NEEDLEWORK.

No one would suspect the Virgin Queen of solacing herseliwith the charms of the needle. Every woman, however, had tomake one shirt in her lifetime, and the “ Lady Elizabeth s Grace,on the second anniversary of Prince Edward’s birth, then only sixyears of age, presented her brother with a cambric smock wroughtby her own royal hands.

The works of Scotland’s Mary, who early studied all femaleaccomplishments under her governess, Lady Fleming, are toowell known to require notice. In the letters of the ill-fated queenare constant demands for silk and other sewing materials where-with to solace her long captivity. She had also studied underCatherine de Medicis, herself an unrivalled needlewoman. As-sembling her youthful daughters, Claude, Elizabeth, and Margaret,with Mary Stuart and her Guise cousins, “elle passoit,” saysBrantome, 23 “ fort son temps les apres-disnees a besogner apres sesouvrages de soye, ou elle estoit tant parfaicte qu’il estoit possible.”The ability of Heine 31 argot 29 is celebrated by Honsard, whoexalts her as imitating Pallas in the art. 30

Needlework was the daily employment of the convent. Asearly as the fourteenth century it was termed “ nun’s work ; ” 31and even now, in secluded parts of the kingdom, ancient lace isstyled by that name. 32

Nor was the occupation solely confined to females. Monks werecommended for their skill in embroidery; 33 and in the frontispiecesof early pattern books published in the sixteenth century men are

M “ Dames illustres.”

M The “lteine des Marguerites,'’ thelearned sister of Francis I., was not lessaccomplished at her needle, and entriesfor working materials appear in her ac-counts up to the year of her death, 1519.

“ Trois marcs d'or et d’argent fournispar Johan Danes, pour servir aux ou-vraiges de la dicte dame .”—Livre de d&-penses de Marguerite <VAngouleme, par leComte de la Ferriere-Fercy; Varis, 18G2.

30 “ Elle addonnoit son courageA faire maint bel ouvrageDessus la toile, et encorA joindre la soye et l’or.

Vous d’un pareil exerciseMariez par artificeDessus la toilo en maint traitL’or et la soie en pourtrait.”

Ode it la Itoyne de Navarre, liv.ii.od. vii.

31 1380. “ CEuvre de nonnain.’’— Inven-taire de Charles V.

32 “My grandmother, who had otherlace, called this” (some needle-point)“nun’s work."— Extract from a Letterfrom the Isle of Man, 1862.

“ A butcher’s wife showed Miss 0-

a piece of Alemjon point, which shecalled ‘ nun’s work.’ ”— Extract from aLetter from Scotland, 1863.

A lace-maker of Totness, now in her94th year, still uses what she calls a“ nun’s pillow.”

1763. In the “ Edinburgh Advertiser ”appears, “ Imported from the GrandCanaries, into Scotland, nun’s work.”

33 As, for instance, “ the imbrothering”of the monks of the monastery of Mols-trope, in Lincolnshire.