ubies--"Sweets to the sweet:" whether it was exposed to the
vulgar gaze on the mantle, or whether it was so arranged that only at
the pleasure of the mighty wearer its radiant beauties were
visible:--on all these deeply interesting particulars we should
rejoice in having any information; but, alas! excepting what we have
recorded, not one circumstance respecting them has "floated down the
tide of years." But we may perhaps form a correct idea of them from
viewing a shield of human hair in the museum of the United Service
Club, which may be supposed to have been _compiled_ (so to speak)
with the same benevolent feelings as that of the heroes to whom we
have been alluding. It is from Borneo Island, and is formed of locks
of hair placed at regular intervals on a ground of thin tough wood: a
refined and elegant mode of displaying the scalps of slaughtered foes.
These coincidences are curious, and may serve at any rate to show that
King Ryence's mantle was not the _invention_ of the penman; but, in
all probability, actually existed.

The ladies of these days did not confine their handiwork merely to the
adornment of the person. We have seen that among the Egyptians the
couches that at night were beds were in the daytime adorned with
richly wrought coverlets. So amongst the classical nations

"------the menial fair that round her wait,
At Helen's beck prepare the room of state;
Beneath an ample portico they spread
The downy fleece to form the slumberous bed;
And o'er soft palls of purple grain, unfold
_Rich tapestry, stiff with inwoven gold_."

And during the middle ages the beds, not excluded from the day
apartments, often gave gorgeous testimony of the skill of the
needlewoman, and were among the richest ornaments of the sitting room,
so much fancy and expense were lavished on them. The curtains were
often made of very rich material, and usually adorned with embroidery.
They were often also trimmed with expensive furs: Philippa of Hainault
had a bed on which sea-syrens were embroidered. The coverlid was
often very rich:

"The ladi lay in hire bed,
With riche clothes bespred,
Of gold and purpre palle."[62]

"Here beds are seen adorned with silk and gold."[63]

"------on a bed design'd
With gay magnificence the fair reclin'd;
High o'er her head, on silver columns rais'd,
With broidering gems her proud pavilion blaz'd."

"Thence pass'd into a bow'r