value and consideration. They were
chiefly executed by ladies of the highest rank and greatest
piety--very frequently, indeed, by those of royal blood--and were
usually (as we have before observed) devoted to the embellishment of
the church, or the decoration of its ministers. It was not unusual to
bequeath such properties. "I give," said the wife of the Conqueror, in
her will, "to the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, my tunic worked at
Winchester by Alderet's wife, and the mantle embroidered with gold,
which is in my chamber, to make a cope. Of my two golden girdles, I
give that which is ornamented with emblems for the purpose of
suspending the lamp before the great altar."[19] Amongst some costly
presents sent by Isabella, Queen of Edward the Second, to the Pope,
was a magnificent cope, embroidered and studded with large white
pearls, and purchased of the executors of Catherine Lincoln, for a sum
equivalent to between two and three thousand pounds of present money.
Another cope, thought worthy to accompany it, was also the work of an
Englishwoman, Rose de Bureford, wife of John de Bureford, citizen and
merchant of London.

Anciently, banners, either from being made of some relic, or from the
representation on them of holy things, were held sacred, and much
superstitious faith placed in them; consequently the pious and
industrious finger was much occupied in working them. King Arthur,
when he fought the eighth battle against the Saxons, carried the
"image of Christ and of the blessed Mary (always a virgin) upon his
shoulders." Over the tomb of Oswald, the great Christian hero, was
laid a banner of purple wrought with gold. When St. Augustine first
came to preach to the Saxons, he had a cross borne before him, with a
banner, on which was the image of our Saviour Christ. The celebrated
standard of the Danes had the sacred raven worked on it; and the
ill-fated Harold bore to the field of Hastings a banner with the
figure of an armed man worked in gold thread: to the same field
William bore a standard, a gift from the Pope, and blessed by his
Holiness.

It is recorded of St. Dunstan, who, as our readers well know, excelled
in many pursuits, and especially in painting, for which he frequently
forsook his peculiar occupation of goldsmith, that on one occasion, at
the earnest request of a lady, he _tinted_ a sacerdotal vestment for
her, which she afterwards embroidered in gold thread in an exquisitely
beautiful style. Most of th