le-knot a fringe to go entirely around it, the same
as that which should edge the upper valance.

It was a luxurious bed dressing when it was finished, and nothing in it
of material to differentiate it from the embroideries which were being
done in England at the very time. There were no original features of
design or arrangement. The close-lapping stitches were set in exactly
the same fashion, and, considering the absolute necessity of growing and
manufacturing all the materials, it was a wonderful performance.

It was not alone bed hangings which were subjects of New England
crewelwork; there were mantel valances, which covered the plain wooden
mantels and hung at a safe distance above the generous household fires.
These were wrought with borders of crewelwork, and finished with
elaborate thread and crewel fringes. They were knotted into
diamond-shaped openings, above the fringes, three or four rows of them,
the more the better, for in the general simplicity of furnishing, these
things were of value. Then there were table covers and stand covers and
wall pockets of various shapes and designs, and, in short, wherever the
housewife could legitimately introduce color and ornamentation,
crewelwork made its appearance.

In the very infancy of the art of embroidery in America, the primitive
needlewoman was possessed of means and materials which fill the
embroiderers of our rich later days with envy. Homespun linen is no
longer to be had, and dyes are no longer the pure, simple, hold-fast
juices which certain plants draw from the ground; and try as we may to
emulate or imitate the old embroidered valances which hung from the
testers of the high-post bedsteads and concealed the dark cavities
beneath, and the coverlet besprinkled with bunches of impossible flowers
done in home-concocted shades of color upon heavy snow-white linen, we
fall far short of the intrinsic merits of those early hangings.

There are many survivals of these embroideries in New England families,
who reverence all that pertains to the lives of their founders. Bed
hangings had less daily wear and friction than pertained to other
articles of decorative use, and generally maintained a healthy existence
until they ceased to be things of custom or fashion. When this time came
they were folded away with other treasures of household stuffs, in the
reserved linen chest, whence they occasionally emerge to tell tales of
earlier days and compare themselves with t