Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

238 BRITAIN AT WORK. a place in the dressing and finishing opera- tions, but so unusual are the conditions under which they labour, and so exacting the material over which they have charge, that Acts of Parliament have been specially modified for their benefit. It is impossible to say precisely how many people are employed in the industry, but the number may be put at 50,000, about half of whom, including some 9,000 men, are in the Notting- ham district. Considering first the manufacture of hand- made lace, it must be pointed out that here again there are two distinct kinds—needle- point, which in the United Kingdom is con- fined to Ireland, and pillow lace, the cottage industry of England. It is so named because the worker has a pillow, or cushion, stuffed with straw and covered with printed calico, upon her lap as support for the pins round which she entwines her thread. Upon the pillow is fastened a sheet of parchment, with the pattern duly traced and pricked over with pin-holes at every point where pins require to be inserted in the course of the work. There are also at hand a number of bobbins, now made of wood but formerly of fish bone, each provided with its quota of linen thread and attached to one of the pins. Starting fiom the first of these, the worker intertwists and crosses the thread by passing the bobbins round the pins and over and under each other. Thirty or forty bobbins are generally required for one pattern, but in the execution of the most elaborate kinds of Honiton, Bedfordshire, or Buckinghamshire lace as many as 1,000 may be necessary. The size of pillow used varies in the different lace-making counties, but the method of work is the same. In old times the net as well as the flower, sprig, or “gimp” was made by hand, but nowadays the net comes from Nottingham, and generally sprigs only are hand-made’ Lace-making has always been an ideal cottage industry ; it can be carried on entirely at home, much or little can be done accord- ing to time and inclination, and the pillow can be laid down at will. The workers are able to add materially to the family resources, and during the hard winter of 1895, when the fisheries of Devonshire failed to support the husbands, the nimble fingers of the wives kept the homes together without the necessity of applying for relief. Old and young alike are to be seen at work in the picturesque gardens and ivy-covered porches, as well as in the numerous Lace Schools which have done so DEVONSHIRE LACE MAKERS.