' and one 'lodged' in the centre. There are also two snakes
worked in silver thread with small colour patches in silk.

The back is badly worn, but the original design can be easily traced
upon it. There were five panels, in each of which is a small rose-tree,
bearing one large flower, with leaves and buds, and tufts of grass. The
first, third, and fifth of these are white Yorkist roses; the second and
third are Tudor roses of white and red.

_The Epistles of St. Paul._ London, 1578.

If this book of Archbishop Parker's is one of the most elaborately
ornamented embroidered books existing, and perhaps one of the greatest
treasures of its kind in the British Museum, the next velvet book to
describe is one of the simplest, yet it also is one of the greatest
treasures of its kind at the Bodleian Library.

It is a small copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, printed by Barker in
London, 1578, and measuring 4-1/2 by 3-1/2 inches, and it belonged to
Queen Elizabeth. Inside she has written a note in which she says: 'I
walke manie times into the pleasant fieldes of the Holy Scriptures,
where I plucke up the goodlie greene herbes of sentences by pruning,
eate them by reading, chawe them by musing, and laie them up at length
in the hie seat of memorie by gathering them together, so that having
tasted thy swetenes I may the less perceive the bitterness of this
miserable life.'

The Rev. W. D. Macray, in the _Annals of the Bodleian Library_, says,
'This belonged to Queen Elizabeth, and is bound in a covering worked by
herself'; and the Countess of Wilton, in the _Art of Embroidery_, says,
'The covering is done in needlework by the Queen herself.'

It is also described by Dibdin in _Bibliomania_. He says, 'The covering
is done in needlework by the Queen herself.'

The black velvet binding is much worn, and has been badly repaired. The
work upon it is all done in silver cord or guimp, and the designing, as
well as the work, is such as may well have been done by the Queen.

On both covers borders with legends in Latin, enclosed in lines of gold
cord, run parallel to the edges. Beginning at the right-hand corners of
each side, these legends read, 'Beatus qui divitias scripturae legens
verba vertit in opera--Celum Patria Scopus vitae XPUS--Christus
via--Christo vive.' In the centre of the upper side is a ribbon outlined
in gold cord, with the words, 'Eleva sursum ibi ubi,' a heart being
enclosed within the ribbon, and a long stem wi