tion, and
exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. The stitches
are kept of one uniform length across the design. The next row is
started from half the depth of the preceding stitch and kept of the
same length throughout. Its beauty consists in its perfect regularity.
If worked in the hand, the needle is brought back underneath the
material as in satin stitch; but in the frame all the silk or worsted
can be worked on the surface, with the exception of the small
fastening stitches.

The effect when finished is that of a woven fabric.

It is really more suitable in its original character of a ground
stitch than for working flesh. We have given an illustration of it,
because we are so frequently asked to describe "Burden stitch."

[Illustration: No. 18.--"BURDEN" STITCH.]

This form of cushion stitch worked extremely fine has been used for
flesh in very ancient embroideries, even before the introduction of
the _Opus Anglicanum_, and is found in the works of the Flemish,
German, Italian, and French schools of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries.

It seems to have been worked in a frame on fine canvas, or on a fabric
of very even threads, and the stitches so taken that the same amount
of silk appears on the back as on the surface of the embroidery.

In a toilet cover of ancient Spanish work recently added to the South
Kensington Museum, the design is entirely embroidered in varieties of
_cushion stitch_ in black floss silk upon a white linen ground. It is,
however, extremely rare to see this stitch used in any other way than
as a ground, except in actual canvas work; in which we often see
varieties of it used to fill in portions of the design, while another
stitch will be devoted entirely to the grounding.

These stitches were often executed on an open net.

* * * * *

_Stem Stitch_ is used in frame embroidery, and does not differ in any
way from that described at page 20, under "handwork," except that the
needle is of course worked through the material with both hands, as is
the case in all frame work.

The same may be said of "split stitch;" but this is more frequently
(because more easily) worked in a frame than done in the hand.

* * * * *

_Japanese Stitch_ is a modification of stem, but its peculiarity
consists in the worker taking very long stitches, and then bringing
the needle back to within a short distance of the first