Early in the sixteenth century the dresses of the ladies { 298}fitted closely to the figure, with long skirts open in front to display the underdress; and were made low and cut square about the neck. Sometimes, however, the dresses were worn high with short waists and a small falling collar. Somewhat later, when the dresses were made open at the girdle, a partlet--a kind of habit-shirt--was worn beneath them, and carried to the throat.[813]
Entries of lace in the wardrobe accounts are, however, few and inconsiderable until the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
[Illustration: MARIE DE LORRAINE, 1515-1560. DAUGHTER OF DUC DE GUISE, MARRIED JAMES V. OF SCOTLAND, 1538. This picture was probably painted before she left France, by an unknown French artist. National Portrait Gallery.
"By land and sea a Virgin Queen I reign, And spurn to dust both Antichrist and Spain."--Old Masque.
"Tell me, Dorinda, why so gay? Why such embroidery, fringe and lace? Can any dresses find a way To stop the approaches of decay And mend a ruined face?"--Lord Dorset.
Up to the present time our mention of lace, both in the Statutes and the Royal Wardrobe Accounts, has been but scanty. Suddenly, in the days of the Virgin Queen, both the Privy Expenses and the Inventories of New Year's Gifts overflow with notices of passaments, drawn-work, cut-work, crown lace,[814] bone lace for ruffs, Spanish chain, byas,[815] parchment, hollow,[816] billament,[817] and diamond { 300}lace[818] in endless, and to us, we must own, most incomprehensible variety.
The Surtees' _Wills and Inventories_ add to our list the laces Waborne[819] and many others. Lace was no longer confined to the court and high nobility, but, as these inventories show, it had already found its way into the general shops and stores of the provincial towns. In that of John Johnston, merchant, of Darlington, already cited, we have twelve yards of "loom" lace, value four shillings, black silk lace, "statute" lace, etc., all mixed up with entries of pepper, hornbooks, sugar-candy, and spangles. About the same date, in the inventory taken after the death of James Backhouse, of Kirby-in-Lonsdale, are found enumerated "In y^e great shoppe," thread lace at 16s. per gross; four dozen and four "pyrled" lace, four shillings; four quarterns of statching (stitching or seaming?) lace; lace edging; crown lace; hollow lace; copper lace; gold and silver chean (chain) lace, etc. This last-mentioned merchant's store appears to have been one of the best-furnished provincial shops of the period. That of John Farbeck, of Durham, mercer, taken thirty years later, adds to our list seventy-eight yards of velvet lace, coloured silk, chayne lace, "coorld" lace, petticoat lace, all cheek by jowl with Venys gold and turpentine.