The widow of the famous clothier, called Jack of Newbury, is described when a bride as "led to church between two boys with bride laces and rosemary tied about their sleeves."

[830]

"Tawdry. As Dr. Henshaw and Skinner suppose, of knots and ribbons, bought at a fair held in St. Audrey's Chapel; fine, without grace or elegance."—Bailey's Dict. 1764.

Southey (Omniana. Vol. i., p. 8) says:—

"It was formerly the custom in England for women to wear a necklace of fine silk called Tawdry lace, from St. Audrey.

"She had in her youth been used to wear carcanets of jewels, and being afterwards tormented with violent pains in the neck, was wont to say, that Heaven, in his mercy, had thus punished her for her love of vanity. She died of a swelling in her neck. Audry (the same as Ethelrede) was daughter of King Anna, who founded the Abbey of Ely."

Spenser in the Shepherd's Calender, has:—

"Bind your fillets faste

And gird in your waste

For more fineness with a tawdry lace;"