CHAPTER I.

Introduction.

"The various kinds of needle-work practised by our indefatigable grandmothers, if enumerated, would astonish even the most industrious of our modern ladies."

"The use of sewing is exceedingly old."

J. TAYLOR.

DOUCE.

EEDLEWORK appears to have been not only a pastime for noble ladies, but the principal occupation, as a source of pecuniary advantage, for women, from the most remote periods. If we consult the earliest writings, abundant proof will be found of the high estimation in which this,one of the most elegant and useful of the imitative arts, -has been held in all ages, and in every country; and, that from time immemorial, it has ever been the constant amusement, and solace, of the leisure hours of

royalty itself.

In the time of Moses, needlework ranked high among the arts practised by the nations of the East,-embroidery with

gold and with silver, and with silk, and precious stones, being frequently mentioned in the sacred writings, particularly where allusion is made to the work of the tabernacle ;-a proof that it had attained a considerable degree of perfection at a period so remote as three thousand four hundred years since. Even anterior to this, needlework must have been greatly cultivated by the Egyptians, of whom the Israelites had doubtless acquired their knowledge. From the East, this art spread to Greece and Rome, and from thence over the whole of civilized Europe.

Our knowledge of the needlework of the Greeks and Romans is principally to be gathered from Homer and Pliny. The names of Helen and Penelope are familiar to every one, as connected with this subject. There was a memorable custom among the Grecian dames, in accordance with which, they could not accept a second husband, until they had worked the grave-clothes of their deceased lords, or his next of kin; and the story of the famous web of Penelope, as related by Homer, is founded upon this fact.-Penelope having, as she thought, lost Ulysses at sea, she employed her time in working a shroud for Laertes, the father of her husband.

"Sweet hopes she gave to every youth apart,
With well taught looks, and a deceitful heart:
A web she wove of many a slender twine,
Of curious texture, and perplex'd design:
My youths, she cried, my lord but newly dead,
Forbear awhile to court my widow'd bed,
Till I have wov'n, as solemn vows require,
This web, a shroud for poor Ulysses' sire.
His limbs, when fate the hero's soul demands,
Shall claim this labour of his daughter's hands:
Lest all the dames of Greece my name despise,

While the great king without a covering lies.

Thus she. Nor did my friends mistrust the guile.
All day she sped the long laborious toil;

But when the burning lamps supplied the sun,
Each night unravell'd what the day begun.
Three live-long summers did the fraud prevail;
The fourth her maidens told th' amazing tale;
These eyes beheld, as close I took my stand,
The backward labours of her faithless hand;
Till watch'd at length, and press'd on every side,
Her task she ended, and commenced a bride."

The ceremony of the embroidering of the peplus or veil for the statue of Minerva, and its consecration, has been handed down to us as one of the highest, festivals of the Athenians.* The peplus was the work of young virgins, selected from the best families in Athens, over whom two of the principal, called Arrephora, were superintendents. On it was embroidered the battles of the gods and giants; amongst the gods was Jupiter hurling his thunderbolts against that rebellious crew, and Minerva, seated in her chariot, appeared the vanquisher of Typhon or Enceladus.† The names of those Athenians who had been eminent for military virtue were also embroidered on it. When the Panathenaic festival was celebrated, the peplus was brought down from the Acropolis, where it had been worked, into the city; it was then displayed and suspended as a sail to the ship, which, on that day, attended by a numerous

* The Panathenaic frieze, with which Phidias embellished the outside of the temple of the Parthenon, represented this sacred procession, which was celebrated every fifth year at Athens in honour of Minerva, the guardian goddess of the city. The remains of this frieze (one of the principal treasures in the collection of Elgin marbles) is preserved in the British Museum.

+ Vide the Hecuba of Euripides, act ii. where the Trojan females are lamenting in anticipation the evils they will suffer in the land of the Greeks :-"In the city of Pallas, of Athena on the beautiful seat, in the woven peplus I shall yoke colts to a chariot, painting them in various different coloured threads, or else the race of the Titans, whom Zeus, the son of Kronos, puts to sleep in fiery all-surrounding flame."

and splendid procession, was conducted through the Ceramicus and other principal streets, till it had made the circuit of the Acropolis; it was then carried up to the Parthenon, and there consecrated to Minerva.*

The exact nature of the peplust has been disputed; but it is generally supposed to have been a sort of awning or covering suspended over the statue of the goddess. The following description of a similar covering, but of more ample dimensions, is given in the "Ion" of Euripides:

"Then from the treas'ry of the god he takes

The consecrated tap'stry, splendid woof!

To clothe with grateful shade the wondrous scene.
First o'er the roof he spreads the skirted peplus,
(The skirts on every side hang waving down),
Spoil of the Amazons, the votive gift,

That Hercules, heroic son of Jove,
Return'd from conquest, offer'd to Apollo.

On this rich produce of the loom are wrought
The Heav'ns, within whose spacious azure round
The num'rous host of stars collective shine;
His coursers there, down to his western goal
The Sun has driven; his last expiring beams
Draw forth the radiant light of Hesperus ;

In sable stole Night urges on amain

With slacken'd reins her steeds and dusky car;

The Constellations on their swarthy queen

Attend; there thro' the mid heav'ns win their way

The Pleiades; his sword Orion grasps;

Above them shines the Bear, circling round

Heav'n's golden axis; while the full-orb'd Moon,

That halves the varying months, darts from on high

* Vide Stuart's Athens, vol. ii. p. 8. The famous statue of Minerva was of ivory and gold, the work of Phidias.

"Peplus, a garment and the like: the use of it is twofold, to wear as a garment, or to cover something; that it signifies a covering, we may conclude from the Pepli of Minerva."-Pollucis Onomasticon, lib. vii. c. 13. For a further description of the peplus, vide Meursius in his Panathenaia and Reliquæ Atticæ.

Her grateful splendor; there the Hyades,
To mariners unerring well-known sign,
Appear; and gloomy in the east Aurora
The harbinger of day, that from the sky
Chases night's glittering train."

In the Middle Ages, decorative needlework for the service of the Church, if we may believe the writings of Anastasius the Librarian,* and others, was carried to an excess of magnificence scarcely to be credited. The vestments of the ecclesiastics, the altar-cloths, the palls, and the veils or curtains, were wrought with the most costly materials;-gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones, being lavished with the utmost profusion.

In England, during the Saxon dynasty,† the women were famous for their needlework, and English work (Anglicum opus) was long proverbial abroad for its excellence. The Anglo-Saxon ladies were accustomed, like those of Greece and Rome, to embroider the exploits of their husbands on the hangings of their chambers; ladies of the highest rank thus occupied their

* Vide Anastasius Bibliothecarius, de Vitis Pontificum Romanorum. Edit. Paris, 1649, vol. ii. p. 127, and numerous other passages.

† The art of embroidery appears to have been unknown in England before the seventh century, in fact we find no mention of it, or even of the weaving of figured textures, until about the year 680. At this period, in a book written by Aldhelm, bishop of Shereburn, in praise of virginity, he observes, that chastity alone did not form an amiable and perfect character, but required to be accompanied and adorned by many other virtues; and this observation he further illustrates by the following simile taken from the art of weaving:"As it is not a web of one uniform colour and texture, without any variety of figures, that pleaseth the eye and appears beautiful, but one that is woven by shuttles, filled with threads of purple, and many other colours, flying from side to side, and forming a variety of figures and images, in different compartments, with admirable art."-Vide Aldhelm de Virginitate, in Bibliotheca Patrum, tom. xiii.

Gul. Pictavens. p. 211.