a harness emblazoned with crowns. Besides this were ten other coaches of various degrees of magnificence.
We next visited the lace manufactory of Monsieur Ducepetiaux. The Brussels' lace is, as perhaps you do not know, the most esteemed of this most delicate of fabrics. "The flax from which it is made grows near Hal; the finest sort costs from 3000 to 4000 francs per pound, and is worth its weight in gold. Everything depends on the tenuity of its fibre."[1]
It was fête-day, and we found only a few old women at work; however, we were shown the whole process very courteously, without any other fee being expected than a small alms to the poor work-women, which, after sending them, it would be difficult to withhold. I observed women from sixty to seventy at this cobweb-work without spectacles, and was told that the eye was so accustomed to it as not to be injured by it; a wonderful instance of the power of adaptation in the human frame in its most delicate organ. Girls begin at this work at four years of age, and the overseer told us she employed old woman of eighty. They begin at six in the morning and work till six in the evening ; the maximum of wages is one franc; and, to earn this, a woman must work skilfully and rapidly twelve hours and find herself! I thought of the king's ten coaches.
There are a good many changes to be made before this becomes "the best of all possible worlds!"
- ↑ Murray's Hand-Book.
