unbend the
mind, by fixing its attention on the progress of any
elegant or imitative art, they answer the purpose of
domestic amusement; and, when the higher duties of our
station do not call forth our exertions, we may feel the
satisfaction of knowing that we are, at least,
innocently employed."--Mrs. Griffiths.

The triumph of modern art in needlework is probably within our own
shores, achieved by our own countrywoman,--Miss Linwood. "Miss
Linwood's Exhibition" used to be one of the lions of London, and fully
deserves to be so now. To women it must always be an interesting
sight; and the "nobler gender" cannot but consider it as a curious
one, and not unworthy even of their notice as an achievement of art.
Many of these pictures are most beautiful; and it is not without great
difficulty that you can assure yourself that they are _bona fide_
needlework. Full demonstration, however, is given you by the facility
of close approach to some of the pieces.

Perhaps the most beautiful of the whole collection--a collection
consisting of nearly a hundred pieces of all sizes--is the picture of
Miss Linwood herself, copied from a painting by Russell, taken in
about her nineteenth year. She must have been a beautiful creature;
and as to this copy being done with a needle and worsted,--nobody
would suppose such a thing. It is a perfect painting. In the catalogue
which accompanies these works she refers to her own portrait with the
somewhat touching expression, (from Shakspeare,)

"Have I lived thus long----"

This lady is now in her eighty-fifth year. Her life has been devoted
to the pursuit of which she has given so many beautiful testimonies.
She had wrought two or three pieces before she reached her twentieth
year; and her last piece, "The Judgment of Cain," which occupied her
ten years, was finished in her seventy-fifth year; since when, the
failure of her eyesight has put an end to her labours.

The pieces are worked not on canvas, nor, we are told, on linen, but
on some peculiar fabric made purposely for her. Her worsteds have all
been dyed under her own superintendence, and it is said the only
relief she has ever had in the manual labour was in having an
assistant to thread her needles.

Some of the pieces after Gainsborough are admirable; but perhaps Miss
Linwood will consider her greatest triumph to be in her copy of Carlo
Dolci's "Salvator Mundi," for which she has been offered, and