ese embroidered works were first tinted,
very probably in the way in which they now are, or until the freer
influx of the more beautiful German patterns, they lately were; and it
is from this previous tinting that they are so frequently described in
the old books as _painted_ garments, _pictured_ vestments, &c., this
term by no means seeming usually to imply that the use of the needle
had been neglected or superseded in them. The garments of Edward the
Confessor, which he wore upon occasions of great solemnity, were
sumptuously embroidered with gold by the hands of Edgitha, his Queen.
The four princesses, daughters of King Edward the Elder, were most
carefully educated: their early years were chiefly devoted to literary
pursuits, but they were nevertheless most assiduously instructed in
the use of the needle, and are highly celebrated by historians for
their assiduity and skill in spinning, weaving, and needlework. This
was so far, says the historian, from spoiling the fortunes of those
royal spinsters, that it procured them the addresses of the greatest
princes then in Europe, and one, "in whom the whole essence of beauty
had centered, was demanded from her brother by Hugh, King of the
Franks."

Our fair readers may take some interest in knowing what were the
propitiatory offerings of a noble suitor of those days.

"Perfumes, such as never had been seen in England before; jewels, but
more especially emeralds, the greenness of which, reflected by the
sun, illumined the countenances of the bystanders with agreeable
light; many fleet horses, with their trappings, and, as Virgil says,
'champing their golden bits;' an alabaster vase, so exquisitely
chased, that the corn-fields really seemed to wave, the vines to bud,
the figures of men actually to move, and so clear and polished, that
it reflected the features like a mirror; the sword of Constantine the
Great, on which the name of its original possessor was read in golden
letters; on the pommel, upon thick plates of gold, might be seen fixed
an iron spike, one of the four which the Jewish faction prepared for
the crucifixion of our Lord; the spear of Charles the Great, which,
whenever that invincible Emperor hurled in his expeditions against the
Saracens, he always came off conqueror; it was reported to be the same
which, driven into the side of our Saviour by the hand of the
centurion, opened, by that precious wound, the joys of paradise to
wretched mortals; the banner o