gh it is in Italy and France, where the hangings for
special occasions in churches and houses are stored
away, treasured for hundreds of years, cleaned and
mended, and hung and placed to the best advantage by men
educated for the purpose. In poor churches which possess
no fine materials for decoration, one has often wondered
at and admired the picturesque effects extracted from
yards of muslin, gold tinsel, and box wreaths,
artistically combined. Our house carpenter is the only
representative we have of the vestiarius, and he is but
a feeble descendant from the ancestors of his craft, who
were expected to study and evolve the adornments of the
building for its completion, the materials of decoration
for special occasions, and lastly, the mechanical means
for hanging and stretching the draperies. These were
sometimes movable frames or posts--"scabella" (whence
"escabeau," echafaudage, scaffolding).

[450] Semper, "Der Stil," i. pp. 314, 315.

[451] Never again will such great works be executed with
the needle. In civilized countries, sovereign splendours
are at a discount. The East occasionally produces
something fine, because there they still have harems and
slaves; but even these ancient institutions are losing
their stability and in the interest of humanity, if not
in that of needlework, we may soon hope there will be
neither the one nor the other. We must allow, however,
that the purple and gold embroideries now being executed
for the King of Bavaria in his school at Munich are
royally splendid, and, by their execution, worthy of
past days.

[452] Pliny, viii. 44, 196.

[453] Gibbon's "Roman History," ix. c. 51, p. 370, ed.
1797; also see Crichton's "History of Arabia," i. p.
383.

[454] The utter dispersal of accumulated family and
household treasures has had a sad illustration in the
loads of Turkish and Slav embroideries which have
flooded the markets of Europe since the Russo-Turkish
war. Work, treasured for generations, sold for a piece
of bread, robbed from the deserted home or the bazaar,
stolen from the dying or the dead. These are so
suggestive of the horrors of war, and touch us so nearly
in connection with the rights and wrongs of the Eastern
question, that they cause us more pain than pleasure
when we study these beautif