turquoise beads,-among the most beautiful of those manufactured, are generally used for the grounds; an opal bead, lately introduced, is extremely pretty intermixed with others.

Besides glass beads, gilt and silver beads, both plain and cut, and steel beads, are frequently used for this kind of work; the latter, for the sake of variety, being sometimes manufactured of a dark purple tint.

The designs for bead work are generally taken from Berlin patterns: the beads are attached to a canvas by a waxed sewing silk, but a fine twisted cotton thread is used for this purpose in Germany. Half cross stitch, or across two threads each way of the canvas on the slant, is the usual method of working them.

Beads of all kinds are commonly introduced by the Germans into their patterns, the principal portions of which are worked with wool or silk, whether on cotton or silk canvas, and not unfrequently with a pleasing effect. The use of beads, however, in the higher departments of the art, when we wish to imitate painting, is totally inadmissible—at least, if we have any regard for the laws of good taste. In historical subjects, even the admixture of gold and silver threads, is not in good keeping; but to enrich parts of the drapery and other portions of the design with heavy masses of beads, or with raised work, as is frequently done in Germany, is so gross an infringement of all the proprieties of art, that it cannot be too scrupulously avoided.

Some of the most beautiful bead work is done in tricot, with a fine cotton or silk; but it is a more laborious and expensive method of producing the same effect, although for some few purposes it is infinitely superior. Purses made with beads, in imitation of netting, are also very pretty, but perhaps more curious than useful.

With respect to beads, it may not here be improper to observe,

that a great difference exists in the quality of all sorts of steel and gilt beads, causing a variation sometimes of as much as three or four hundred per cent. in their value to those who cannot at first perceive the difference, time will soon show the inferiority in the wear of the one in comparison with the other.

Bead work may be done on canvas of several sizes, according to the size of the beads; the canvas usually employed measures about thirty-eight threads to the inch.*

* It is, perhaps, not generally known, that all the glass beads used for needlework are manufactured at Murano, near Venice. Tubes of coloured glass are drawn out to great lengths and fineness, in the same manner as those of more moderate lengths are made in this country for thermometers; these are cut into very small pieces, of nearly uniform lengths, on the upright edge of a fixed chisel. These elementary cylinders are then put into a mixture of fine sand and wood ashes, where they are stirred about until their cavities get filled. This mixture is then put into an iron pan, suspended over a moderate fire, where, by being kept continually stirred, they assume a smooth rounded form. They are then removed from the fire, cleared out in the bore, and strung in bunches, constituting the beads as we meet with them in commerce. Great quantities of these beads, packed in casks, are exported to all parts of the world.

CHAPTER XXI.

Needlework of the

English Queens and Princesses.

"And, round about, her worke she did empale
With a faire border wrought of sundrie flowres,
Enwoven with an yvie-winding trayle:

A goodly worke, full fit for kingly bowres;
Such as dame Pallas, such as Envie pale,

That all good things with venomous tooth devowres,
Could not accuse."

SPENSER.

"She wrought so well in needle-worke, that shee,
Nor yet her workes, shall ere forgotten be."

JOHN TAYLOR.

HEN this volume was commenced, a list of contents was framed, to which we intended to adhere, and each chapter has been written in accordance with the plan. The present one was proceeding in the steps of its predecessors, when we dis

covered that we had already exceeded the limits proposed, and we

are unwillingly obliged to treat this interesting portion of our subject more briefly than was at first intended, to the sacrifice indeed of much valuable material.

In a former chapter, mention has been made of the works of the four daughters of Edward the Elder, as also of the astonishing labours of Matilda, consort of William the Conqueror. The second wife of Henry I,—Adelais, the daughter of Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, was celebrated for her needlework; and an especial mention is made of an embroidered standard, of her work.

The first queen of Henry VIII, Katharine of Arragon, devoted most of her leisure hours to needlework. "In her greatness," says Bishop Burnet, "she wrought much with her own hands, and kept her women well employed about her." Shakspeare, in the third act of his Henry VIII, represents Katharine as engaged at needlework with her women, when the two cardinals, Wolsey and Campeius, are introduced to her presence. The scene commences with :

:

Q. Kath. Take thy lute wench: my soul grows sad with troubles:
Sing, and disperse them, if thou canst leave working.

Taylor, also, in the "Needles Excellency," speaks of her as celebrated for her needlework :

"I Read that in the seventh King Henries raigne,
Fair Katharine, Daughter of the Castile King,
Came into England with a pompous traine

Of Spanish ladies, which she thence did bring.
She to the eighth King Henry married was,
And afterwards divorc'd, where vertuously
(Although a Queene), yet she her days did passe
In working with the Needle curiously,

"History of the Reformation," p. 192.

As in the Towre, and places more beside,
Her excellent memorialls may be seene;
Whereby the Needle's prayse is dignifide

By her faire Ladies, and herselfe a Queene.
Thus far her paines, here her reward is iust,

Her workes proclaime her prayse, though she be dust.”

Anne Boleyn, who was educated at the Court of Francis I, devoted a large portion of her time to the occupation of the needle, in working tapestry.*

Sir Thomas Chaloner, in his elegy on Lady Jane Grey, commends her not only for her beauty, but also for that which was a greater charm, her intelligent and interesting style of conversation. He speaks of her stupendous skill in languages, being well versed in eight, the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, Arabic, French, and Italian, besides that of her native land, in which she was well grounded. He further observes that she was a proficient in instrumental music, wrote a beautiful hand, and was as excellent at her needle.t

"Of broken workes wroght many a goodly thing,
In castyng, in turnyng, in florishing of flowres,
With burres rowgh, and buttens surffyllyng,

* Vide Miss Benger's "Life of Anne Boleyn," vol. i. p. 125. Peter de Bourdeilles (more generally known by the name of Brantome), in his Mémoires des Dames illustres," informs us, that Anne de Bretagne, the mother of Claude, wife of Francis I, assembled three hundred of the children of the nobility at her court, where, under her personal superintendence, they were instructed in the accomplishments becoming their rank: and that the girls devoted a great portion of their time to the working of tapestries.

In the Town Library at Zurich, are three autograph Latin letters of Lady Jane Grey, addressed to her preceptor Bullinger, in a beautifully clear and regular hand; a few grammatical errors have been remarked in them. There is also a toilet, embroidered by her, which she presented to Bullinger.