"Point Duchesse" is a bobbin lace of fine quality, in which the sprigs resemble Honiton lace united by "brides." Duchesse is a modern name. The work less resembles the old Brussels laces than the "Guipure de Flandre," made at Bruges in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which was much used for cravats, being exceedingly rich and soft in effect. Bobbin lace is sometimes named point Plat; the word point in this case signifies the fine quality of the lace, and has nothing to do with the needle-point. Point Plat appliqué is the name given to Belgian bobbin-made sprigs which are afterwards applied to machine-made net. Bobbin lace is not now made in Brussels itself. Brussels was a favoured lace at the court of the First Empire.[351] When Napoleon and the Empress Marie Louise made their first public entry into the Belgian capital, they {124}gave large orders for albs of the richest point, destined as a present for the Pope. The city, on its part, offered to the Empress a collection of its finest lace, on vrai réseau, of marvellous beauty; also a curtain of Brussels point, emblematic of the birth of the King of Rome, with Cupids supporting the drapery of the cradle. After the battle of Waterloo, Monsieur Troyaux, a manufacturer at Brussels, stopped his lace fabric, and, having turned it into a hospital for forty English soldiers, furnished them with linen, as well as other necessaries, and the attendance of trained nurses. His humane conduct did not go unrewarded; he received a decoration from his sovereign, while his shop was daily crowded with English ladies, who then, and for years after, made a point of purchasing their laces at his establishment when passing through Brussels. Monsieur Troyaux made a large fortune and retired from business.[352] MECHLIN. "And if disputes of empire rise between Mechlin, the Queen of Lace, and Colberteen, 'Tis doubt, 'tis darkness! till suspended Fate Assumes her nod to close the grand debate." --Young, _Love of Fame_. "Now to another scene give place; Enter the Folks with silk and lace, Fresh matter for a world of chat Right Indian this, right Macklin that." --Swift, _Journal of a Modern Lady_. "Mechlin, the finest lace of all!" --Anderson, _Origin of Commerce_. "Rose: Pray, what may this lace be worth a yard? "Balance: Right Mechlin, by this light!" --Farquhar, _The Recruiting Officer_. [Illustration: Fig. 60. OLD BRUSSELS. (Point d'Angleterre. Formerly belonging to Queen Charlotte.) _To face page 124._]