Princess Elizabeth._

It cannot be said that there is any actual authority for saying that the
two covers just described are really the work of Elizabeth's own hand,
although she is known to have been fond of embroidery, it being recorded
that she made and embroidered a shirt for her brother Edward when she
was six. There is little doubt, however, that the same designer and the
same workwoman worked both these covers, and the technique, as well as
the design, are peculiar for the time in which they were done. Canvas
bindings were rare--most of the embroidered work on books of that period
were splendid works on velvet--so that if these two manuscripts had been
'given out' to be bound in embroidered covers we should have expected to
find them in rich velvet, like Brion's _Holy Land_, or Christopherson's
_Historia Ecclesiastica_, instead of a very elementary braid work.
Without attaching too much importance to the various statements
concerning their royal origin, I am inclined to think that there is no
impossibility, or even improbability, in the supposition that the
Princess designed and worked them herself, thereby adding to her
exquisite manuscript the further charm of her clever needle. The idea of
both writing and embroidering such valued presents as these two books
must have been is likely to have strongly appealed to an affectionate
and humble daughter, and there is an artistic completeness in the idea
which, I think, tells strongly in its favour.

Probably enough no proof of their having been worked by Elizabeth will
now ever be forthcoming, but it is equally unlikely that any positive
disproof will be found.

The two 'Elizabeth' books stand alone--there are no others resembling
them; but the next kind of embroidered work I shall describe is one
which includes a large number of books, generally small in size, and
usually copies of the Bible or the Psalms. The canvas in these cases is
embroidered all over in small tapestry-stitch, the design being shown by
means of the different colours of the silks used. The work being all
flat it is very strong, and often books bound in this way are in a
marvellous state of preservation. The most interesting designs are those
which represent Scriptural scenes. Some of these are very curious and
almost grotesque, but there is much excuse for this. To work a face any
way in embroidery is troublesome enough, but to work it on a small scale
in tent-stitch is especially difficult, t