hael's Church, York. 3. Woven
| | | material of the Towneley Copes.
76 | 375 | | OPUS ANGLICANUM, twelfth century. British Museum.
77 | 376 | | TYPICAL ENGLISH ORNAMENTS for ecclesiastical
| | | embroideries, twelfth century.
78 | 377 | | DUNSTABLE PALL. Temp. Henry VII.
79 | 378 | | VINTNERS' COMPANY PALL. Henry VII.
80 | 378 | | HENRY VII.'S COPE, from Stoneyhurst; designed by
| | | Torrigiano, the sculptor of his tomb.
81 | 382 | | SPANISH WORK. Temp. Henry VIII.
82 | 383 | | ENGLISH "SPANISH WORK." Temp. Henry VIII.
83 | 389 | | CUSHION COVER, Hatfield House. Temp. Elizabeth.
84 | 390 | | ORIENTAL "TREE AND BEAST" PATTERN. Cockayne-Hatley.
| | | Temp. James I.
85 | 391 | | ENGLISH CREWEL WORK. Indian design. Temp. James I.

NEEDLEWORK AS ART.

INTRODUCTION.

The book of the Science of Art has yet to be written. Art has been
called the Flower of Life, and also the Consoler;--adorning the
existence of the strong and bright,--sheltering and comforting the sad
and solitary ones of the earth. But, rather, it resembles a
wide-spreading tree, covered with varied blossoms--bearing many
fruits.

To point out the history and the possibilities in the future of each
branch that shades, refreshes, and gives wholesome fruit to the world,
would be a task worthy of a master-hand and a pen of gold. But less
ambitious labourers in the field of investigation which is only as yet
partly cultivated, may each assist, by carefully collecting a little
heap of ascertained facts; and it is, indeed, the duty of each as he
passes to add his pebble to the slowly accumulating cairn of recorded
human knowledge.

Some one has said, "Build your house of little bricks of facts, and
you will soon find it inhabited by a body of truth; and that truth
will ally itself with other houses of facts, and in time a
well-ordered, cosmical city will arise."

My pebble is not yet polished. It is neither a diamond nor a ruby, but
I think there are a few streaks of golden light in it, which I may
venture to add to the daily accumulating treasure in the house of
human artistic knowledge.

My object in writing this volume is to fill up an empty space in the
English library of art.

The great exponents of poetic thought--verse, sculpture, painting, and
architecture--have long since been well int