Victoria and Albert Museum.] PLATE LXXIII. [Illustration: RUSSIAN.--Old bobbin-made with coloured silk outlines. The property of Madame Pogosky. Photo by A. Dryden.] _To face page 276._ {277}The fashion of cut-work still prevails in Denmark, where collars and cuffs, decorated with stars, crosses, and other mediæval designs, are exposed in the shop-windows of Copenhagen for sale--the work of poor gentlewomen, who, by their needle, thus add a few dollars yearly to their income. From 1830 dates the decline of the Tönder lace. Cotton thread was introduced, and the quality of the fabric was deteriorated.[740] The lace schools were given up; and the flourishing state of agriculture rendered it no longer a profitable employment either for the boys or the women.[741] The trade passed, from the manufacturers into the hands of the hawkers and petty dealers, who were too poor to purchase the finer points. The "lace postmen" once more travelled from house to house with their little leathern boxes, offering these inferior wares for sale.[742] The art died out. In 1840 there were not more than six lace manufacturers in Schleswig. The old people, however, still believe in a good time coming. "I have in my day," said an aged woman, "sold point at four thalers an ell, sir; and though I may never do so again, my daughter will. The lace trade slumbers, but it does not die." SWEDEN. At a very early period the Scandinavian goldsmith had learned to draw out wires of gold and twine them round threads either of silk or flax--in fact to _guiper_ them. {278}Wadstena, where lies Queen Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of Henry IV., is celebrated for its lace. The art, according to tradition, was introduced among the nuns of the convent by St. Bridget on her return from Italy. Some even go so far as to say she wrote home to Wadstena, ordering lace from Rome; but, as St. Bridget died in 1335, we may be allowed to question the fact: certain it is, though, the funeral coif of the saint, as depicted in an ancient portrait, said to have been taken at Rome after death, is ornamented with a species of perforated needlework.[743] By the rules of the convent, the nuns of Wadstena were forbidden to touch either gold or silver, save in their netting and embroidery. There exists an old journal of the Kloster, called _Diarium Vadstenænse_, in which are, however, no allusions to the art; but the letters of a Wadstena nun to her lover _extra muros_, published from an old collection[744] of documents, somewhat help us in our researches.