"With the pearlin above her brow."—Old Scotch Song.
"Pearlin-lace as fine as spiders' webs."—Heart of Midlothian.
From her constant intercourse with France, lace must have been early known in Scotland.
Of its use for ecclesiastical purposes, at a period when it was still unknown to the laity, we have evidence in the mutilated effigy of a crosiered ecclesiastic which once stood in a niche of the now ruined abbey church of Arbroath. The lace which adorns the robes of this figure is very elaborately and sharply chiselled, and when first discovered, still preserved some remains of the gold leaf with which it had been ornamented.
In the Inventories of King James V. we find constant mention of "pasment" of gold and silver,[[1172]] as well as an entry of—"Ane gown of fresit clayth of gold, with pasment of perle of gold smyth wark lynit with cramasy sating."[[1173]] And we have other proofs,[[1174]] in addition to the testimony of Sir Walter Scott, as given in the Monastery,[[1175]] that pasments of gold and silver as well as "purle," were already in daily use during King James's reign.
Indeed, as early as 1575 the General Assembly of Scotland found necessary, as did the bishops in Denmark, to express its mind as to the style of dress befitting the clergy, and prohibit "all begares (gardes) of velvet on gown, hose, or coat, all superfluous cut-out work, all sewing on of pasments and laces."
A parchment, too, found in the cabinet of the Countess of Mar,[[1176]] entitled "The Passement Bond," signed by the Duke of Lennox and other nobles, by which they engaged themselves to leave off wearing "passement," as a matter of expense and superfluity, shows that luxury in dress had early found its way into Scotland.
Notwithstanding these entries, it was not until the arrival of Mary Stuart in her northern dominions that lace in all its varieties appears. The inventory of the Queen's effects in 1567, printed by the Bannatyne Club, gives entries of passements, guimpeure d'or, and guimpeure d'argent,[[1177]] with which her "robes de satin blanc et jaune" were "bordées" and "chamarées." Each style of embroidery and lace is designated by its special name. There is the "natte d'argent faite par entrelatz, passement d'or et d'argent fait à jour, chamarré de bisette,"[[1178]] etc.
The word dentelle, as told elsewhere,[[1179]] occurs but once.
We have also alluded to the will made by the Queen previous to the birth of James VI., and her bequest of her "ouvrages maschés."[[1180]] A relic of this expression is yet found in the word "mawsch," or "masch," as the pinking of silk and muslin is termed in Scotland, an advertisement of which accomplishment "done here" was seen a few years ago in the shop-windows of the old town of Edinburgh.