ts original state the cope
showed the twelve Apostles. The lower portion has been cut away and
reshaped, and round this is an edging apparently made out of a stole and
maniple which point to a later date, as they are worked chiefly in
cross-stitch. On the orphrey are emblazoned the arms of Warwick, Castile
and Leon, Ferrars, Geneville Everard, the badge of the Knights
Templars, Clifford, Spencer, Lindsay, Le Botelier, Sheldon, Monteney of
Essex, Champernoun, Everard, Tyddeswall Grandeson, Fitz Alan, Hampden,
Percy, Clanvowe, Ribbesford, Bygod, Roger de Mortimer, Grove, B.
Bassingburn, and many others not recognisable. These coats of arms, it
is suggested, belonged to the noble dames who worked the border. The
angels which fill the intervening spaces are of the six-winged
varieties, each standing on whorls or wheels.

[Illustration: THE "SYON" COPE.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

The cope is worked in a fine tambour or chain stitch principally. All
the faces, bodies, and draperies are composed of this. A specially
noticeable point is that the faces are worked spirally, beginning in the
centre of the cheek and being worked round and round, conforming with
the muscles of the face. The garments are worked according to the hang
of the drapery, very fine effects being obtained. After the work has
been completed a hot iron something like a little iron rod with a
bulbous end has been pressed into the cheeks, under the throat, and in
different parts of the nude body. Occasionally, but seldom, the same
device may be seen in the drapery. All the work is exquisitely fine and
perfectly even. The groundwork of the quatrefoils is of gold-laid or
"couch" work, as is also that of the armorial bearings.

The name "Syon" is somewhat misleading, as the Cope was not made here,
but came into the hands of the Bridgettine nuns in 1414, when Henry V.
founded the convent of "Syon" at Isleworth. Its origin and date will
ever be a matter of conjecture, but Dr. Rock infers that Coventry may
have been the place of its origin. Taking Coventry as a centre with a
small radius, several of the great feudal houses the arms of which are
on the border of the cope may be found, and Dr. Rock further supposes
that Eleanor, widow of Edward the First, may have become a sister of the
fraternity unknown, as her arms, Castile and Leon, are on it. "The whole
must have taken long in working, and the probability is that it was
embroidered by nuns of some convent which