tely worked with very small pieces of
peacocks' feathers, sewn on with small stitches, quite confirming the
opinion I had already formed as to the original filling in of the usual
'bald' spaces representing such objects.

_Bible._ London, 1619.

A copy of a Bible, printed in London in 1619, is bound in white satin,
and measures 6 by 3-1/2 inches. On each side is an emblematic figure
enclosed in an oval; the figures are different, but their surroundings
are alike. On the upper side a lady holding a palm branch in her right
hand is worked in shading-stitch. She is full length, and wears an
orange skirt with purple robe over it confined by a blue belt, and over
her shoulders a pink jacket--all these garments are outlined by a gold
cord. Her fair hair is covered by an ornamental cap of red and gold, and
her feet are bare.

The ground is worked with coloured silks and threads of fine wire
closely twisted round with coloured silks, and the sky, painted in
gradations of pink in water-colours, is worked sparsely with long
stitches of blue silk.

[Illustration: 36--Bible. London, 1619.]

The lower side shows a female figure worked in a similar way; in this
case she bears in her right hand some kind of wand or spray, which has
nearly worn off, and in her left a bunch of corn or grapes, or something
of that kind which has also badly worn away. If the first figure may be
considered to represent Peace, this one may perhaps be Plenty. She wears
a deep purplish skirt, with full over-garment and body of the same
colour, with an under-jacket of white and gold. On her dark hair she has
a blue flower with red leaves. Her feet are bare. The ground and sky are
both worked in the same way as the other side. Both figures are
enclosed in a flat oval border of gold thread, broad at the top and
narrowing towards the foot. In the corners are symmetrical arabesques
thickly worked in gold, and within the larger spaces in each
corner-piece are the 'remains' of feathered caterpillars, now skeleton
forms of threads only. The back of the book is particularly good, and
most beautifully worked. It is divided into five panels, within each of
which is a conventional flower, a cornflower alternating with a
carnation, and the colours of all of these are marvellously fresh and
effective. Among embroidered panelled backs it is probably the finest
specimen existing.

[Illustration: 37--Emblemes Chrestiens. MS 1624.]

_Emblemes Chrestiens_, par Geor