Though lace-making employed many women in various parts of the country, who made a common description while tending their flocks in the mountains, Neufchâtel has always been the _chef-lieu_ of the trade. "In this town," says Savary, "they have carried their works to such a degree of perfection, as to rival the laces of Flanders, not only in beauty but in quality." We have ourselves seen in Switzerland guipures of fine workmanship that were made in the country, belonging to old families, in which they have remained as heirlooms; and have now in our possession a pair of lappets, made in the last century at Neufchâtel, of such exquisite beauty as not to be surpassed by the richest productions of Brussels. Formerly lace-making employed a large number of workwomen in the Val de Travers, where, during his sojourn at Moutiers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau tells us he amused himself in handling the bobbins. In 1780 the lace trade was an object of great profit to the country, producing laces valuing from 1 batz to upwards of 70 francs the ell, and exporting to the amount of 1,500,000 francs; on which the workwomen gained 800,000, averaging their labour at scarcely 8 sols per day. The villages of Fleurens and Connet were the centre of this once flourishing trade,[727] now ruined by competition with Mirecourt. In 1814 there were in the Neufchâtel district, 5628 lace-makers; in 1844 a few aged women alone remained. The modern laces of Neufchâtel resemble those of Lille, but are apt to wash thick. (Plate LXVII.) In 1840, a fabric of "point plat de Bruxelles dite de Genève" was established at Geneva. By the sumptuary laws of Zurich,[728] which were most {271}severe, women were especially forbidden to wear either blonde or thread lace, except upon their caps. This must have been a disadvantage to the native fabrics, "for Zurich," says Anderson, "makes much gold, silver, and thread lace." Several pattern-books for lace were published in Switzerland in the later years of the sixteenth century; one, without a date, but evidently printed at Zürich about 1540, by C. Froschowern, is entitled, _Nüw Modelbüch allerley Gattungen Däntel_, etc. Another one, entitled _New Model-buch_, printed by G. Strauben, 1593, at St. Gall, is but a reprint of the third book of Vecellio's _Corona_. Another, called also _Sehr Newe Model-Buch_, was published at Basle in 1599, at the printing-house of Ludwig Künigs. {272}CHAPTER XXI. DENMARK, SWEDEN AND RUSSIA. ---- DENMARK. "ERASTE.--Miss, how many parties have you been to this week? "LADY.--I do not frequent such places; but if you want to know how much lace I have made this fortnight, I might well tell you." --Holberg. _The Inconstant Lady._ "The far-famed lace of Tönder."