leisure hours, as also more particularly in working various ornaments for the Church, and the vestments of the Clergy. We are told by William of Malmesbury, that St. Dunstan, in his younger days, did not disdain to assist a pious and noble lady in the drawing of a design for embroidering a sacerdotal robe, which she afterwards wrought in threads of gold.

The four daughters of Edward the Elder, and sisters of king Athelstan, were highly praised and distinguished on account of their great assiduity and skill both in spinning, weaving, and needlework;*-— accomplishments which, so far from injuring the fortunes of these royal maidens, procured for them the addresses of the greatest princes in Europe. In the tenth century, we find Edelfreda, widow of Brithned, duke of Northumberland, presenting to the church of Ely a veil or curtain, on which she had depicted with her needle the deeds of her deceased lord. Ingulphus, in his history, mentions that among other gifts made by Witlaf, king of Mercia, to the abbey of Croyland, he presented a golden curtain, embroidered with the siege of Troy, to be hung up in the church on his birth day. At a later period,-1155, a pair of richly worked sandals, and three mitres, the work of Christina, abbess of Markgate, were among the valuable gifts presented by Robert, abbot of St. Albans, to Pope Adrian IV.‡ Numerous

* William of Malmesbury, b. ii. c. 5.

+ Ingulphus, p. 487, edit. 1596.

‡ Adrian IV. was the only Englishman who ever sat in St. Peter's chair. His name was Nicolas Breakspear: he was born of poor parents at Langley, near St. Alban's. Henry II. on his promotion to the papal chair, sent a deputation of an abbot and three bishops to congratulate him on his election; upon which occasion he granted considerable privileges to the abbey of St. Alban's. With the exception of the presents named above, he refused all the other valuable ones which were offered him, saying jocosely,-"I will not accept your gifts, because when I wished to take the habit of your monastery you refused me.” To which the abbot pertinently and smartly replied,—“ It,

other instances might be cited from the monkish historians, were it necessary to enter more fully into the subject. Maids used to work with their mistresses; and men, especially the monks, practised decorative needlework.* In fact, to the time of the Reformation, it formed the principal occupation of the seIcluded life of the nuns, in the various religious houses throughout England.

Hangings or veils, such as we have mentioned, and—

were the description of needlework, which, in former times, principally occupied the attention and fingers of the fair. Remnants of these may still be seen in some of our royal and noble residences. The designs were worked, or embroidered, with a needle, with worsted or silk of various colours, and not unfrequently intermixed with gold and silver threads, on a groundwork of canvass, or texture of cloth or silk, in a manner very different, however, from those either of Flanders, or the Gobelins;—an invention, comparatively speaking, of modern times, partaking more of the character of weaving than of needlework, and of which we shall hereafter make more especial mention, when speaking of tapestry in general.

The celebrated needlework of Bayeux, doubtless the most ancient specimen in existence,† is supposed to have been the work of

was not for us to oppose the will of Providence, which had destined you for greater things."

* The practice of needlework, even at the present day, is not entirely confined to the softer sex. Many men, particularly officers of the army, have not deemed the use of the needle more derogatory than that of the pencil.Most of the best specimens of embroidery done on the continent, more especially the appendages of the sacerdotal and military dress, are executed by men.

† We must not omit to mention the pall used at the funeral of Sir William

Matilda, queen of William the Conqueror, and her maidens,* by whom it was presented to the cathedral of Bayeux in Normandy, where the canons were accustomed to gratify the people with its exhibition on particular occasions. It consists of a continuous web of cloth, two hundred and twenty-seven feet in length, and twenty inches in width, including the borders at top and bottom; these are formed of grotesque figures of birds, animals, &c., some of which are supposed to represent the fables of Esop. In the part pourtraying the battle of Hastings, the lower border consists of the bodies of the slain. The whole is worked or embroidered with worsted, representing the various events connected with the inva

Walworth, in the fourth year of Richard II. A. D. 1381. This, perhaps the most magnificent piece of ancient needlework in existence, is still preserved by the Fishmongers' Company. The ends which are exactly similar, represent St. Peter seated on a throne, clothed in pontificial robes, and crowned with the papal tiara; he is giving the benediction with one hand, whilst in the other he holds the keys. On either side of the saint is an angel scattering incense from a golden vase. The sides of the pall, which are also similar, are richly decorated with the arms of the Fishmongers' Company at either end; the centres represent our Saviour giving the keys to Peter. The faces of the figures (including those of the merman and mermaid, the supporters of the arms) are most beautifully executed; but we would more particularly call the attention of those interested in such works to the face of our Saviour, which may justly be termed a masterpiece of art. The whole is richly and elaborately wrought in gold, silver, and silk, on a coarse kind of linen cloth; the ground being composed entirely of gold, with a pattern in relief. The top of the pall, it is supposed, was originally embroidered in the same manner, but it has been lost, and its place is now supplied by a rich brocade of gold, bearing the stamp of great antiquity. The arms of the Fishmongers' Company are, azure, three dolphins, naiant in pale, between two pairs of lucies, in salterwise, proper, crowned, or; on a chief, gules, three couple of keys, crossed, as the crowns; supported on the dexter side by a merman, armed, and on the sinister by a mermaid, holding a mirror in her left hand; crest, two arms sustaining a crown ;Motto, "All worship be to God only."

*Though Queen Matilda directed the working of the Bayeux Tapestry, yet the greater part of it was most probably executed by English ladies, who were at this period, as we have before stated, celebrated for their needlework.

sion and conquest of England by the Normans. It comprises altogether, exclusive of the borders, about five hundred and thirty figures, three only being females. The colours, as may be readily supposed from the period in which it was executed, are not very numerous, consisting only of dark and light blue, and green, red, yellow, and buff; and these, after a lapse of nearly eight hundred years, have become considerably faded, whilst the cloth itself has assumed a brown tinge. This curious piece of work appears to have been wrought without any regard to the natural colours of the subjects depicted, the horses being represented blue, green, red, and yellow, and many of them have even two of their legs of a different colour to their bodies;-as for instance, a blue horse has two red legs and a yellow mane, whilst the hoofs are also of another colour. The drawing of the figures has been termed "rude and barbarous," but in the needlework of this age, we must not look for the correct outline of the painter. The work is of that kind properly termed embroidery;-the faces of the figures, and some other parts, are formed of the material composing the ground,the outline of the features being merely traced in a kind of chain stitch. Nevertheless, taking the whole as a piece of needlework, it excites our admiration, and we cannot but wonder at the energy of mind which could with so much industry embody the actions of a series of events ever memorable in the pages of history."

An idea of the various descriptions of needlework practised by English ladies in the sixteenth century, may be gathered from some of the poems of the laureate Skelton.

* Some beautifully coloured engravings of the Bayeux Tapestry, from drawings by Mr. Stothard, have been published by the Society of Antiquaries in the "Vetusta Monumenta ; -as also in the magnificent work recently published in Paris, by M. Archille Jubinal, entitled "Les Anciennes Tapisseries Historiées."

"With that the tappettes and carpettes were layde,
Wheren these ladyes softely might rest,

The sampler to sowe on, the laces to embroyde.
To weave in the stole some were full prest,
With slaies, with tavels, with hedelles well drest,
The frame was brought forth, with his weaving pin;
God give them good speed their work to begin.

"Some to embroider, put them in prease,

Well gydyng their glotten to keep straight their silke;
Some pyrlyng of golde, their work to encrese,
With fingers small, and handes as white as mylke,
With reche me that skayne of tewly sylke,

And wynde me that batoume of such an hewe,
Grene, red, tawney, whyte, purple, and blewe."

From the time of Elizabeth,* when the study of the dead languages, and the cultivation of the more abstruse sciences, became the fashion of the day, the art of needlework, although possessing so many attractions, and capable of such endless variety, would appear, in England at least, to have been much neglected, if we except some occasional intervals, when it has for a time resumed its former importance, paramount to all other feminine amusements.

* At this period, in addition to the pleasing occupation of needlework, ladies studied Latin, Greek, Spanish, Italian and French. The " more ancient among them exercised themselves, some with the needle, some with "caul work" (probably netting), "divers in spinning silk, some in continual reading either of the Scriptures or of histories, either of their own, or translating the works of others into Latin or English." The younger branches also applied to "their lutes, citharnes, and pricksongs, and all kinds of music," which were then understood. The preparing of confectionary was also deemed an important household duty for ladies; the distillation of waters, and the acquiring some knowledge both in physic and surgery likewise occupied their attention; as, until the time of Henry VIII. there had been no licensed practitioners in either of these branches of science. The mewing of sparrow hawks and merlins, much engaged the attention of the younger portion of the female sex. One great and important office, however, must not be omitted, namely, the distribution of charitable doles by the lady of each parish or manor, poor's rates being then unknown.-Vide Holinshed's Chronicle.