NEEDLEWORK.

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In the “London Chronicle” of 1767 will be found an account ofthe opening of a Scandinavian barrow, near ^ arehani, in Doisetshire. Within the hollow trank of an oak were found many bones,wrapped in a covering of deerskins neatly sewn together. Iherewere the remains of a piece of lace of gold wire 4 inches long,and inches broad, Fig. 1; black and much decayed, of the oldlozenge pattern, that oldest and most universal of all designs, againfound depicted on the coats of the ancient Danes, where the bordersare edged with an open or network of the same pattern. 1 * ProfessorWorsaae ascribes this specimen to the Iron age.

Fig. l.

Gold lace found in a borrow.

Our Anglo-Saxon ladies excelled in this womanly accomplish-ment ; and gorgeous are the accounts of the gold-starred andscarlet-embroidered tunics and violet sarks worked by the nuns.The “ opus anglicanum ” was sought for by foreign prelates, andmade the subject of papal correspondence. 15 Nor did our Anglo-Saxon kings ever fail, in their pilgrimages to Home, to bestow onthe sovereign Pontiff garments richly embroidered in gold andprecious stones.

Royal and noble ladies plied their needles for the adornmentof the church; and great St. Dunstan himself designed patternsto be executed by their hands. 16

The four daughters of Edward the Elder were famed for theirability. Their father, says William of Malmesbury, caused themin childhood “ to give their whole attention to letters, and

14 Strutt.

ls The richly-embroidered orplireys ofthe English clergy excited the admirationof Pope Innocent IV. (1246), who in-quired where they were made, and beinganswered in England, he exclaimed,“ Truly England is our garden of delight,in sooth, it is a well inexhaustible, andwhere there is great abundance; fromthence much may be extracted.” Andimmediately he despatched official letters

to some of the Cistercian abbots in Eng-land, enjoining them to procure a certainquantity of such embroidered vestments,and send them to Rome for his own use.—Matthew of Paris.

Ethelwynne, a noble lady, is recordedto have enlisted him in her service, todesign the ornaments of a stole; andDunstan Bat daily in the lady’s bower,superintending her work, together withthe maidens.

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