as so
weighty that train-bearers were pressed into service. In the old
paintings the horses belonging to kings and nobles wear trappings of
heavily embroidered gold. Even the hounds who are frequently represented
with their masters have collars massively decorated with gold bullion.

The skirts of the ladies of this time were thickly encrusted with
jewels, folds of silk being crossed in a kind of lattice-work, each
crossing being fixed with a pearl or jewel, and a similar precious stone
being inserted in the square formed by the trellis. The long stomachers
were one gleaming mass of jewelled embroidery, the tiny caps or
headdresses being likewise heavily studded with gems.

During the reign of Charles I. a much daintier style of dress appeared.
Velvet and silken suits were worn by the men, handsomely but
appropriately trimmed with the fine "punto in aria" or Reticella laces
of Venice; and in this and the three succeeding reigns dress was of
sumptuous velvets, satins, and heavy silks, unembroidered, but trimmed,
and in Charles II.'s time _loaded_ with costly laces. It will be noted
that whenever lace is in the ascendant, embroidery suffers, as is
quite natural. Lace itself is sufficient adornment for fine raiment.

[Illustration: _Photo by E. Gray, Bayswater._

MRS. TICKELL AND HER SISTER, MRS. SHERIDAN, BY GAINSBOROUGH, SHOWING HOW
LACE WAS SUPERSEDED BY FILMY MUSLINS.

(_Dulwich Gallery._)]

As the use of the fine Venetian and Flemish and French laces declined,
and tuckers and frillings of Mechlin, Valenciennes, and Point
d'Angleterre appeared, the use of embroidery asserted itself, and the
pretty satins and daintily coloured silks of William and Mary, Queen
Anne, and more specially the earlier Georges, began to be embroidered in
a specially delicate fashion. Fine floss silk was used in soft
colourings, and whole surfaces were covered with tiny embroidered sprays
of natural-coloured flowers. Really exquisite stitchery was put into the
graceful honeysuckle, the pansy, carnation, and rose clusters which
decorated the dresses. The bodices, sacques, and skirts of the early
eighteenth-century ladies were embroidered with real artistic taste and
feeling. Some of the old dresses kept at South Kensington show the
exquisite specimens of this class of needlework; while the coats and
waistcoats of the sterner sex are not a whit behind the feminine
garments in beauty. The long waistcoats were most frequently made of
cream,