THE PALACE OE WESTMINSTER.

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The art of dying scarlet with the help of an insect was discovered about the year 1000, and weavingand embroidery were practised. Edward the Elder had his daughters taught the use of their needle anddistaff. Spinning was the common occupation of the Saxon ladies. Alfred, in his will, called the femalesof his family the “ Spindle-Side.” So Egbert, when entailing his estates in his male descendants, to theexclusion of the females, says, “ to the Spear-Side, and not to the Spindle-Side.” Of the skill andindustry of the ancient “ Spinsters” we have an extraordinary instance in the tapestry still preserved inthe Cathedral of Bayeux.

This curious relic of antiquity is a vast linen web 214 feet long, and 2 feet broad, on which isembroidered the history of the Conquest. It is supposed to have been executed by English women,under the superintendence of Matilda, wife of William I . Many of the figures are without stockings,though more are without shoes. Wooden shoes, now esteemed the marks of the greatest indigence andmisery, were worn by the greatest princes of Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries.

The Anglo Saxons , who were unacquainted with the building arts, destroyed the magnificentstructures left by the Homans; nor did they much improve in the knowledge of architecture for twocenturies after their arrival. During this period masonry was quite unknown and unpractised in thisisland; the walls of churches, and even cathedrals, were built of wood. Towards the end of the 7th centurymasonry was partially restored, and some other arts connected with it, introduced by two ecclesiasticswho had visited Home. These were the famous Wilfred, Bishop of York, and Benedict Biscop, founderof the Abbey of Weremouth. Wilfred was a great architect, and erected several structures at York,Hipon, and Hexham , which were the admiration of the age.

Thus all that was done in arts, politics, or improvements, originated from the clerical influence,and tended to increase and confirm its ever growing aggrandisement. There is very little doubt but thatthe reconstruction of St. Peter’s Church and the Monastery at Westminster proceeded at the same timewith the Palace, the former being built with transepts, the earliest specimen of the kind in England, theprimitive Saxon churches having been built without them.

Edward resolved to dedicate his church in the most impressive manner, and summoned a generalassembly of all the Bishops, Abbots, and great men of his kingdom, and as the Saxon Chronicle , whichis now preserved in the Library at Christchurch , Canterbury , declaretli, “ King Edward came to“ Westminster about midwinter, and the minster there, which he had himself built, he let he hallowed“ on Childermas Day, Dec. 28tli, and he died on the eve of Twelfth Day .”

Robert of Gloucester states, that he died on the 4th January, 1066, immediately after he hadrelated the vision, in which the calamities, which were so soon to desolate his country, were revealedto him.

Howel, an historian, whose accuracy and research there is no reason to doubt, states, that Edward the Confessor died in the ‘ Painted Chamber;’ and this is corroborated by Baker in his Chronicle ; and thefact, which has never been controverted, is important in two particulars; the first, as confirming theexistence of the Palace of Westminster as a royal residence at this early period, and the second, that the