It is said to destroy the eyesight. "I was told by a gentleman well acquainted with Flanders," says McPherson, "that they were generally almost blind before thirty years of age."—History of Commerce, 1785.
Together with the cap is preserved a parchment with this inscription: "Gorro que perteneccio à Carlos Quinto, emperad. Guarda lo, hijo mio, es memoria de Juhan de Garnica." ("Cap which belonged to the Emperor Charles V. Keep it, my son, in remembrance of John de Garnica"). J. de Garnica was treasurer to Philip II.
Séguin, however, is of opinion that this cap belonged to one of Charles V.'s successors:—
"Ce bonnet ... a dû appartenir très certainement à un de ses successeurs (of Charles V.), à cause que ce bonnet se trouve coupé et encadré par un petit entre-deux de guipure au fuseau, façon point de Gênes, qui ne pouvait pas avoir été fait du temps de Charles Quint."—Séguin, La Dentelle.
Married, 1599, Albert, Archduke of Austria.
By Andrew Yarranton, Gent. London, 1677. A proposal to erect schools for teaching and improving the linen manufacture as they do "in Flanders and Holland, where little girls from six years old upwards learn to employ their fingers." Hadrianus Junius, a most learned writer, in his description of the Netherlands, highly extols the fine needlework and linen called cambric of the Belgian nuns, which in whiteness rivals the snow, in texture satin, and in price the sea-silk—Byssus, or beard of the Pinna.