in Commerce, a work composed of many threads of gold, silver, or silk, interwoven the one with the other, and worked upon a pillow with spindles according to the pattern designed. The open work is formed with pins, which are placed and displaced as the spindles are moved. The importation of gold and silver lace is prohibited.

Method of Cleaning Gold-Lace and Embroidery when tarnished.—For this purpose alkaline liquors are by no means to be used; for while they clean the gold, they corrode the silk, and change or discharge its colour. Soap also alters the shade, and even the species, of certain colours. But spirit of wine may be used without any danger of its injuring either the colour or quality of the subject; and in many cases proves as effectual, for restoring the lustre of the gold, as the corrosive detergents. A rich brocade, flowered with a variety of colours, after being disagreeably tarnished, had the lustre of the gold perfectly restored by washing it with a soft brush dipped in warm spirit of wine; and some of the colours of the silk, which were likewise foiled, became at the same time remarkably bright and lively. Spirit of wine seems to be the only material adapted to this intention, and probably the boasted secret of certain artists is no other than this spirit disguised. Among liquids, Dr Lewis says, he does not know of any other that is of sufficient activity to discharge the foul matter, without being hurtful to the silk: as to powders, however fine, and however cautiously used, they scratch and wear the gold, which here is only superficial and of extreme tenacity.

But though spirit of wine is the most innocent material that can be employed for this purpose, it is not in all cases proper. The golden covering may be in some parts worn off; or the base metal, with which it had been injuriously alloyed, may be corroded by the air, so as to leave the particles of the gold disunited; while the silver underneath, tarnished to a yellow hue, may continue a tolerable colour to the whole; in which cases it is apparent, that the removal of the tarnish would be prejudicial to the colour, and make the lace or embroidery less like gold than it was before. A piece of old tarnished gold lace, cleaned by the spirit of wine, was deprived, with its tarnish, of the greatest part of its golden hue, and looked now almost like silver lace.

Method of separating the Gold and Silver from Lace without burning it.—Cut the lace in pieces, and having separated the thread from it by which it was sewed to the garment) tie it up in a linen cloth, and boil it in soap ley, diluted with water, till you perceive it is diminished in bulk; which will take up but a little time, unless the quantity of lace be very considerable. Then take out the cloth, and wash it several times in cold water; squeezing it pretty hard with your foot, or beating it with a mallet, to clear it of the soap ley; then untie the cloth, and you will have the metallic part of the lace pure, and nowhere altered in colour or diminished in weight.

This method is abundantly more convenient and less troublesome than the common way of burning; and as a small quantity of the ley will be sufficient, the experience- expence will be trifling, especially as the same ley may be used several times, if cleared of the silky calcination. It may be done in either an iron or copper vessel.

The ley may be had at the soap boilers, or it may be made of pearl ash and quicklime boiled together in a sufficient quantity of water.

The reason of this sudden change in the lace will be evident to those who are acquainted with chemistry: for silk, on which all our laces are wove, is an animal substance, and all animal substances are soluble in alkalies, especially when rendered more caustic by the addition of quicklime; but the linen you tie it in, being a vegetable, will remain unaltered.

Blond Lace, a lace made of fine linen thread or silk, much in the same manner as that of gold and silver. The pattern of the lace is fixed upon a large round pillow, and pins being stuck into the holes or openings in the patterns, the threads are interwoven by means of a number of bobbins made of bone or ivory, each of which contains a small quantity of fine thread, in such a manner as to make the lace exactly resemble the pattern. There are several towns in England, and particularly in Buckinghamshire, that carry on this manufacture; but vast quantities of the finest lace have been imported from Flanders.

Lacedæmon, in fabulous history, a son of Jupiter and Tayget the daughter of Atlas, who married Sparta the daughter of Europa, by whom he had Amyclas and Eurydice the wife of Acritus. He was the first who introduced the worship of the Graces in Laconia, and who first built them a temple. From Lacedæmon and his wife, the capital of Laconia was called Lacedæmon and Sparta.

Lacedæmon, a noble city of Peloponnesus, called also Sparta; these names differing in this, that the latter is the proper and ancient name of the city, the former of the country, which afterwards came to be applied to the city (Strabo, Stephanus). Homer also makes this distinction; who calls the country holy, because encompassed with mountains. It has also been severally known by the name of Lelegia, from the Leleges the first inhabitants of the country, or from Lelex one of their kings; and Oebalia, from Oebalus the sixth king from Eurotas. It was also called Hecatompolis, from 100 cities which the whole province once contained. This city was the capital of Laconia, situated on the right or west side of the Eurotas: it was less in compass than, however equal, or even superior to, Athens in power. Polybius makes it 48 stadia, a circuit much inferior to that of Athens. Lelex is supposed to have been the first king of Lacedæmon. His descendants, 13 in number, reigned successively after him, till the reign of the sons of Orestes, when the Heraclidae recovered the Peloponnesus about 80 years after the Trojan war. Procles and Eurythene, the descendants of the Heraclidae, usurped the crown together; and after them it was decreed that the two families should always sit on the throne together. The monarchical power was abolished, and the race of the Heraclidae extinguished at Sparta about 219 years before Christ. Lacedæmon in its flourishing state remained without walls, the bravery of its citizens being instead of them (Nepo.). At length in Cassander's time, or after, when the city was in the hands of tyrants, distrusting the defence by arms and bravery, a wall was built round it, at first slight, and in a tumultuary or hasty manner; which the tyrant Nabis made very strong (Livy, Justin). Paulianus ascribes the first walls to the times of Demetrius and Pyrrhus, under Nabis. The walls of the city were pulled down 188 years before Christ by Philopoemen, who was then at the head of the Achaean league, and Laconia some time after became a Roman province when reduced by Mummius. See Sparta.—The present city is called Mystra, situated in E. Long. 23° 0' N. Lat. 36° 55'.