VALENCIENNES. 201 a cellar: many of the women are said to have become almost blind previous to attaining the age of thirty. It was a great point when the whole piece was executed by the same lace-worker. “ All by the same hand,” we find entered in the bills of the lac'e- sellers of the time. 8 The labour of making “ vraie Valenciennes” was so great that while the Lille lace-workers could produce from three to five ells Fig. 95. inmnviHii I I Vulcbc.euiics. a day, those of Valenciennes could not complete more than an inch and a half in the same time. Some lace-workers only made half an ell (24 inches) in a year, and it took ten months, working fifteen hours a day, to finish a pair of men’s ruffles—hence the costliness of the lace. 9 A pair of these now exploded articles of 8 “ 2 barbes et rayon tie vraie valen- wenne; 3 au. 3/4 collet grande hauteur; I mi. grand jabot; le tout do la memo main, do 2400 livrcs.”— Comptes de Madame du Harry. 1770. 0 Arthur Young, in 1788, says of Valenciennes: u Lace of 30 to 40 lines’ Ireadtli for gentlemen's ruffles is from 100 to 210 livrcs (!) I. 9s.) an oil. The quantity for a lady’s head-dress from 1000 to 24,000 livrcs. The women gain from 20 to 30 sous a day. 3000 persons arc employed at Valenciennes, and arc an object of 450,000 livrcs, of which the llax is not more than 1/30. The thread costs from 24 to 700 livrcs the pound.”