is said that the first needles were made by an Indian, in 1545,
before which time they were imported. The old play, "Gammer Gurton's
Needle," is based upon the extreme rarity of these domestic implements,
and the calamity occasioned in a family by their loss. There is a
curious old story about a needle, which was supposed to possess
magic powers. This needle is reported to have worked at night while
its owner was resting, saving her all personal responsibility about
her mending. When the old lady finally died, another owner claimed
this charmed needle, and began at once to test its powers. But, do
what she would, she was unable to force a thread through its obstinate
eye. At last, after trying all possible means to thread the needle,
she took a magnifying glass to examine and see what the impediment
was, and, lo! the eye of the needle was filled with a great tear,--it
was weeping for the loss of its old mistress, and no one was ever
able to thread it again!

Embroidery is usually regarded as strictly a woman's craft, but in
the Middle Ages the leading needleworkers were often men. The old
list of names given by Louis Farcy has almost an equal proportion of
workers of both sexes. But the finest work was certainly accomplished
by the conscientious dwellers in cloisters, and the nuns devoted
their vast leisure in those days to this art. Fuller observes:
"Nunneries were also good shee-schools, wherein the girls of the
neighbourhood were taught to read and work... that the sharpnesse
of their wits and suddennesse of their conceits (which even their
enemies must allow unto them!) might by education be improved into
a judicious solidity." In some of these schools the curriculum
included "Reading and sewing, threepence a week: a penny extra
for manners." An old thirteenth century work, called the "Kleine
Heldenbuch," contains a verse which may be thus translated:

"Who taught me to embroider in a frame with silk?
And to draw and design the wild and tame
Beasts of the forest and field?
Also to picture on plain surface:
Round about to place golden borders,
A narrow and a broader one,
With stags and hinds lifelike."

A study of historic embroidery should be preceded by a general knowledge
of the principle stitches employed.

One of the simplest forms was chain stitch, in which one stitch
was taken through the loop of the stitch just laid. In the Middle
Ages it was often used. Sometimes, when the materia