with every refinement and luxury of civilization.

Its revival in England, especially, is owing to many causes. As
ecclesiastical decoration I have already attributed it to the
archaeological tendencies of our day, as well as to the aesthetic
sentiment which protests, after so long a period of abstention,
against the puritanical bareness and coldness of our national forms of
worship. The obliteration of embroidery from the list of the arts was
more complete in England than elsewhere; as the church of Rome still
continued to be adorned with beautiful work on altar-cloths and
frontals, and priest's dresses, which, though too much regulated in
design by the lay tastes and fashions of the time, have combined to
keep up a traditional school of needlework throughout the Continent.

Exhibitions abroad and at home have shown us what a latent power in
art embroidery still preserves, and architects have employed the
women's needles to give colour and beauty to the decaying churches,
which have been restored to their original architectural effects by
careful copies of what remained in wood, stone, and glass.

The number of new churches has also given rise to the production, in
more than one semi-conventual establishment, of beautiful and
effective works, such as the altar-cloth at Durham, and those at
Canterbury and Worcester. Such works have revived the impulse of
artistic and ecclesiastical taste, and in many small churches we have
seen beautifully embroidered altar decorations.[546]

There are, however, many amateurs who are perhaps mistresses of the
craft of needlework, and who are yet not educated sufficiently to
design a really thoughtful and beautiful work of art, and to these a
few remarks may be addressed, which may help the struggling aspirants,
and show them how they fail, and where to seek for assistance.

I shall begin by pleading for more careful design, and less parsimony
in expenditure upon the usual church adornments. It is once more a
received dogma in ecclesiastical art, one in which all religious
opinions agree, that the building in the parish which is set apart for
the first public duty, that of worship, should show as much beauty as
the means and taste of the community can command.

Perhaps the little church has just been restored, or completely
rebuilt from the foundations; the consecration is imminent. The white
stone, carved or plain, shines fresh and cold, and the whole space
looks poor and bare.