"SIR NICHOLAS.--I must make great haste, I shall ne'er get my Points and
Laces done up time enough.
"MAJ. GEN. B.--What say'st, young fellow? Points and Laces for camps?
"SIR NICH.--Yes, Points and Laces; why, I carry two laundresses on
purpose.... Would you have a gentleman go undress'd in a camp? Do you
think I would see a camp if there was no dressing? Why, I have two
campaign suits, one trimmed with Flanders lace, and the other with rich
Point.
"MAJ. GEN. B.--Campaign suits with lace and Point!"[1022]
In Westminster Abbey, where, as somewhat disrespectfully, say the Brothers
Popplewell,[1023] the images of William and Mary
"Stand upright in a press, with their bodies made of wax,
A globe and a wand in either hand and their robes upon their backs"--
the lace tucker and double sleeves of Queen Mary are of the finest raised
Venice point, resembling Fig. 29; King William likewise wears a rich lace
cravat and ruffles.[1024]
In a memorandum (carta d'informazione) given to the Venetian ambassadors
about to proceed to England, 1696, they are to be provided with very
handsome collars of the finest Venetian point, which, it is added, is also
the best present to make.[1025]
Before concluding the subject of the lace-bearing heroes, we may as well
state here that the English soldiers rivalled the cavaliers of France in
the richness of their points till the extinction of hair-powder (the
wearing of which in the army consumes, says some indignant writer, flour
enough to feed 600,000 persons per annum), when the lace cravat was
replaced by the stiff and cumbersome stock. Speaking of {346}these military
dandies, writes the _World_: "Nor can I behold the lace and the waste of
finery in their clothing but in the same light as the silver plates and
ornaments on a coffin; indeed, I am apt to impute their going to battle so
trimmed and adorned to the same reason a once fine lady painted her cheeks
just before she expired, that she might not look frightful when she was
dead."
"To war the troops advance,
Adorned and trim like females for the dance.
Down sinks Lothario, sent by one dire blow,
A well-dress'd hero to the shades below."
As the justice's daughter says to her mamma, in Sheridan's _St. Patrick's
Day_:--
"Dear; to think how the sweet fellows sleep on the ground, and fight in
silk stockings and lace ruffles."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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