by those of his royal father, who, for ten yards of needlework lace "pro le edginge" of his "galiriculis vulgo nightcaps," pays £16 13s. 4d.[[932]] Well might the Water-Poet exclaim—
"A nightcap is a garment of high state."[[933]]
Fig. 127.