presented by
her to her learned correspondent."

In the court of Catherine de Medicis Mary Queen of Scots was
habituated to the daily practice of needlework, and thus fostered her
natural taste for the art which she had acquired in the
convent--supposed to have been St. Germaine-en-Laye, where she was
placed during the early part of her residence in France. She left this
convent with the utmost regret, revisited it whenever she was
permitted, and gladly employed her needle in embroidering an
altarpiece for its church.

This predilection for needlework never forsook her, but proved a
beguilement and a solace during the weary years of her subsequent
imprisonment, especially after she was separated from the female
friends who at first accompanied her. During a part of her
confinement, while she was still on comparatively friendly terms with
Elizabeth, she transmitted several elegant pieces of her own
needlework to this princess. She wrought a canopy, which was placed
in the presence-chamber at Whitehall, consisting of an empalement of
the arms of France and Scotland, embroidered under an imperial crown.
It does not appear at what period of her life she worked it. During
the early part of her confinement she was asked how, in unfavourable
weather, she passed the time within. She said that all that day she
wrought with her needle, and that the diversity of the colours made
the work seem less tedious; and she continued so long at it till very
pain made her to give over.

"Upon this occasion she entered into a pretty disputable comparison
between carving, painting, and working with the needle; affirming
painting, in her own opinion, for the most commendable quality. No
doubt it was during her confinement in England that she worked the bed
still preserved at Chatsworth."

The following notices from her own letters, though trifling, are
interesting memorials of this melancholy part of her life:--

"July 9, 1574.--I pray you send me some pigeons, red partridges, and
Barbary fowls. I mean to try to rear them in this country, or keep
them in cages: it is an amusement for a prisoner, and I do so with all
the little birds I can obtain.

"July 18, 1574.--Always bear in mind that my will in all things be
strictly followed; and send me, if it be possible, some one with my
accounts. He must bring me patterns of dresses and samples of cloths,
gold and silver, stuffs and silks, the most costly and new now worn at
court. Order for