prelate, St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, designed
embroideries for the execution of pious ladies of his diocese (924 A.D.).

Emma, Queen of Ethelred the Unready, and afterwards of Canute, designed
and embroidered many church vestments and altar-cloths, and Editha, wife
of Edward the Confessor, embroidered the King's coronation mantle.

The great and monumental Bayeux tapestry--which is miscalled, as it is
_embroidery_--was the work of Queen Matilda, who, like Penelope, wove
the mighty deeds of her husband and king in an immense embroidery. This
piece of needlecraft comes upon us as a shock, rather than an
admiration, after the exquisite embroideries worked by and for the
Church. It is interesting, however, as a valuable historic "document,"
showing the manners and customs of the time. The canvas is 227 feet long
and 20 inches wide, and shows events of English history from the
accession of Edward the Confessor to the defeat of Harold, at Hastings.
It is extremely crude; no attempt is made at shading, the figures being
worked in flat stitch in coloured wools, on linen canvas. Certainly it
is one of the quaintest and most primitive attempts of working pictures
by needlecraft.

The evidence of the costumes, the armour, &c., are supposed to tell us
that this tapestry was worked many years after the Conquest, but it can
be traced by documentary evidence as having been seen in Bayeux
Cathedral as far back as 1476. In the time of Napoleon I. it was removed
from the cathedral and was actually used as a covering for a transport
waggon. Finally, however, it was exhibited in the Musee Napoleon, in
1803, and was afterwards returned to Bayeux. In 1840 it was restored and
relined, and is now in the Hotel de Ville at Bayeux!

[Illustration: KING HAROLD.

(_From the Bayeux Tapestry._)]

II

THE GREAT PERIOD OF EMBROIDERY

II

THE GREAT PERIOD OF EMBROIDERY

"Opus Anglicanum"--The Worcester fragments--St.
Benedict--Legend of Pope Innocent--The "Jesse" cope--The "Syon"
cope.

The great period of English embroidery is supposed to have been from the
twelfth to the thirteenth century. Very little remains to show this,
except a few fragments of vestments from the tombs of the bishops dating
from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and other data obtained from
various foreign inventories of later date referring to the use of "Opus
Anglicanum." Some portion of the Worcester fragments may be se