noisseurs, has declared the binding to be one of the most magnificent
specimens with which he is acquainted.

It would ill-befit one of the ruder sex to attempt to write critically
about the needlework of the maidens of Gidding, but we may sing their
praises for the skill, the industry, and the artistic results exhibited
by this branch of their daily occupations.

The specimen most easily examined by any one wishing to do so, is a cover
for a dressing-case in the South Kensington Museum; another similar piece
of work was lent by a gentleman in London to an exhibition in Dublin a
few years ago; he kindly supplied the information afterwards that he had
been for many years a collector and admirer of the Gidding needlework,
and had one or two Bible covers and some other pieces of their embroidery
in his possession.

A gentleman at Brighton has also a small 32mo New Testament, printed by
R. Barker, of London, A.D. 1640, which has a Gidding embroidered cover.
The design is a simple floral pattern worked in fine close stitches on
white silk, with a foundation of coarse canvas or holland, which was
perhaps glued on to the original boards. He has also a portrait of
Charles I. made in the same kind of stitch on a satin ground, but it is
not certain whether this was worked at Gidding or not. A great deal of
needlework of that date is wrongly attributed to the Miss Collets.

An altar cloth, shown at Dublin in 1888, was also stated to be their
work, and it is extremely probable that they would have done such things,
for it is mentioned "that they were expert with their needles, and made
them serve the altar and the poor."

In making the embroidery it would appear as if the pattern was first
drawn on paper, then cut out, and finally worked over, the designs being
for the most part in somewhat high relief.

It is worthy of remark that, almost invariably, whenever this embroidery
is put up for sale or is exhibited, it is marked as the work of the "Nuns
of Little Gidding." Now, it may be said that all those who at the
present day take any interest in the life, methods, or work of Nicholas
Ferrar and his nieces, do so with feelings of admiration, and are, at
least, not to be numbered amongst their detractors. Yet it is curious
how the one name which helped more than anything else to work their ruin
is even now, as a rule, attached to them. Within a few years of Nicholas
Ferrar's death, some of his enemies had a pamphlet printed