s who gave, with tears and prayers, pennon
and scarf to the knightly and beloved hero seven hundred years ago.

Not only were the appointments of the warriors adorned by needle-work,
but the ladies must have found ample scope for industry and taste in
their own toilets. The Anglo-Saxon women as far back as the eighth
century excelled in needle-work, although, judging from the
representations which have come down to us, their dress was much less
ornamented than that of the gentlemen. During the eighth, ninth, and
tenth centuries there were few changes in fashion. A purple gown or
robe, with long yellow sleeves, and coverchief wrapt round the head and
neck, frequently appears, the edges of the long gown and sleeves being
slightly ornamented by the needle. How the ladies dressed their hair in
those days is more difficult to decide, as the coverchief conceals it.
Crisping-needles to curl and plat the hair, and golden hair-cauls, are
mentioned in Saxon writings, and give us reason to suppose that the
locks of the fair damsels were not neglected. In the eleventh century
the embroidery upon the long gowns becomes more elaborate, and other
changes of the mode appear.

From the report of an ancient Spanish ballad, the art of needle-work and
taste in dress must have attained great perfection in that country while
our Anglo-Saxon sisters were wearing their plain long gowns. The fair
Sybilla is described as changing her dress seven times in one evening,
on the arrival of that successful and victorious knight, Prince Baldwin.
First, she dazzles him in blue and silver, with a rich turban; then
appears in purple satin, fringed and looped with gold, with white
feathers in her hair; next, in green silk and emeralds; anon, in pale
straw-color, with a tuft of flowers; next, in pink and silver, with
varied plumes, white, carnation, and blue; then, in brown, with a
splendid crescent. As the fortunate Prince beholds each transformation,
he is bewildered (as well he may be) to choose which array becomes her
best; but when

"Lastly in white she comes, and loosely
Down in ringlets floats her hair,
'O,' exclaimed the Prince, 'what beauty!
Ne'er was princess half so fair.'"

Simplicity and natural grace carried the day after all, as they
generally do with men of true taste. "Woman is fine for her own
satisfaction alone," says that nice observer of human nature, Jane
Austen. "Man only knows man's insensibility to a new gow