is as remarkable in its production as in its
appearance; for no possible guess could be
made at the mode of its preparation from the
optical effect which it presents—none, at least,
except on the part of a small number of
experienced handicraftsmen.

This, then, is moiré metallique; and we
see no reason whatever why, by a due exercise
of ingenuity, a moiré effect might not be
produced on other materials. The word
moiré evidently sometimes receives the meaning
of "clouded" rather than "watered;"
but it must, at the same time, be admitted
that, both in the metal and in the silk goods,
the delicate variegated appearance may be
likened either to clouding or to watering,
without any very great stretch of application.
However, be this as it may, we must now
attend to Lady Blanche's dress.

In all ordinary woven goods, as a moment's
examination will show us, the threads cross
each other at right angles; the long threads
forming the warp, and the short threads the
weft. According as the fabric is of high
quality, so do these threads intersect in a
regular and equable quality; but be it as
good as it may, there are always some
irregularities; they may escape the eye, but they
become apparent in a singular way. If good
silk be wrapped tightly and carelessly round a
roller, it may become moiré much against the
inclination of the possessor; it will have
acquired an irregular kind of glossing in some
parts rather than in others; and this irregular
glossing, when viewed from a little distance,
presents somewhat of the appearance of moiré,
or watering—who knows? Perhaps an accident
to a piece of rolled silk, suggested the first
idea of watering as a distinct mode of adornment
to silken goods? Such accidents have very
frequently occurred in the history of
manufactures. However, accident or no accident,
watered silks have long been in use, both in
this country and in France. If a pattern be
engraved upon one cylinder in relief, and a
similar pattern on another cylinder, in sunken
devices; and if one of these be heated from
within; and if a piece of silk or velvet be drawn
between the cylinders—then will the silk or
velvet acquire an embossed pattern, because
some parts of the surface are more pressed, and
are consequently rendered more glossy than
the rest. Numerous varieties of this process
are employed in the preparation of fancy goods.
But this is not exactly watering. For this
process two layers of silk are laid face to face, and
are pressed tightly between rollers. What
follows? However close the threads may be,
there are still interstices between them; they
follow each other in ridge-and-hollow fashion
throughout the length and breadth of the
piece. Now, if the slightest irregularity
exists in the weaving or in the pressure,
some of the threads become pressed in
particular parts more than others; and
the over-pressed portions present a greater
gloss, a greater power of reflecting light, than
the rest. The more capriciously these
portions distribute themselves, the more
undulatory and cloudy will be the result. We do
not say that the actual process is nothing
more than this, but that this is the basis
which the whole is founded. The goods may
be sprinkled with water previously, or not;
the rollers may be both heated or both cold,
or one heated and one cold; the rollers may
be plain or may be variously indented; they
may move smoothly over each other or may
have a slight lateral movement—how these
variations of method would produce variations
of effect, every one will easily see. The
adjective "antique" is most likely given to the
silks thus produced from their resemblance
to the tabby silk dresses which Lady Blanche's
grandmother used to wear when she was
lady of the bedchamber to the bride of George
the Third. It is chiefly produced in France;
but Spitalfields, its weavers and moireurs
combined, has lately copied the art so cleverly
as actually to excel the French. But Spitalfields
guards its secret as sedulously as the
Magician in a Fairy Tale always guards the
Captive Princess in his castle, and will
not let the world have a peep at their
doings. Be it so. The world has no right to
break in ruthlessly upon them. Let us be
satisfied with knowing that Lady Blanche's
moiré antique dress is simply a watered
silk, only having a very superior kind of
watering.

HOLLAND HOUSE.

IN TWO CHAPTERS. CHAPTER THE SECOND.

HOLLAND HOUSE, after Addison's death,
remained in possession of the Warwick
family and of their heir, Lord Kensington,
who came of the family of Edwardes, till it
was purchased of his lordship by Henry Fox,
who subsequently became a lord himself, and
took his title from the mansion. This was
about a hundred years ago, in the beginning
of the reign of George the Third.

Henry Fox, the first Lord Holland of the
new race, was the younger son of that
marvellous old gentleman, Sir Stephen Fox,
who, after having had a numerous offspring
by one wife, at the age of seventy-six married
another, and had three more children, two
of whom founded the noble families of Holland
and Ilchester. It was reported that he had
been a singing-boy in a cathedral. Walpole
says he was a footman; and the late Lord
Holland, who was a man of too noble a
nature to affect ignorance of these traditions,
candidly owns that he was a man of "very
humble origin." Noble families must begin
with somebody; and with whom could the new
one have better begun than with this stout and
large-hearted gentleman, who after doing real
service to the courts in which he rose, and
founding institutions for the benefit of his
native place, closed a life full of health, activity,
and success, in the eighty-ninth year of his age?