148

CHAPTER XII.

Romances worked in Tapestry 165

CHAPTER XIII.

Needlework in Costume.--Part I. 186

CHAPTER XIV.

Needlework in Costume.--Part II. 209

CHAPTER XV.

"The Field of the Cloth of Gold" 231

CHAPTER XVI.

The Needle 252

CHAPTER XVII.

Tapestry from the Cartoons 273

CHAPTER XVIII.

The Days of "Good Queen Bess" 282

CHAPTER XIX.

The Tapestry of the Spanish Armada; better
known as the Tapestry of the House of Lords 301

CHAPTER XX.

On Stitchery 312

CHAPTER XXI.

"Les Anciennes Tapisseries." Tapestry of St.
Mary Hall, Coventry. Tapestry of Hampton Court 329

CHAPTER XXII.

Embroidery 342

CHAPTER XXIII.

Needlework on Books 355

CHAPTER XXIV.

Needlework of Royal Ladies 374

CHAPTER XXV.

Modern Needlework 395

THE ART

OF

NEEDLEWORK.

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

"Le donne son venute in eccellenza
Di ciascun'arte, ove hanno posto cura;
E qualunque all'istorie abbia avvertenza,
Ne sente ancor la fama non oscura.

* * * * *

E forse ascosi han lor debiti onori
L'invidia, o il non saper degli scrittori."

Ariosto.

In all ages woman may lament the ungallant silence of the historian.
His pen is the record of sterner actions than are usually the vocation
of the gentler sex, and it is only when fair individuals have been by
extraneous circumstances thrown out, as it were, on the canvas of
human affairs--when they have been forced into a publicity little
consistent with their natural sphere--that they have become his theme.
Consequently those domestic virtues which are woman's greatest pride,
those retiring characteristics which are her most becoming ornament,
those gentle occupations which are her best employment, find no record
on pages whose chief aim and end is the blazoning of manly heroism, of
royal disputations, or of trumpet-stirring records. And if this is th