She cries in rapture; 'then so sweet a lace!
How charmingly you look!'"
—Lady M. W. Montagu. Town Eclogues.
For court and state occasions Brussels lace still held its sway.
In the reign of George II. we read how, at the drawing-room of 1735, fine escalloped Brussels laced heads, triple ditto laced ruffles,[[1053]] lappets hooked up with diamond solitaires, found favour. At the next the ladies wore heads dressed English, i.e., bow of fine Brussels lace of exceeding rich patterns, with the same amount of laced ruffles and lappets. Gold flounces were also worn.
Speaking of the passion for Brussels lace, Postlethwait indignantly observes:—"'Tis but a few years since England expended upon foreign lace and linen not less than two millions yearly. As lace in particular is the manufacture of nuns, our British ladies may as well endow monasteries as wear Flanders lace, for these Popish nuns are maintained by Protestant contributions."[[1054]]
Patriotism, it would appear, did come into vogue in the year 1736, when at the marriage of Frederick, Prince of Wales, the bride is described as wearing a night-dress of superb lace, the bridegroom a cap of similar material. All the laces worn by the court on this occasion are announced to have been of English manufacture, with the exception of that of the Duke of Marlborough, who appeared in point d'Espagne. The bride, however, does not profit by this high example, for shortly after we read, in the Memoirs of Madame Palatine, of the secretary of Sir Luke Schaub being drugged at Paris by an impostor, and robbed of some money sent to defray the purchase of some French lace ruffles for the Princess of Wales.
It was of native-made laces, we may infer, Mrs. Delany writes in the same year:—"Thanks for your apron. Brussels nor Mechlin ever produced anything prettier."
It appears somewhat strange that patriotism, as regards native manufactures, should have received an impulse during the reign of that most uninteresting though gallant little monarch, the second George of Brunswick.[[1055]] But patriotism has its evils, for, writes an essayist, "some ladies now squander away all their money in fine laces, because it sets a great many poor people to work."[[1056]]
Ten years previous to the death of King George II. was founded, with a view to correct the prevalent taste for foreign manufactures,[[1057]] the Society of Anti-Gallicans, who held their quarterly meetings, and distributed prizes for bone, point lace, and other articles of English manufacture.[[1058]]