Flax is also cultivated solely for lace and cambric thread at St. Nicholas, Tournay, and Courtrai. The process of steeping (rouissage) principally takes place at Courtrai, the clearness of the waters of the Lys rendering them peculiarly fitted for the purpose. Savary states that fine thread was first spun at Mechlin.
It is often sold at £240 per lb., and in the Report of the French Exhibition of 1859 it is mentioned as high as £500 (25,000fr. the kilogramme). No wonder that so much thread is made by machinery, and that Scotch cotton thread is so generally used, except for the choicest laces. But machine-made thread has never attained the fineness of that made by hand. Of those in the Exhibition of 1862, the finest Lille was 800 leas (a technical term for a reel of 300 yards), the Brussels 600, the Manchester 700; whereas in Westphalia and Belgium hand-spun threads as fine as 800 to 1000 are spun for costly laces. The writer has seen specimens, in the Museum at Lille, equal to 1200 of machinery; but this industry is so poorly remunerated, that the number of skilful hand-spinners is fast diminishing.
Dictionnaire du Citoyen. 1761.
Comptes de Madame du Barry. Bib. Nat. MSS. F. Fr. 8157 and 8.
"Trois aubes de batiste garnies de grande dentelle de gros point d'Angleterre."—Inv. des Meubles, etc., de Louis, Duc d'Orléans, decedé 4 fev. 1752. (Son of the Regent.) Arch. Nat. X. 10,075.