These alterations, in course of time, found their way to England, there being much intercourse between their brethren here established and those remaining in Flanders. The lace continued to get finer and closer in texture, the flax thread being required so fine that it became necessary to spin it in damp underground cellars. That the workers in England could not compete successfully against the foreigner with their home-made threads we find over and over again. They also altered the Brussels designs, and instead of the beautiful _fillings_ and openwork stitches substituted heavy guipure bars. The _vrai réseau_ or pillow net ground succeeded the _bride_ towards the end of the seventeenth century. During the eighteenth century the flowers were made separately and worked in with the net afterwards, or rather the net was worked into the flowers on the pillow. The best _réseau_ was made by hand with the needle, and was much more expensive. The advantages of making the net separately soon declared themselves, and it formed an extensive branch of the trade. The mode of payment seems tedious but primitive in its simplicity; the net was spread out on the dealer’s counter, and the worker covered it with shillings; as many as it took to cover it she had as the value of her work. “A piece bought previous to the introduction of machine net, 18 ins. square, cost £15. At the commencement of machine net, in 1808, it could be bought for as many shillings, and in 1851 for as many pence.”[23] ----- Footnote 23: _Antique Point and Honiton Lace._ Mrs Treadwin. No date. ----- Trolly lace comes next in order; it was quite different from the Honiton type, and resembled many of the laces made in the Midlands at the present time. It was made with coarse British thread, heavier, larger bobbins, and worked straight on round the pillow. The origin was undoubtedly Flemish, but it is said to have reached Devonshire at the time of the French Revolution through the Normandy peasants, driven by want of employment from their own country, where lace was a great industry in the eighteenth century. Be this as it may, lappets and scarves were certainly made of Trolly lace at an earlier date; Mrs. Delaney, in one of her letters (1756) speaks of a “trolly head.” Trolly lace, before its downfall, has been sold at the extravagant price of five guineas a yard.[24] The origin of _Trolly_ is from the Flemish _Trolle Kant_, where the design was outlined with a thick thread. ----- Footnote 24: _History of Lace._ Mrs. Palliser, 1901. -----