on a rope from the
top of a tower.

Soon after the Crowning of Harold, may be seen a crowd of people
gazing at an astronomic phenomenon which has been described by an
old chronicler as a "hairy star." It is recorded as "a blazing
starre" such as "never appears but as a prognostic of afterclaps,"
and again, as "dreadful to be seen, with bloudie haires, and all
over rough and shagged at the top." Another author complacently
explains that comets "were made to the end that the ethereal regions
might not be more void of monsters than the ocean is of whales and
other great thieving fish!" A very literal interpretation of this
"hairy star" has been here embroidered, carefully fitted out with
cog-wheels and all the paraphernalia of a conventional mediaeval
comet.

In the scenes dealing with the preparation of the army and the
arrangement of their food, there occurs the lassooing of an ox; the
amount of action concentrated in this group is really wonderful.
The ox, springing clear of the ground, with all his legs gathered
up under him, turns his horned head, which is set on an unduly
long neck, for the purpose of inspecting his pursuers. No better
origin for the ancient tradition of the cow who jumped over the
moon could be adduced. And what shall we say of the acrobatic antics
of Leofwine and Gyrth when meeting their deaths in battle? These
warriors are turning elaborate handsprings in their last moments,
while horses are represented as performing such somersaults that
they are practically inverted. In the border of this part of the
tapestry, soldiers are seen stripping off the coats of mail from
the dead warriors on the battle-field; this they do by turning the
tunic inside out and pulling it off at the head, and the resulting
attitudes of the victims are quaint and realistic in the extreme!
The border has been appropriately described as "a layer of dead men."
In the tenth and eleventh centuries one of the regular petitions in
the Litany was "From the fury of the Normans Good Lord Deliver us."

The Bayeux Tapestry was designated, in 1746, as "the noblest monument
in the world relating to our old English History." It has passed
through most trying vicissitudes, having been used in war time as a
canvas covering to a transport wagon, among other experiences. For
centuries this precious treasure was neglected and not understood. In
his "Tour" M. Ducarel states: "The priests... to whom we addressed
ourselves for a sight of th