CATTERN TEA
(To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
.Snt,—Mr. Bates in his column "Country Life" refers to the Bedforeqhire lacemakers' celebration known as Cattern Tea, and wonders why it is kept in February and not on November 25th, St. Catherine's feast.
When staying in Bedfordshire a few years ago, a lady well .Versed in local tradition told me that the Catherine feted was not St. Catherine of Sienna, but a more recent, if =canonised saint—i.e., Katherine of Aragon, divorced wife of Henry VIII. . Tradition has it, that when confined to the castle of God- maachester, she interested herself in the welfare of the local people and had them taught lacemalcing, which in a short rim became a profitable industry. - . As the Netherlands, home of bobbin lace-making, were at that time under the dominion of her nephew, Charles V, is it 'likely to suppose that Flemish lacemakers were imported to teach their craft ?
Further, it would be interesting to know if the fashion for wearing lace later on in the seventeenth century was the result of encouraging home industries, or whether it was imported from the Continent.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully, Sunning Wood, Boars Hill, Oxford.
CECIL RYAN.
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