uatrefoils is
remarkable for being done in a long zigzag diaper pattern (laid
stitch)....

"The stitching on the armorial bearings is the same as that now
followed in many trifling things worked in wool (cross stitch).

"The canvas (or linen) for every part of this cope is of the finest
sort, but its crimson canvas lining is thick and coarse....

"A word or two about the history of this fine cope...."

Dr. Rock now enters into the history of the guilds, which included
noble laymen and women, and members of the clergy; and tells us that
the rolls of these associations sometimes grew to be exceedingly
wealthy. He says that each of these guilds had usually in its parish
church a chapel or altar of its own, splendidly provided for, to which
offerings were spontaneously given by individuals, or by members
clubbing together that their joint gift might be the more worthy.

Perhaps the cleric and the layman worked on the cope may have been the
donors. Dr. Rock suggests that possibly Coventry may have been the
place of its origin, "where the famous Corpus Christi plays" (which
this cope so well illustrates) "drew crowds every year to see them, as
is testified by the Paston letters. Taking this old city as a centre,
with a radius of no great length, we may draw a circle on the map
enclosing Tamworth, tower and town, Chartley castle, Warwick,
Charlcote, and Althorp. The lords of these broad lands would, in
accordance with the religious feelings of those times, become brothers
of the famous Guild of Coventry, and on account of their high rank
find their arms embroidered on the vestments belonging to their
fraternity. That such a pious queen as the gentle Eleanor, wife of
Edward the First, who died 1290, should have in her lifetime become a
sister is very likely, so that we may easily account for the
shield--Castile and Leon."

The other noble shields may possibly record munificent benefactions.
"The whole must have taken very long in the working, and the
probability is that it was embroidered by the nuns of some convent
which stood in or near Coventry....

"Upon the banks of the Thames at Isleworth, near London, Henry V.
built and munificently endowed a monastery, to be called 'Syon,' for
the nuns of St. Bridget's order. Among the earliest friends of this
new house was a Master Thomas Graunt, an official in one of the
Ecclesiastical Courts of the kingdom. In the Syon Nun's
Martyrologium--a valuable MS. lately bought by the