tion, that I should receive
little entertainment from an examination of the books.

It is high time that you should be introduced in proper form to the famous
BAYEUX TAPESTRY. Know then, in as few words as possible, that this
celebrated piece of Tapestry represents chiefly the INVASION OF ENGLAND by
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, and the subsequent death of Harold at the battle of
Hastings. It measures about 214 English feet in length, by about nineteen
inches in width; and is supposed to have been worked under the particular
superintendance and direction of Matilda, the wife of the Conqueror. It was
formerly exclusively kept and exhibited in the Cathedral; but it is now
justly retained in the Town Hall, and treasured as the most precious relic
among the archives of the city. There is indeed every reason to consider it
as one of the most valuable historical monuments which France possesses. It
has also given rise to a great deal of archaeological discussion.
Montfaucon, Ducarel, and De La Rue, have come forward successively--but
more especially the first and last: and Montfaucon in particular has
favoured the world with copper-plate representations of the whole.
Montfaucon's plates are generally much too small: and the more enlarged
ones are too ornamental. It is right, first of all, that you should have an
idea how this piece of tapestry is preserved, or rolled up. You see it
here, therefore, precisely as it appears after the person who shews it,
takes off the cloth with which it is usually covered.

[Illustration]

The first portion of the needle-work, representing the embassy of Harold,
from Edward the Confessor to William Duke of Normandy, is comparatively
much defaced--that is to say, the stitches are worn away, and little more
than the ground, or fine close linen cloth, remains. It is not far from the
beginning--and where the colour is fresh, and the stitches are,
comparatively, preserved--that you observe the PORTRAIT OF HAROLD.[147]

You are to understand that the stitches, if they may be so called, are
threads laid side by side--and bound down at intervals by cross stitches,
or fastenings--upon rather a fine linen cloth; and that the parts intended
to represent _flesh_ are left untouched by the needle. I obtained a few
straggling shreds of the _worsted_ with which it is Worked. The colours are
generally a faded or bluish green, crimson, and pink. About the last five
feet of this extraordinary roll are in a yet more d