executed in wools.

It is curious how in English embroideries there has always been a
predilection on the part of the designers for interlacing stems, and for
the inconsequent introduction of birds and beasts.

Mons de Farcy, author of _La Broderie du Onzieme siecle jusqu'a nos
jours_, remarks that "it seems that the position of England, surrounded
by the sea on all sides, has provoked in its inhabitants the passion of
travelling over the sea, and they came to know, before continental
nations, of the parrots and other birds of brilliant plumage so often
reproduced in their needlework."[1]

Mrs. Christie, an English authority on Embroidery, admirably sums up the
evolution of designs when she writes "Examination of old Embroideries
gathered from all parts of the world shows that each individual
specimen, every flower and bud, is a development of some existing form,
and is not an original creation, invented, as some appear to think all
designs are, upon the spur of the moment." In the creation of a design
it is a case of assimilation of the fittest and the elimination of the
unsuitable from existing examples, thus the interlacing stems of the
work of the 14th century became grafted on to the version of the Tree of
Life idea in the Oriental designs that came to England in the 16th,
through the intercourse opened up by the formation of the East India
Company, at the end of Elizabeth's reign.

To deem, as do some writers, the bold, rather ponderous crewel work of
the 17th century, sole outcome of the importation of the Palampores of
Musulipatan, is to ignore all the tendencies manifested in the
embroideries of previous centuries; in the same way, to repudiate the
emblematical significance of special features markedly introduced into
old designs, is to betray a complete lack of knowledge of the mind and
manners of the people of superstitious days.

Knowledge was not rapidly acquired, and even as late as the 17th century
was largely disseminated through the country by allegorical narratives,
while emblematical lore reflected the history of the immediate moment.
There was in the poetry and in the embroidery of Elizabeth's day, a
sportive quality which was not likely to be checked under the Stuarts,
_doubles entendres_ were not confined to jests! and the political and
religious differences of opinion, rampant throughout the period, found
expression in the most fantastic ways.

The Stump Embroidery, in vogue at the same tim