perverse meismes,' of which last queer expression he suggests a ridiculous explanation. Yet had he deigned to turn to the 'Geographic Text,' or even to the next chapter of his own, he would have found that it was merely a clerical error for 'en Perse meismes.' Because his pet MS. reads Atolic for Jatolic (kaboXixós), the name applied by the Arabs to the Nestorian Patriarch, Pauthier coolly asserts that the Arabic pronunciation suppresses the J! The other MSS. read Jatolic correctly. And yet M. Pauthier presumes to talk with contempt of the critical faculty of his predecessors. Polo names as the most westerly province of India Kesmacoran, and it was pointed out to Marsden by the illustrious Rennell that this was the name Kij-mekrán, by which Mekrán is extensively known in the East, from a combination with the name of one of its chief towns, Kij. Such a solution carries instantaneous conviction. But it was not M. Pauthier's. He finds, or fancies, that his MSS. read Quesivacuran, and invents a name to suit it, Kachwaguran, which he locates in Cutch. Of the use of the term Kij-Makrán it would not be hard to produce a dozen instances; we may cite Ibn Batuta (III. 47) and the Turkish Admiral Sidi Ali. We may add that though Marco's chapters on those parts of India that he had seen are excellent, his ideas of its general geography are not clear, and the manner in which M. Pauthier endeavours to convert this fragmentary knowledge into a geographical text-book is futile, and 'perverse meismes!' But what shall we say of M. Pauthier's own competence to deal with Indian geography, when he tells us of the kingdoms of Marwar or Kanoudje (!), of Adjemir, of Djeipour, of Djesselmire, of Mewar (Oudeypour), of Manikpour, in which now exist the cities of Luknow and Feyzabad; all six in Rajpoutana'? Shade of Rennell! Marwar the same as Kanouj, and Lucknow and Fyzabad in Rajpootana! M. Pauthier is marvellously wrong in telling us that the Bezant (or Dinar) was worth only 2 francs (p. 370); he is wrong in his small attempt to glorify France, against his own better knowledge, by making Chandernagore a historical principality of the Middle Ages (p. lxxi. and 689), and by his conversion of the Frank envoys of the Pope in 1342 into French envoys of Philip VI. (p. xxi.); whilst he is equally wrong in his petty attempt to disparage England by his twice repeated and unfounded as well as irrelevant assertion that the King of Delhi † Introd., p. cxi. *Journ. Asiat.,' v. p. 72. It was the legation of John Marignolli to Peking. (Poète (Poète Persan'!) was sent by the English to die on the savage Andamans (pp. 81 and 582).* He is wofully astray again when he confounds the Vieil de la Montagne of Syria with Polo's Old Man, the real chief of the Ismaelite Order at Alamut in Northern Persia. This last error illustrates a curious incapacity in M. Pauthier to appreciate what Asiatic travelling and travelling in wild mountainous countries is. In a quotation from Joinville the envoys of the Vieil are allowed fifteen days to go to their master for orders and to return to St. Lewis at Acre. M. Pauthier is content to say: 'The delay of fifteen days allowed was not overmuch for the journey from St. Jean d'Acre to Alamut and back again, but nevertheless it proved enough' (p. xxxii.). The distance which he thus supposes the envoys to have travelled in a fortnight would. have been something like 1800 miles as the crow flies, and more like 2500 by any route they could have taken. The real place to which they resorted from Acre was probably the castle of the Syrian Sheikh of the Assassins in the mountains near Hama, a direct distance of about 330 miles going and coming. The same kind of misapprehension vitiates much of his treatment of Polo's itineraries, but we have no room for the needful detail. One extract we must add, which combines several of M. Pauthier's infelicitous peculiarities. Marco tells of a sheep in Arabia without ears; but,' says he, 'where the ear ought to be there is a little horn (a un petit cornet).' M. Pauthier, after quoting the 'Geographic Text,' which bears out the translation just given, and adds that there was not even an ear orifice (pertuis), proceeds thus: ... 'Le texte Italien de Ramusio est conforme a cette redaction: "Hanno montoni piccoli, li quali non hanno l'orecchie dove hanno gli altri, ma vi sono due cornette," &c. Marsden, qui l'a mis en Anglais, a traduit cornette par horns, " cornes, au lieu de l'interpreter par dicebox (!) "cornet," "cornet acoustique," qui est le veritable sens. L'éditeur du texte Français de la Soc. de Géographie n'a pas mieux compris son auteur, car dans son Glossaire. . . . il explique le mot corner (cornet et pertuis dans nos MSS.) par corne. On disait cependant, et l'on dit encore que les oreilles cornent.' [He then quotes from an old French version, I. Sam. III. 11, 'Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle' (corneront)] Les moutons en question avaient donc les oreilles petites, et comme ossifiées; mais le passage de l'air n'en existait pas moins comme dans les oreilles ordinaires; voilà tout le mystère. Ce n'étaient pas des cornes' (p. 708). The place of the ex-king's banishment was the flourishing city of Rangoon, where he died at a great age after five or six years of exile. Truly Truly such criticism is enough to make the ears of the Académie Française to tingle! And we may gather that, to edit Marco Polo, Chinese learning is not an all-sufficient qualification. William Marsden made mistakes which, with the light now available, he would have been the first to correct, and he did not know Chinese; but besides no small amount of other learning, he had in rare measure, candour, modesty, a sound judgment and the love of truth. ART. VI.-History of Lace. By Mrs. Bury Palliser. London, 1865. L ACE may to unthinking persons seem but a gossamer subject for history; and the fairy fabric has indeed had a gossamer fate, having been unceasingly tossed up and down in the gusts and storms of political passion and religious revolution; yet trifles light as air acquire historically a grave significance, just as the foam of the sea may mark the track of a leviathan. Lace indeed exercises no longer the great empire which it once possessed, either over the male or female mind, and its loss of the allegiance of one of the sexes appears to be complete; so Mrs. Palliser has very aptly undertaken the function of becoming the Gibbon of the decline and fall of lace, at least as regards the male portion of the community. Lace appears now, alas! to be permanently banished from the necks of judges, bishops, and kings, and the cravats of fops and heroes, and its use is monopolised by that half of the species who enjoy also the exclusive prerogative of wearing gay feathers and bright colours. A good many smart things have been said about fashion, but it is yet to be desired that some writer may arise and perform for the Physiologie du Goût,' as applied to dress, the service which Brillat-Savarin rendered in respect of the arts of the table. A common psychological condition no doubt underlies the countless avatars of fashion, and the political, metaphysical, and aesthetic ideas of the day. It is important, however, that the subject should not be too lightly taken in hand, and by an investigator duly qualified. Some light surely would be thrown on human nature, on the course of events, and the difference of the sexes, if one could clearly understand why the female bonnet has dwindled, almost within the memory of man, from the size and shape of a colossal coal-scuttle to dimensions exceeded by the milliner's bill, while the male cylinder has altered but a few barleycorns in height or brim for the same period. As it is we say at present in vain 6 'Tell 'Tell me, where is 'fashion' bred, And we are quite in the dark as to why the incalculable balloon skirt suddenly sinks conically down into the shape of a datura flower or penny trumpet, and as to what connection may exist between the modern pantaloon and the emancipation of the tenpound householder, Comte's 'Positivism' and Tupper's 'Proverbial Philosophy.' Democracy has no doubt much to answer for, but we must pause before we place the swallow-tail coat on its shoulders. Needlework or embroidery was practised in the earliest times of which we have any record. Aholiab receives special notice in Exodus as the great embroiderer in blue; the web of Penelope needs no mention, and of the mother of Nausicaa, Homer tells us― “ Ἡ μὲν ἐπ ̓ ἐσχάρῃ ἧστο, σὺν ἀμφιπόλοισι γυναιξίν ἡλάκατα στρωφῶσ ̓ ἁλιπόρφυρα. In the middle ages no queen or lady of a great chief of feudalism disdained to train up her daughters in the dexterous use of the needle. But lace is a modern invention, and comprises the three divisions of cut-work, lace, and guipure. Cutwork, or open-work embroidery, was the parent of lace. Lace is defined to be a plain or ornamental network, wrought of threads of gold, silver, silk, flax, or cotton interwoven; as for defining 'guipure' the thing appears to be impossible, the feminine mind having fluctuated very considerably as to the distinctive qualities to be demanded of a well constituted 'guipure.' In its early stage it was considered that it ought to be made of twisted silk and 'cartisane,' which latter was a little strip of vellum forming a raised pattern, but the nature of guipure has so changed that Mrs. Palliser herself asks in despair, How is the word now to be defined or circumscribed? The Italians, who invented forks, and who set the fashion for all Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, lay claim also to the invention of point or needle-made lace. Writers on lace are not, however, agreed as to whether the art of fine needlework is of Byzantine origin, and introduced into Italy by the Greeks of the Lower Empire, or whether it was learnt from the Saracens of Sicily, just as the Spaniards are said to have caught it from the Moors. Those who advocate the latter opinion rely on the fact that the verb for embroidery is of Moorish origin both in Italian and Spanish, 'Ricamare,''Ricamar,' being the two forms of the word in question. Be this as it may, the lace fabric existed in Italy in the fifteenth century, as is proved by a docu ment ment of the Sforza family, dated 1493. The Florentine poet, Firenzuola, who wrote between 1520 and 1530, composed an elegy upon a collar of laced point made by the fingers of his mistress: 'Questo collar scolpì la donna mia Di basso rilevar ch' Aracne mai E chi la vinsi nol faria più bello.' The pictures also of Carpaccio and Bellini show evidence of the existence of white lace or passament in 1500. Venice indeed, as in most other points of fashion of that time, when all fine gentlemen thought it indispensable to have 'swum in a gondola,' took the lead. Venice point, however, which must have formed an exasperating item for husbands among the expenses of a lady's toilette in the days of Queen Elizabeth, is manufactured no more. In Mrs. Palliser's book are to be found beautiful specimens of its rich texture, resembling elegantly carved marble or ivory, in patterns of a kaleidescope and geometrical fashion, or of the elaborate tracery of the Renaissance period. Genoa also was famous for its point lace, and Saint Simon informs us that a certain Madame de Puissieux consumed Genoa point to the amount of 200,000 crowns (20,000l.) in one year, while Tallemant des Réaux, taking advantage of her reputation, says the same lady eat point coupé to an unlimited extent. Spanish point was as famous in its day as that of Flanders or Italy. Thread lace was manufactured in Spain as early as 1492, for a lace alb in which the late Cardinal Wiseman once officiated, and valued at 10,000 crowns, is preserved in the Cathedral of Granada, memorable as being presented to the Church by Ferdinand and Isabella.* In the dissolution of the Spanish monasteries in 1830 an enormous quantity of Spanish point was thrown upon the market, the exquisite workmanship of nuns, who, regardless of time, would expend all the skill of their needles on vestments destined for pious uses. The manufacture of silk lace or blonde is now carried on principally at Almagro in La Mancha, and occupies from 12,000 to 13,000 people. The principal article of manufacture is, of course, the national 'mantilla,' which is held sacred by law, and cannot be seized for debt. There are three kinds of mantillas.' That of white blonde, suiting ill with the complexion of the olivefaced ladies of Spain, and only used on state occasions, birth *Catherine of Aragon, according to tradition, introduced the art of making lace into Bedfordshire during her sojourn at Ampthill in 1531-33. She was a great adept in the arts of the needle. Until quite lately the lace-makers kept Cattern's-day' as the holiday of their craft, in memory of the good Queen Catherine. days, |