left to show that it was originally finely worked. Queen Mary used the
pomegranate as a badge in memory of her mother, Katharine of Aragon. The
volume has been re-backed in plain crimson velvet, and still retains the
original gilt corners with bosses, and two clasps, on the plates of
which are engraved the Tudor emblems,--portcullis, dragon, lion, and
fleur-de-lys.

Christopherson, _Historia Ecclesiastica_. Lovanii, 1569.

Many fine bindings in embroidered velvet of the time of Queen Elizabeth
still remain, several of them having been her own property.

One of the most decorative of these last is unfortunately in a very bad
state, owing possibly to the fact that there were originally very many
separate pearls upon it, and that these have from time to time been
wilfully picked off. The book is in three volumes, and is a copy of the
_Historia Ecclesiastica_, written by Christopherson, Bishop of
Chichester, and printed at Louvain in 1569. Each of these volumes is
bound in the same way, so the description of one of them will serve for
all, except that no one volume is perfect, so the description must be
taken as representing only what each originally was.

It is covered in deep green velvet, and measures 6 by 3-1/2 inches, the
design being the same on each side. In the centre the royal coat-of-arms
is applique in blue and red satin, on an ornamental cartouche of pink
satin, with scrolls of gold threads and coloured silks, richly dotted
with small pearls. The bearings on the coats-of-arms are solidly worked
in fine gold threads.

From each corner of the sides springs a rose spray, with Tudor roses of
red silk mixed with pearls, and Yorkist roses all worked in pearls
clustering tight together, the leaves and stems being made in gold cord
and guimp. A decoratively arranged ribbon outlined with gold cord and
filled in with a line of small pearls set near each other, encloses the
design, and numerous single pearls are set in the spaces between the
roses and their leaves and stems.

[Illustration: 20--Christian Prayers. London, 1570.]

The back is divided into five panels bearing alternately Yorkist roses
of pearls and Tudor roses of red silk and pearls, all worked in the
same way as the roses on the sides.

The illustration I give of this binding (Frontispiece) is necessarily a
restoration. But there is nothing added which was not originally on the
book. Each pearl that has disappeared has left a little impress on the