, politician, and diplomatist,
compares the Queen of Navarre to Pallas Athene:--

"Elle adonnait son courage
A mainte bel ouvrage
Dessus la toile, et encor
A joindre la soie et l'or.
Vous d'un pareil exercise
Mariez par artifice
Dessus la toile en mainte traits
L'or et la soie en pourtraict."

[67] Mary de Medici brought back with her from Italy
Federigo Vinciolo as her designer for embroideries.

[68] See "Art Needlework," by E. Maxse, and "Manuel de
la Broderie," by Madame E. F. Celnart.

[69] From the Italian translation by Signor Minghetti.

[70] Gaston, Duke of Orleans (died 1660), kept hothouses
on purpose to supply models for floral textile designs.
Le Brun often drew the embroideries for the hangings in
rooms he had himself designed and decorated.

[71] We have all seen the dining-room wine-coolers
modelled in imitation of Roman tombs; and there is a
drawing-room in a splendid mansion still furnished with
cinerary urns covering the walls, while curule chairs
most uncomfortably furnish the seats.

[72] In his designs for papers and textiles, Mr. Morris'
poetical and artistic feeling--his admiration and
sensitiveness for all that is beautiful and graceful (as
well as quaint)--his respect for precedent, added to his
own fanciful originality,--have given a colour and seal
to the whole decorative art of England of to-day. It is
a step towards a new school. The sobriety and tenderness
of his colouring gives a sense of harmony, and
reconciles us to his repetitions of large vegetable
forms, which remind us sometimes of a kitchen-garden in
a tornado. For domestic decoration we should, as far as
possible, adhere to reposing forms and colours. Our
flowers should lie in their allotted spaces, quiet and
undisturbed by elemental struggles, which have no
business in our windowed and glass-protected rooms.

CHAPTER II.

DESIGN.

_Gorgo._ Behold these 'broideries! Finer saw you never.

_Praxinoe._ Ye gods! What artists work'd these pictures in?
What kind of painter could these clear lines limn?
How true they stand! nay, lifelike, moving ever;
Not worked--_created!_ Woman, thou art clever!

(Scene at a Festival) _Theocritus_, Idyll xv. line 78.

The word design, as applied to needlework, inclu