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CHAPTER
I.
WORSTED EMBROIDERY. Embroidery has been defined as " the art of adding to the surface of woven textures a representation of any object we wish to depict, through the medium of the needle, threaded with the material in which the work is to be executed." From the earliest times, it has been the amusement of women of leisure, and the occupation of those whose skilful fingers must be used In the Middle Ages, a regular to bring in returns of daily bread. work-room, or " studio," was set apart for this especial purpose in the dim old castle; and there the whole paraphernalia of embroideryframes, materials, and implements, were always to be found. There, too, the chatelaine sat with her maidens embroidering cushions, or book-covers, or those wonderful pieces of historical tapestry afterward displaced by the more mechanical arras. " Tapestry richly
And woven
wrought
close,
was the favorite needlework of those daj^s; and these hangings, or " veils,"' were rendered necessary by the style of building, which afforded many convenient chinks and loopholes for the wind. Some of these ancient pieces of embroidery were very rich, the designs being worked with worsted or silk of various colors, and often mixed with gold or silver threads, on canvas, cloth, or silk. The oldest specimen of this kind of work now in existence is the famous tapestry of Bayeux the work of the English Matilda and her attendants. piece of embroidery over two hundred and twenty feet long, although not much more than half a yard wide, is no trifling accomplishment; and in spite of the red, blue, green, and yellow horses, some of them with two legs of a different color from the rest of their bodies, one cannot but reverence this curious triumph of the needle that can claim eight centuries of birthdays. It is entirely worked with worsted in very little variety of coloring, as the Norman princess bad few advantages of this sort, but she has represented to the best of
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