The modern laces of Portugal and Madeira closely resemble those of Spain; the wider for flounces are of silk: much narrow lace is made after the fashion of Mechlin. Both Spain and Portugal enjoy a certain reputation for their imitation white Chantilly lace. A considerable quantity of coarse white lace, very effective in pattern, was formerly made in Lisbon and the environs;[314] this was chiefly exported, _viâ_ Cadiz, to South America. Both black and white are {107}extensively made in the peninsula of Peniche, north of Lisbon (Estremadura Province), and employ the whole female population. Children at four years of age are sent to the lace school, and are seated at _almofadas_ (pillows) proportioned to their height, on which they soon learn to manage the bobbins, sometimes sixty dozen or more, with great dexterity.[315] The nuns of Odivales were, till the dissolution of the monasteries, famed for their lace fabricated of the fibres of the aloe. [Illustration: Fig. 49. BOBBIN-LACE.--(Brazil.)] Pillow-lace was made at Madeira at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The coarse kind, a species of _dentelle torchon_, served for trimming pillow-cases and sheets--"seaming lace," as it was called (Fig. 49). Sometimes the threads of the linen were drawn out after the manner of cut-work; but the manufacture had entirely ceased until 1850 (circ.), when it was re-established by Mrs. Bayman.[316] {108}Brazil makes a coarse narrow pillow-lace for home consumption. The Republics of Central and South America show indications of lace-making, consisting chiefly of darned netting and drawn-work, the general characteristic of the lace of these countries. The lace-bordered handkerchiefs of Brazil, and the productions of Venezuela, with the borders of the linen trousers of the guachos, and the Creva lace of the blacks of the Province of Minas Geraes, are the finest specimens of drawn-work. The lace of Chili is of the old lozenge pattern, and men also appear to be employed on the work. In Paraguay there are two sorts of work--Nanduti or "toile d'arraignée," made in silk or thread by a needle on a cardboard pattern by the copper-coloured natives as an industry; also embroidery and drawn thread-work on linen, of which there are specimens in the Victoria and Albert Museum--all traditions of the European missionaries and traders who first colonised the country. PLATE XXXIV. [Illustration: SPANISH.--Pillow made nineteenth century. Réseau of two threads twisted and crossed. Slightly reduced.] PLATE XXXV [Illustration: PARAGUAY. "NANDUTI."--End of nineteenth century. Reduced rather over half. Photos by A. Dryden from private collections.] _To face page 108._ {109}CHAPTER VII. FLANDERS. "For lace, let Flanders bear away the belle." --Sir C. Hanbury Williams. "In French embroidery and in Flanders lace I'll spend the income of a treasurer's place." --_The Man of Taste_, Rev. W. Bramstone.