t of work in Italy continued to be artistic,
but the English specimens that have survived from this reign are
mostly very ugly. Continental art had ceased to influence us, and bad
taste reigned supreme, except in our architecture, which had
crystallized into a picturesque style of our own called "James I.,"
and was the outcome of the last Gothic of Henry VIII. and the Italian
style of Edward VI. and Elizabeth. But the carvings of that phase of
architecture were semi-barbarous. Nothing could have been poorer than
their composition, or coarser than their execution, and the needlework
of the day followed suit. Infinite trouble and ingenuity were wasted
on looking-glass frames, picture frames, and caskets worked in purl,
gold, and silver. The subjects were ambitious Solomon and the Queen of
Sheba, and James and Anne of Denmark,[608] and other historical
figures were stuffed with cotton or wool, and raised into high
relief; and then dressed and "garnished" with pearls; the faces either
in painted satin or fine satin stitch; the hair and wigs in purl or
complicated knotting. Windsor Castle as a background for King James
and King Solomon alike, pointed the clumsy allegory, and the lion of
England gambolling in the foreground, amid flowers and coats-of-arms,
filled up the composition.

The drawing and design were childish, and show us how high art can in
a century or less slip back into no art at all. Any one comparing the
Dunstable or the Fishmongers' pall with one of the best caskets of
this period would say that the latter should have preceded the former
by centuries. In James I.'s time, ignorance of all rules of
composition was added to the absence of any sort of style.[609] I give
the illustrations of the time of James I. Plate 83 is a cushion from
Hatfield House, rich and rather foolish, with tiny men filling in the
corners left vacant by large flowers, caterpillars, &c.

Charles I. gave a raised embroidered cope to the Chapter of Durham, of
this description of work.[610]

[Illustration: Pl. 84.
English embroidered curtain (James I.), at Cockayne Hatley, Beds.]

[Illustration: Pl. 85.
Embroidered Hangings. Crewels on Linen. Hardwicke Hall.]

The other fashionable work of that day had its merits. It was the
custom to embroider hangings or linen in crewels. Considering how
often in this book and my preceding lectures I have said that this
style of work was common (even in the early days of Egypt and
Assyr