( 225 ) CHAPTER XX. HOLLAND, GERMANY, AND SWITZERLAND. HOLLAND. “ A country that draws fifty feet of water, In which men live as in the hold of nature, And when the sea does in them break, And drowns a province, does but spring a leak.” Iludibras. We know little of the early manufactures of this country. The laces of Holland, though made to a great extent, were overshadowed by the richer products of their Flemish neighbours. “The Netherlanders,” writes Fynes Moryson, who visited Holland in 158!), “ wear very little lace, 1 and no embroidery. Their gowns are mostly black, without lace or gards, and their neck-ruffs of very fine linen.” We read how, in 1667, France had become the rival of Holland in the trade with Spain, Portugal, and Italy ; but she laid such high duties on foreign merchandise, the Dutch them selves set up manufactures of lace and other articles, and found a market for their produce even in France.” 2 A few years later, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes 3 caused 4000 lace-makers to leave the town of Alengon alone. Many took refuge in Holland, where, says a writer of the day, “they were treated like artists.” Holland gained more than she lost by Louis XIV. The French 1 In the census of 1571, giving the names of all strangers in the city of London, we find mention but of one Dutchman, Richard Thomas, “ a worker of billament lace.” 5 In 1689 appears an “Arrest du Roi qui ordonne l’exe'cution d’une sentence du maitre de poste de Rouen, portant confiscat n des dentelles venant d’Am sterdam. Arch. Nat. Coll. Rondoneau. 3 1685. Q