Chapter XI: English Embroidery (2)

Occasionally, however, we meet with pieces of exceptionally beautiful work of the end of the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth centuries. The style is the most refined Louis Quatorze, but the work is actually English. The white satin coverlets belonging to the Marquis of Bath and the Duke of Leeds are not to be exceeded in delicacy and splendour. The embroidered dresses of the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham, in Westminster Abbey (early eighteenth century) are of this description.

From Queen Anne to George III., a great deal of furniture was covered with the different cushion stitches, either in geometrical or kaleidoscope patterns, or else displaying groups of flowers or figures, quaint and sometimes pretty. These designs are generally, however, wanting in grace, and their German feeling shows them to be the precursors of the Berlin wool patterns.

When the crewel-work hangings ceased to be the fashion, home work took another direction. All the ladies imitated Indian dimity patterns, on muslin, in coloured silks or thread, with the tambour-frame and needle;[613] but in 1707 the "Broiderers' Company," we presume, found that the Indian manufactures were engrossing the market, and a fresh statute was obtained, forbidding the importation from India of any wrought material. This cruel prohibition carried its own punishment. The Indian trade was ours, and we might have adapted and assimilated the Indian taste for design. We might have brought over men and women great in their most ancient craft, and so produced the most splendid Indo-English School. The Portuguese at least sent out their own silks and satins to be worked at Goa; _we_ threw away our chance, and signed the death-warrant of our art.

About the middle of the last century, several ladies, notably Miss Linwood, Miss Moritt, of Rokeby, and Mrs. Delany, copied pictures in worsteds. Some of these are wonderfully clever and even very pretty, but they are rather a painful effort of pictorial art under difficulties, than legitimate embroideries. These pictures would have served the purpose of decoration better as medallions in the centres of arabesque panels, than framed and glazed in imitation of oil paintings. Some of the followers of this school produced works that are shocking to all artistic sense, especially as seen now, when the moths have spoiled them. They can only be classed with such abortive attempts at decoration as glass cases filled with decayed stuffed birds, and vases of faded and broken wax flowers.

I may record with praise the efforts of Mrs. Pawsey,[614] a lady who started a school of needlework at Aylesbury. She was patronized by Queen Charlotte; and for her she worked the beautiful bed at Hampton Court, of purple satin, with wreaths of flowers in crewels touched up with silk, which look as if they might have been copied from the flower-pieces of a Dutch master. The execution is very fine, and reminds one of the best French work of the same period. Mrs. Pawsey taught and helped ladies to embroider in silk and chenille, as well as crewels, and in many country houses we can recognize specimens of her style; usually on screens worked in silk and chenille, with bunches of flowers in vases or baskets, artistically designed.

This was our last attempt at excellence, immediately followed by the total collapse of our decorative needlework, and the advent of the Berlin wool patterns.

POSTSCRIPT.

A postscript to this chapter will perhaps be acceptable to those who have taken an interest in the "History of English Embroidery," and who will therefore care to know about the revival which has filled so many workshops with what is now called "Art Needlework."

There was a public demand for something better than the worsted patterns in the trade, and the Royal School of Art Needlework rose and tried to respond to that call by stimulating original ideas and designs, and imitating old ones in conformity with modern requirements. The difficulties to be overcome were at first very great. The old stitches had all to be learned and then taught, and the best methods to be selected; the proper materials had to be studied and obtained--sometimes they had to be manufactured. Lastly, beautiful tints had to be dyed; avoiding, as much as possible, the gaudy and the evanescent.

The project of such a school was first conceived in the autumn of 1872.

Lady Welby, herself an accomplished embroideress, had the courage to face all the difficulties of such an undertaking. A small apartment was hired in Sloane Street, and Mrs. Dolby, who was already an authority on ecclesiastical work, gave her help. Twenty young ladies were selected, and several friends joined heartily in fostering the movement.

H.R.H. the Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein gave her name as President, and her active co-operation.[615]

The school grew so fast, that for want of space for the work-frames, it had to remove into a larger house, No. 31, Sloane Street, and finally in the year 1875 it found its present home in Exhibition Road, when the Queen became its Patron. In 1878 the Association was incorporated under the Board of Trade, with a Managing and a Finance Committee, and a salaried manager to overlook the whole concern.

From 100 to 150 ladies at a time have there received employment. Their claims were poverty, gentle birth, and sufficient capacity to enable them to support themselves and be educated to teach others.

Branch schools have been started throughout the United Kingdom and in America.[616]

The education of the school has been much assisted by the easy access to the fine collections of ancient embroideries in the Kensington Museum, and by the loan exhibition of old artistic work, which was there organized in 1875, at the suggestion of H.R.H. the President; and since then there have been three very interesting loan exhibitions in the rooms of the Royal School.

It was, indeed, necessary that the acting members should avail themselves of every means of instruction, in order to fit themselves for the task they had undertaken. They were expected at once to be competent to judge all old work, to name its style and date, and even sometimes its market value. They were to be able to repair and add to all old work; to know and teach every stitch, ancient and modern; and produce designs for any period, Gothic, Renaissance, Elizabethan, James I., or Queen Anne; besides contemporary European work,--all different, and each requiring separate study.

Some important works have been produced which will illustrate what has been said:--

1. A suite of window curtains for her Majesty, at
Windsor (style, nineteenth century; sunflowers).

2. Curtains for a drawing-room for the Duchess of
Buccleuch: crimson velvet and gold appliqué (Louis
Quatorze).

3. Curtain for Louisa, Lady Ashburton: coloured silk
embroidery on white satin (Venetian, sixteenth century).

4. Curtain, also for Louisa, Lady Ashburton: brown
velvet and gold appliqué (_Italian_).

5. Dado for the Hon. Mrs. Percy Wyndham: linen and
crewels. Peacocks and vines (_Mediæval_).

6. Furnishings and hangings for state bedroom for
Countess Cowper, Panshanger: crimson satin, embroidered
and coloured silks (_Chinese_).

7. Curtains for music gallery for Mr. Arthur Balfour:
blue silk, appliqué, velvet, and gold (_Italian_).

The earnest attempt to produce an artistic school of embroidery met with recognition and help from the highest authorities. Sir F. Leighton granted permission for appeals to his judgment. Mr. Burne Jones, Mr. Morris, Mr. Walter Crane, and Mr. Wade gave original designs.

We cannot guess whether the taste which has sprung up again so suddenly will last. Perhaps its catholicity may prolong its popularity, and something absolutely new in style may be evolved, which shall revive the credit of the "opus Anglicanum." Of one thing we may be sure--that it is inherent in the nature of Englishwomen to employ their fingers. And the busy as well as the ignorant need a guide to the principles of design, as well as the technical details of the art of embroidery. This should be supplied by the Royal School of Art Needlework, which by inculcating careful drawing, by reviving old traditions and criticizing fresh ideas, becomes a guarantee for the improvement of domestic decorative design.

FOOTNOTES:

[555] "The people of Babylon, the Accadians, had a
written literature and a civilization superior to that
of the conquering Assyrians, who borrowed their art of
writing, and probably their culture, which may have been
the centre and starting-point of the western
civilization of Asia, and therefore the origin of our
own. Accadian civilization was anterior to that of the
Phœnicians and the Greeks, and is now received in
these later years as the original form, and become again
the heritage of mankind. It has been said that Assyrian
art was destitute of originality, and to that of the
Accadians, which they adopted, we ourselves owe our
first customs and ideas. Four thousand years ago these
people possessed a culture which in many of its details
resembles that of our country and time."--"Assyrian Life
and History," p. 66, by M. Harkness and Stuart Poole.

[556] "The arts of spinning and the manufacture of linen
were introduced into Europe and drifted into Britain in
the Neolithic Age. They have been preserved with but
little variation from that period down to the present
day in certain remote parts of Europe, and have only
been superseded in modern times by the complicated
machinery so familiar to us.... The spindle and distaff
are proved by the perforated spindle-whorls, made of
stone, pottery, or bone, commonly met with in Neolithic
habitations or tombs. The thread is proved, by
discoveries in the Swiss lakes, to have been made of
flax; and the combs that have been found for pushing the
threads of the warp on the weft show that it was woven
into linen on some sort of loom."--Boyd Dawkins' "Early
Man in Britain," p. 275.

[557] I am aware that the presence of the Phœnicians
(or Carthaginians) on our coasts has been disputed; but
I think that the evidence of the Etruscan ornaments I
have mentioned gives more than probability to the truth
of Pliny's account of the expedition of Himilco from
Gades, 500 B.C. By some he is supposed to have been a
contemporary of Hanno, and of the third century B.C.
There is some confusion in the imperfect record of the
voyage; but it is difficult to interpret it otherwise
than that he touched at several points north of Gaul.
(See Boyd Dawkins' "Early Man in Britain," pp. 457-461;
see also Perrot and Chipiez, "L'Histoire de l'Art dans
l'Antiquité," t. iii.; "Phénicie et Cypre," p. 48.) For
a contrary opinion, see Elton's "Origins of English
History." Elton ascribes the first knowledge of the
British islands to the voyage of Pytheas in the fourth
century B.C.; he acknowledges that the geography of
Britain was well known to the Greeks in the time of
Alexander the Great. We owe to Pliny and Strabo the few
fragments from Pytheas that have been rescued from
oblivion, and to Pliny the notices of Himilco. (See
Bouillet's "Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie.")

[558] See Rock's Introduction to "Textile Fabrics," p.
xii.

[559] I give the following amusing tradition, which was
probably founded on the celebrity of the English pearl
embroidery of the Anglo-Saxon times, of which much went
to Rome:--

"Then Cæsar, like a conqueror, with a great number of
prisoners sailed into France, and so to Rome, where
after his return out of Brytaine, hee consecrated to
Venus a surcote of Brytaine pearles, the desire whereof
partly moved him to invade this country."--(Stow's
"Annales," p. 14, ed. 1634.) Tacitus, in the Agricola
12, says that British pearls are grey and livid.

[560] See Rock's Introduction to "Textile Fabrics," p.
xii.

[561] These are the poor results of the Roman invasion
and neglect of Britain during their occupation. The
second invasion of Britain by the Romans, under
Claudius, was caused by the squabbles between the chiefs
of the different tribes. Comnenus, the prince of the
Atrebates, was at war with the sons of Cunobelinus
(Cymbeline). He took his grievances to Rome, and the
Roman legions were despatched to settle the matter, and
to dazzle the world by the echoes rather than the facts
of the triumphant victories in the land of the "wintry
pole." Claudius marched with elephants clad in mail, and
bearing turrets filled with slingers and bowmen,
accompanied by Belgic pikemen and Batavians from the
islands in the Rhine, A.D. 44. The dress of Claudius on
his return from Britain was purple, with an ivory
sceptre and crown of gold oak leaves. One officer alone
was entitled to wear a tunic embroidered with golden
palms, in token of a former victory. The Celts, the
Gauls, the Gaels, the Picts, the Scots, and the
Saxons,--all crowded and settled in Britain when the
Romans left it in 410, after nearly four hundred years
of misgovernment. (See Elton's "Origins of English
History," pp. 306-308.)

[562] Semper, "Der Stil," pp. 133, 134. See Louis
Viardot, "Des Origines Traditionnelles de la Peinture en
Italie" (Paris, 1840), p. 53, note. Also see "Les Ducs
de Bourgogne," part ii. vol. ii. p. 243, No. 4092.
Muratori was born in 1672; and he says the Empress
Helena's work was in existence in the beginning of the
eighteenth century. (See p. 316, _ante_.)

[563] When St. Augustine (546) came to preach to the
Anglo-Saxons, he had a banner, fastened to a cross,
carried before him, on which was embroidered the image
of our Lord. (See Mrs. Lawrence's "Woman in England,"
pp. 296, 297.) Probably this was Roman work.

[564] Quoted by Mrs. Lawrence, "Woman in England," p.
49, from one of Adhelme's Latin poems. Adhelme, Bishop
of Sherborne, died in 709, having been thirty years a
bishop. He wrote Latin poems, of which the most
important, in praise of virginity, is in the Lambeth
Library, No. 200. The MS. contains his portrait. See
Strutt's "English Dresses," ed. Planché.

[565] An Anglo-Saxon lady named Aedelswitha, living near
Whitby, in the sixth century, collected a number of
girls and taught them to produce admirable embroideries
for the benefit of the monastery. (See Rock's "Church of
our Fathers," p. 273; also his Introduction to
"Textiles," p. xxvii.) Bock speaks of Hrothgar's
tapestries, embroidered with gold, of the thirteenth
century. See Appendix 8. But the earliest English
tapestry I have seen is that in York Minster, in which
are inwoven the arms of Scrope, 1390. Wright says of the
Anglo-Saxon women, "In their chamber, besides spinning
and weaving, the ladies were employed in needlework and
embroidery, and the Saxon ladies were so skilful in this
art, that their works were celebrated on the
Continent."--"History of Manners in England during the
Middle Ages," by Thomas Wright, p. 52.

[566] See Mrs. Lawrence's "Woman in England," i. p.
296-7.

[567] See Rock's "Church of our Fathers," ii. p. 272,
quoting Th. Stubbs. "Acta Pontif. Th. ed. Twysden," 1.
ii. p. 1699; also Bock's "Liturgische Gewänder," i. p.
212, and p. 325 _ante_.

[568] Appendix 9.

[569] This could hardly have been intended originally
for an ecclesiastical purpose. It sounds as if it were a
stray fragment from Græco-Roman art, rather than a
survival of the classical legend employed as a pretty
motive for decoration. Wiglaf's veil is named by
Ingulphus. See Strutt's "English Dresses," pp. 3, 7. See
also "Historia Eliensis," l. 2, ed. Stewart, p. 183.

[570] See Rock's "Textile Fabrics," p. xxi.; also for
Council of Cloveshoe, see his "Church of Our Fathers,"
p. 14.

[571] The Benedictines drained the marshes of
Lincolnshire and Somersetshire to employ the poor in the
eighth century. St. Bennet travelled to France and
Italy, and brought back from his seven journeys cunning
artificers in _glass_ and stone, besides costly books
and copies of the Scriptures, in order (as is expressly
said by Bede) that the ignorant might learn from them,
as others learned from books. See Mrs. Jameson's
"Legends of the Monastic Orders," pp. 56, 57.

[572] See Raine's "St. Cuthbert," pp. 50-209. Mr. Raine
describes it as being "of woven gold, with spaces left
vacant for needlework embroidery." Beautifully drawn
majestic figures stand in niches on rainbow-coloured
clouds, and the effect is that of an illumination of the
ninth century. The style is rather Greek or Byzantine
than Anglo-Saxon. For further notices of St. Cuthbert's
relics, see chapter on Materials, _ante_; also see
Rock's "Introduction," p. cxvii.

[573] Appendix 10.

[574] See "Calendar of the Anglican Church," by J. H.
Parker (1851): "St. Dunstan was not only a patron of the
useful and fine arts, but also a great proficient in
them himself; and his almost contemporary biographers
speak of him as a poet, painter, and musician, and so
skilled a worker in metals that he made many of the
church vessels in use at Glastonbury."

[575] See Rock's "Church of our Fathers," p. 270.

[576] Strutt's "English Dresses," p. 70, quoted from
Ingulphus' "History of Croyland Abbey."

[577] Shot, or iridescent materials, were then and had
been some time manufactured at Tinnis in Egypt, a city
now effaced. It was called "bouqualemoun," and employed
for dresses and hangings for the Khalifs. See Schefer's
"Relations du Voyage de Nassiri Khosrau," p. cxi. The
original was written in the middle of the eleventh
century.

[578] See Duchêsne's "Historiæ Normanorum." Fol. Paris,
1519.

[579] Queen Matilda was not the originator of the idea
that a hero's deeds might be recorded by his wife's
needle. Penelope wove the deeds of Ulysses on her loom,
and it is suggested by Aristarchus that her peplos
served as an historical document for Homer's "Iliad."
See Rossignol's "Les Artistes Homériques," pp. 72, 73,
cited by Louis de Ronchaud in his "La Tapisserie," p.
32. Gudrun, like the Homeric woman, embroidered the
history of Siegfried and his ancestors, and Aelfled that
of the achievements of her husband, Duke Brithnod. The
Saga of Charlemagne is said to have been embroidered on
twenty-six ells of linen, and hung in a church in
Iceland.

[580] Domesday ed. Record Commission, under head of
Roberte de Oilgi, in co. Buckingham. See also another
entry under Wilts, where "Leivede" is spoken of as
working auriphrigium for King Edward and his Queen.

[581] Canon Jackson, writing of embroidery, says: "That
this was cared for in the great monasteries at this
early date appears from a MS. register of Glastonbury
Abbey in the possession of the Marquis of Bath. It is
called the Liber Henrici de Soliaco, and gives an
account of the affairs of that abbey in A.D. 1189
(Richard I.)." There was a special official whose
business it was to provide the monastery with church
ornaments generally, and specially with "aurifrigium,"
or gold embroidery, on vestments. For this a house and
land, with an annual allowance of food, was set apart.
Another tenant also held some land, to which was
attached the obligation to find a "worker in
gold."--Letter from Canon Jackson to the Author.

[582] See Mrs. Lawrence's "Woman in England," vol. i. p.
360. She quotes an entry from Madox, a sum of £80 (equal
to £1400 of to-day) for an embroidered robe for the
Queen, paid by the Sheriffs of London.

[583] Matthew Paris, "Vit. Abb. St. Albani." p. 46;
Rock, "Church of our Fathers," vol ii. p. 278.

[584] See Mrs. Dolby's Introduction to "Church
Vestments."

[585] Strutt's "Royal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of
England," ed. mdcclxxiii.

[586] Though the work was domestic, the materials came
from the East and the South; and while the woven gold of
Sicily and Spain was merely base metal on gilded
parchment, our laws were directed to the preservation of
pure metals for textile purposes.

[587] Matthew Paris, "Hist. Angl.," p. 473, ed. Paris,
1644. See Hartshorne's "Mediæval Embroideries," pp. 23,
24.

[588] The reproduction by the Arundel Society of this
picture will familiarize those who care for English art
with what is, perhaps, its finest example, next to the
crosses of Queen Eleanor. It has been erroneously
attributed to Van Eyk, but it is undoubtedly English.
That its art is contemporary with the time of Richard
II., is shown by the design and motives of the woven
materials and embroidery in which the king and his
attendant saints are clothed. They remind us of the
piece of silk in the Kensington Museum, into which are
woven (probably in Sicilian looms) the cognizance of the
King's grandfather, the sun with rays; that of his
mother Joan, the white hart; and his own, his dog Math.
This is a good example of the value of an individual
pattern. It helps us to affix dates to other specimens
of similar style.

[589] See Miss Strickland's mention of the Countess of
Oxford in her "Life of Queen Elizabeth of York," p. 46.

[590] From the fragments found, it appeared that King
John's mantle was of a strong red silk. Till lately,
when it was effaced by being completely gilt, the mantle
on the recumbent effigy was of a bright red, bordered
with gold and gems. See Greene's "Worcester," p. 3,
quoted in the "Report of the Archæological Association
of Worcester," p. 53.

[591] "Notice sur les Attaches d'un Sceau," par M.
Léopold Delisle (Paris, 1854); and also Rock's
Introduction to "Textile Fabrics," p. xxii.

[592] The opus Anglicanum often included borders and
orphreys set with jewellers' work (or its imitation,
worked in gold thread), gems, and pearls.

[593] Edward III. had from William de Courtenay an
embroidered garment, "inwrought with pelicans, images,
and tabernacles of gold. The tabernacles were like
niches, with pinnacles and roofs."

[594] Bock, "Liturgische Gewänder," i. p. 211, says
there is a piece of opus Anglicanum in the treasury of
Aix-la-Chapelle, called the Cope of Leo III.

[595] For further notice of the "opus Anglicanum," see
chapter (_ante_) on ecclesiastical embroideries.

[596] Appendix 11.

[597] The orphreys are probably not the original work.

[598] "Testamenta Vetusta," ed. Nicholas, t. i. p. 33.

[599] Woolstrope, Lincolnshire. Collier's
"Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain," v. p. 3 (ed.
Lothbury). This proves that the monks sometimes plied
the needle.

[600] See Hall's "Union of the Houses of York and
Lancaster," pp. lxxv-lxxxiii.

[601] See Brewer's "Reign of Henry VIII.," vol. i. pp.
347-376.

[602] In the Public Record Office is an inventory of
Lord Monteagle's property, 1523 A.D.; amongst other
things, is named a piece of Spanish work, "eight
partletts garnished with gold and black silk work." This
Spanish work is rare, but the description reminds us of
a specimen belonging to Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford
(Plate 82)--a square of linen, worked with ostriches,
turkeys, and eagles in gold and black silk stitches. See
Mrs. Palliser's "History of Lace," pp. 6, 12.

[603] Quoted from Cavendish by Miss Strickland, "Queens
of England," iv. p. 132.

[604] "The invalid queen, in her moments of
convalescence, soothed her cares and miseries at the
embroidery frame. Many specimens of her needlework were
extant in the reign of James I., and are thus celebrated
by Taylor, the poet of the needle:--

"'Mary here the sceptre sway'd;
And though she were no queen of mighty power,
Her memory will never be decay'd,
Nor yet her works forgotten. In the Tower,
In Windsor Castle, and in Hampton Court,--
In that most pompous room called Paradise,--
Whoever pleases thither to resort,
May see some works of hers of wondrous price.
Her greatness held it no disreputation
To hold the needle in her royal hand,
Which was a good example to our nation
To banish idleness throughout the land.
And thus this queen in wisdom thought it fit;
The needle's work pleased her, and she graced it.'

"According to Taylor, Mary finished the splendid and
elaborate tapestry begun by her mother."--Miss
Strickland's "Life of Mary Tudor," v. p. 417.

[605] "After the action at D'Arbre de Guise, Elizabeth
(of England) sent to Henri IV. a scarf embroidered by
her own hand. 'Monsieur mon bon frère,' wrote the queen,
'its value is naught in comparison to the dignity of the
personage for whom it is destined; but I supplicate you
to hide its defects under the wings of your good
charity, and to accept my little present in remembrance
of me.'"--"Henri IV.," by Miss Freer, p. 311.

[606] In the year 1683 the Marchese Luca Casimiero degl'
Albizzi visited England, and his travels were recorded
in manuscript by Dr. A. Forzoni. At Windsor he observed
over a chimney-piece a finely wrought piece of
embroidery--"un educazione di fanciulli"--by the hands
of Mary Queen of Scots.--Loftie's "History of Old
London;" also article on "Royal Picture Galleries," by
George Scharf, p. 361 (1867).

[607] "The Company of the Embroiderers can make appear
by their worthy and famous pieces of art that they have
been of ancient use and eminence, as is to be seen in
divers places at this day; but in the matter of their
incorporation, it hath relation to the fourth year of
Queen Elizabeth."--Stow's "Survey of London and
Westminster," part ii. p. 216; also see Edmonson's
"Heraldry," vol. i. (1780). "The Keepers, Wardens, and
Company of the Broiderie of London.... 2 keepers and 40
assistants, and the livery consists of 115 members. They
have a small but convenient hall in Gutter
Lane."--Maitland's "History of London," book iii. p.
602.

[608] The fashion of this work began much earlier, for
we find in the inventory of "St. James's House, nigh
Westminster," 1549: "42 Item. A table wherein is a man
holding a sword in his one hand and a sceptre in his
other hand of needlework, partly garnished with seed
pearl" (p. 307).

[609] The merit or blame of this rounded padded work (a
caricature of the raised embroidery of the opus
Anglicanum) is often erroneously awarded to the "nuns of
Little Gidding." The earliest specimens we know of this
"embroidery on the stamp" are German. At Coire in the
Grisons, at Zurich (see chapter on ecclesiastical art),
and in the National Museum at Munich are some very
beautiful examples. The Italians also executed elaborate
little pictures in this manner; but I cannot praise it
however refined in execution or beautiful the design. I
have seen no English specimens that are not beneath
criticism; they are only funny.

[610] In the Calendar of the State Papers Office
(Domestic, Charles I., vol. clxix. p. 12), Mrs. H.
Senior sues the Earl of Thomond for £200 per annum, her
pay for teaching his daughter needlework. Mrs.
Hutchinson, in her Memoir, says she had eight tutors
when she was seven years old, and one of them taught her
needlework. This shows how highly this accomplishment
was still considered in the days of Charles I. and the
Commonwealth. Later, Evelyn speaks of the "new bed of
Charles II.'s queen, the embroidery of which cost £3000"
(Evelyn's Memoirs, January 24, 1687). Evelyn says of his
own daughter Susanna, who married William Draper: "She
had a peculiar talent in designe, as painting in oil and
miniature, and an extraordinary genius for whatever
hands can do with a needle." See Evelyn's "Memoirs,"
April 27, 1693; also see Mrs. Palliser's "History of
Lace," pp. 7, 8.

[611] The tree-pattern, already common in the latter
days of Elizabeth, reappeared on a dress worn by the
Duchess of Queensberry, and described by Mrs. Delany;
she says, "A white satin embroidered at the bottom with
brown hills, covered with all sorts of weeds, and with a
brown stump, broken and worked in chenille, and
garlanded nasturtiums, honeysuckles, periwinkles,
convolvuluses, and weeds, many of the leaves finished
with gold." Mrs. Delany does not appreciate this ancient
pattern.

[612] Queen Mary only knotted fringes. Bishop Burnett
says: "It was strange to see a queen work so many hours
a day." Sir E. Sedley, in his epigram on the "Royal
Knotter," says,--

"Who, when she rides in coach abroad,
Is always knotting threads."

Probably it was the fashion, as Madame de Maintenon
always worked during her drives with the king, which
doubtless prevented her dying of _ennui_!

[613] I quote from the _Spectator_, No. 606: "Let no
virgin receive her lover, except in a suit of her own
embroidery."

[614] Her style was really legitimate to the art. It was
flower-painting with the needle. Miss Moritt copied both
figures and landscapes, with wonderful taste and
knowledge of drawing. Miss Linwood's and Mrs. Delany's
productions are justly celebrated as _tours de force_,
but they caused the downfall of the art by leading it on
the wrong track.

[615] Lord Houghton alludes to H.R.H.'s patronage of the
revival of embroidery in his paraphrase of the "Story of
Arachne," p. 238, _ante_.

[616] "Opposed to the 'utility stitches' are the art
needlework schools that have branched out in many
directions from New York.... The impulse that led to
their formation was derived from South Kensington
(England), and affords a striking instance of the
ramifications of an organization."--_Atlantic Monthly_
("Women in Organization"), Sept., 1880.

FINIS.

APPENDICES.