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8 HISTORY OF LACE. represented working at frames, and these books are stated to have been written “for the profit of men, as well as of women.” 34 Many were composed by ecclesiastics; 35 and in the library of St.-Genevibve at Paris are several works of this class, 36 inherited from the monastery of that name. As these books contain little or no letterpress, they could scarcely have been collected by the monks, unless with a view to using them. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the great Roman Catholic ladies came to the rescue. Of the widow of the ill-fated Earl of Arundel, it is recorded: “Her gentlewomen and chambermaids she ever busied in works ordained for the service of the church. She permitted none to be idle at any time.” 37 Instructresses in the art of embroidery were now at a pre mium. The old nuns had died out, and there were none to replace them. Mrs. Hutchinson, in her “ Memoirs,” enumerates, among the eight tutors she had at seven years of age, one for needlework; while Hannah Senior, about the same period, entered the service of the Earl of Thomond, to teach his daughters the use of their needle, with the salary of 2001. a year. The money, however, was never paid; so she petitions the Privy Council for leave to sue him. 38 When, in 1614, the King of Siam applied to King James for an English wife, a gentleman of “ honourable parentage ” offers his daughter, whom he describes of excellent parts tor “ music, her needle, and good discourse.” 39 And these are the sole accom plishments he mentions. The bishops, however, shocked at the proceeding, interfered, and put an end to the projected alliance. No ecclesiastical objection, however, was made to the epitaph of Catherine Sloper. She sleeps in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, 1620: “ Exquisite at her needle.” 31 U x,ivre de Lingerie,” Dom. do Sera, 1581. “Donne, donzelle, con gli huo- m ini.”—Taglienti, 15:50. Patterns which “ les Seigneurs, Dames et Damoiselles out eu pour agrcables.”—Vincioio, 1587. 35 Jehau Mayol, carme de Lyon; Era Hieronimo, dell’ Ordine dei Servi; Pere Dominique, religieux carme, and others. 30 One in the Bibliotheque Nationale is from the “ Monasterio St. Germani a Pratis.” 37 lie died 1595. “Lives of the Earl and Countess of Arundel,” from the original MS. by the Duke of Norfolk. London, 1857. 38 P. R. O. Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Charles I. vol. clxix. 12. 38 P. 11. O. Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, No. 789.