ely a gold thread remains, which enables one, however,
to perceive that the embroidery was done on fine canvas, or, perhaps,
rather coarse linen, twofold: that then it was laid on the velvet,
seamed to it, and the edges cut away, the stitches round the edge
being covered with a kind of cordon, or golden thread, sewed
over;--just, indeed, as we sew muslin on net.

There are three, in the same depository, of the date of Queen
Elizabeth. One a book of prayers, copied out by herself before she
ascended the throne. The back is covered with canvas, wrought all over
in a kind of tentstitch of rich crimson silk, and silver thread
intermixed. This groundwork may or may not be the work of the needle,
but there is little doubt that Elizabeth's own needle wrought the
ornaments thereon, viz., H. K. intertwined in the middle; a smaller H.
above and below, and roses in the corners; all raised high, and worked
in blue silk and silver. This is the dedication of the book:
"Illustrissimo ac potentissimo Henrico octavo, Angliae, Franciae,
Hiberniaeq. regi, fidei defensori, et secundum Christum ecclesiae
Anglicanae et Hibernicae supremo capiti. Elizabeta Majest. S. humillima
filia omne felicitatem precatur, et benedictionem suam suplex petit."

There is in the Bodleian library among the MSS. the epistles of St.
Paul, printed in old black letter, the binding of which was also queen
Elizabeth's work; and her handwriting appears at the beginning, viz.

"August.--I walk many times into the pleasant fields of the Holy
Scriptures, where I plucke up the goodliesome herbes of sentences by
pruning: eate them by reading: chawe them by musing: and laie them up
at length in the hie seate of memorie by gathering them together: that
so having tasted thy sweeteness I may the less perceive the bitterness
of this miserable life."

The covering is done in needlework by the queen (then princess)
herself: on one side an embroidered star, on the other a heart, and
round each, as borders, Latin sentences are wrought, such as "Beatus
qui Divitias scripturae legens verba vertit in opera."--"Vicit omnia
pertinax virtus." &c., &c.[128]

There is a book in the British Museum, very _petite_, a MS containing
a French Pastoral--date 1587--of which the satin or brocade back is
loaded with needlework in gold and silver, which now, however, looks
heavy and tasteless.

But the most beautiful is Archbishop Parker's, "De Antiquitate
Britannicae Ecclesiae:" A.D. 1572.