and numerous manors might be reduced to the most annoying privations
through the mismanagement of the mistress of the family."

The "costly and delicate needle-work" is here, as elsewhere, passed
over with merely a mention. It is, naturally, too insignificant a
subject to task the attention of those whose energies are devoted to
describing the warfare and welfare of kingdoms and thrones. Thus did
we look only to professed historians, though enough exists in their
pages to evidence the existence of such productions as those which
form the subject of our chapter, our evidence would be meagre indeed
as to the minuter details: but as the "novel" now describes those
minutiae of every day life which we should think it ridiculous to look
for in the writings of the politician or historian, so the romances of
the days of chivalry present us with descriptions which, if they be
somewhat redundant in ornament, are still correct in groundwork; and
the details gathered from romances have in, it may be, unimportant
circumstances, that accidental corroboration from history which fairly
stamps their faithfulness in more important particulars: and it has
been shown, says the author of 'Godefridus,' by learned men, in the
memoirs of the French Academy of Inscriptions, that they may be used
in common with history, and as of equal authority whenever an inquiry
takes place respecting the _spirit and manners of the ages_ in which
they were composed. But we are writing a dissertation on romance
instead of describing the "clodes ryche," to which we must now
proceed.

So highly was a facility in the use of the needle prized in these
"ould ancient times," that a wandering damsel is not merely
_tolerated_ but _cherished_ in a family in which she is a perfect
stranger, solely from her skill in this much-loved art.

After being exposed in an open boat, Emare was rescued by Syr Kadore,
remained in his castle, and there--

"She tawghte hem to _sewe_ and _marke_
All _maner of sylkyn werke_,
Of her they wer ful fayne."[41]

Syr Kadore says of her--

"She ys the konnyngest wommon,
I trowe, that be yn Crystendom,
Of _werk_ that y have sene."

And again describing her--

"She _sewed sylke_ werk yn bour."

This same accomplished and luckless lady had, princess though she was,
every advantage of early tuition in this notable art, having been sent
in her childhood to a lady called Abro, who not only taught he