{238}In 1788 there were above 16,000 lace-makers at Lille, and it made 120,000 pieces[641] of lace, representing a value of more than £160,000. In 1851 the number of lace-makers was reduced to 1,600; it is still gradually diminishing, from the competition of the fabric of Mirecourt and the numerous other manufactures established at Lille, which offer more lucrative wages than can be obtained by lace-making. [Illustration: Fig. 110. LILLE.] The old straight-edged is no longer made, but the rose pattern of the Mechlin is adopted, and the style of that lace copied: the semé of little square dots (_points d'esprit_) on the ground--one of the characteristics of Lille lace--is still retained. In 1862 Mrs. Palliser saw at Lille a complete garniture of beautiful workmanship, ordered for a trousseau at Paris, but the commercial crisis and the revolutions of 1848 virtually put an end to the lace industry of Lille and Arras. {239}ARRAS (ARTOIS) (DÉP. PAS-DE-CALAIS). "Arras of ryche arraye, Fresh as floures in Maye."--Skelton. Arras, from the earliest ages, has been a working city. Her citizens were renowned for the tapestries which bore their name: the nuns of her convents excelled in all kinds of needlework. In the history of the Abbaye du Vivier,[642] we are told how the abbess, Madame Sainte, dite la Sauvage, set the sisters to work ornaments for the church:-- "Les filles dans l'ouvroir tous les jours assemblées N'y paroissent pas moins que l'Abbesse zelées, Celle cÿ d'une aiguille ajuste au petit point Un bel etuy d'autel que l'eglise n'a point, Broche d'or et de soÿe un voile de Calice; L'autre fait un tapis du point de haute lice, Dont elle fait un riche et precieux frontal; Une autre coud une aube, ou fait un corporal; Une autre une chasuble, ou chappe nompareille, Où l'or, l'argent, la soÿe, arrangés à merveille, Representant des saints vestus plus richement Que leur eclat n'auroit souffert de leur vivant; L'autre de son Carreau detachant la dentelle, En orne les surplis de quelque aube nouvelle." Again, among the first rules of the institution of the "Filles de Sainte-Agnès," in the same city, it is ordained that the girls "aprendront a filer ou coudre, faire passement, tapisseries ou choses semblables."[643]