CHAPTER XII.

ROMANCES WORKED IN TAPESTRY.

"And storied loves of knights and courtly dames, Pageants and triumphs, tournaments and games."

Rose's Partenopex.

It has been a favourite practice of all antiquity to work with the needle representations of those subjects in which the imagination and the feelings were most interested. The labours of Penelope, of Helen, and Andromache, are proverbial, and this mode of giving permanency to the actions of illustrious individuals was not confined to the classical nations. The ancient islanders used to work--until the progress of art enabled them to weave the histories of their giants and champions in Tapestry; and the same thing is recorded of the old Persians; and this furniture is still in high request among many Oriental nations, especially in Japan and China. The royal palace of Jeddo has profusion of the finest Tapestry; this indeed is gorgeous, being wrought with silk, and adorned with pearls, gold, and silver.

It was considered a right regal offering from one prince to another. Henry III., King of Castile, sent a present to Timour at Samarcand, of Tapestry which was considered to surpass even the works of Asiatic artists in beauty: and when the religious and military orders of some of the princes of France and Burgundy had plunged them into a kind of crusade against the Turkish Sultan Bajazet, and they became his prisoners in the battle of Nicopolis, the King of France sent presents to the Sultan, to induce him to ransom them; amongst which Tapestry representing the battles of Alexander the Great was the most conspicuous.

Tapestry was not used in the halls of princes alone, but cut a very conspicuous figure on all occasions of festivity and rejoicing. It was customary at these times to hang ornamental needlework of all sorts from the windows or balconies of the houses of those streets through which a pageant or festal procession was to pass; and as the houses were then built with the upper stories far overhanging the lower ones, these draperies frequently hung in rich folds to the ground, and must have had, when a street was thus in its whole length appareled and partly roofed by the floating streamers and banners above--somewhat the appearance of a suite of magnificent saloons.

"Then the high street gay signs of triumph wore, Covered with shewy cloths of different dye, Which deck the walls, while Sylvan leaves in store, And scented herbs upon the pavement lie. Adorned in every window, every door, With carpeting and finest drapery; But more with ladies fair, and richly drest In costly jewels and in gorgeous vest."

When the Black Prince entered London with King John of France, as his prisoner, the outsides of the houses were covered with hangings, consisting of battles in tapestry-work.

And in tournaments the lists were always decorated "with the splendid richness of feudal power. Besides the gorgeous array of heraldic insignia near the Champions' tents, the galleries, which were made to contain the proud and joyous spectators, were covered with tapestry, representing chivalry both in its warlike and its amorous guise: on one side the knight with his bright faulchion smiting away hosts of foes, and on the other side kneeling at the feet of beauty."

But the subjects of the tapestry in which our ancestors so much delighted were not confined to _bonâ fide_ battles, and the matter-of-fact occurrences of every-day life. Oh no! The Lives of the Saints were frequently pourtrayed with all the legendary accompaniments which credulity and blind faith could invest them with. The "holy and solitary" St. Cuthbert would be seen taming the sea-monsters by his word of power: St. Dunstan would be in the very act of seizing the "handle" of his Infernal Majesty's face with the red-hot pincers; and St. Anthony in the "howling wilderness," would be reigning omnipotent over a whole legion of sprites. Here was food for the imagination and taste of our notable great-grandmother! Yet let us do them justice. If some of their religious pieces were imbued even to a ridiculous result, with the superstitions of the time, there were others, numberless others, scripture pieces, as chaste and beautiful in design, as elaborate in execution. The loom and needle united indeed brought these pieces to the highest perfection, but many a meek and saintly Madonna, many a lofty and energetic St. Paul, many a subdued and touching Magdalene were produced by the unaided industry of the pious needlewoman. Nay, the whole Bible was copied in needlework; and in a poem of the fifteenth century, by Henry Bradshaw, containing the Life of St. Werburgh, a daughter of the King of the Mercians, there is an account "rather historical than legendary,"[84] of many circumstances of the domestic life of the time. Amongst other descriptions is that of the tapestry displayed in the Abbey of Ely, on the occasion of St. Werburgh taking the veil there. This Tapestry belonged to king Wulfer, and was brought to Ely Monastery for the occasion. We subjoin some of the stanzas:--

"It were full tedyous, to make descrypcyon Of the great tryumphes, and solempne royalte, Belongynge to the feest, the honour and provysyon, By playne declaracyon, upon every partye; But the sothe to say, withouten ambyguyte, All herbes and flowres, fragraunt, fayre, and swete, Were strawed in halles, and layd under theyr fete.

"Clothes of golde and arras[85] were hanged in the hall Depaynted with pyctures, and hystoryes manyfolde, Well wroughte and craftely, with precious stones all Glysteryng as Phebus, and the beten golde, Lyke an erthly paradyse, pleasaunt to beholde: As for the said moynes,[86] was not them amonge, But prayenge in her cell, as done all novice yonge.

"The story of Adam, there was goodly wrought, And of his wyfe Eve, bytwene them the serpent, How they were deceyved, and to theyr peynes brought; There was Cayn and Abell, offerynge theyr present, The sacryfyce of Abell, accepte full evydent: Tuball and Tubalcain were purtrayed in that place, The inventours of musyke and crafte by great grace.

"Noe and his shyppe was made there curyously Sendynge forthe a raven, whiche never came again; And how the dove returned, with a braunche hastely, A token of comforte and peace, to man certayne: Abraham there was, standing upon the mount playne To offer in sacrifice Isaac his dere sone, And how the shepe for hym was offered in oblacyon.

"The twelve sones of Jacob there were in purtrayture, And how into Egypt yonge Josephe was solde, There was imprisoned, by a false conjectour, After in all Egypte, was ruler (as is tolde). There was in pycture Moyses wyse and bolde, Our Lorde apperynge in bushe flammynge as fyre, And nothing thereof brent, lefe, tree, nor spyre.[87]

"The ten plages of Egypt were well embost, The chyldren of Israel passyng the reed see, Kynge Pharoo drowned, with all his proude hoost, And how the two table, at the Mounte Synaye Were gyven to Moyses, and how soon to idolatry The people were prone, and punysshed were therefore, How Datan and Abyron, for pryde were full youre."[88]

Then _Duke_ Joshua leading the Israelites: the division of the promised land; Kyng Saull and David, and "prudent Solomon;" Roboas succeeding;

"The good Kynge Esechyas and his generacyon, And so to the Machabus, and dyvers other nacyon."

All these

"Theyr noble actes, and tryumphes marcyall, Freshly were browdred in these clothes royall."

* * * * *

"But over the hye desse, in the pryncypall place, Where the sayd thre kynges sate crowned all, The best hallynge[89] hanged, as reason was, Whereon were wrought the nine orders angelicall Dyvyded in thre ierarchyses, not cessynge to call _Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus_, blessed be the Trynite, Dominius Deus Sabaoth, three persons in one deyte."

Then followed in order our Blessed Lady, the twelve Apostles, "eche one in his figure," the four Evangelists "wrought most curyously," all the disciples

"Prechynge and techynge, unto every nacyon, The faythtes[90] of holy chyrche, for their salvacyon."

"Martyrs then followed, right manifolde;" Confessors "fressely embrodred in ryche tyshewe and fyne." Saintly virgins "were brothered[91] the clothes of gold within," and the long array was closed on the other side of the hall by

"Noble auncyent storyes, and how the stronge Sampson Subdued his enemyes by his myghty power; Of Hector of Troye, slayne by fals treason; Of noble Arthur, kynge of this regyon; With many other mo, which it is to longe Playnly to expresse this tyme you amonge."

But the powers of the chief proportion of needlewomen, and of many of the subsequent tapestry looms were devoted to giving permanence to those fables which, as exhibited in the Romances of Chivalry, formed the very life and delight of our ancestors in

"------that happy season Ere bright Fancy bent to reason; When the spirit of our stories, Filled the mind with unseen glories; Told of creatures of the air, Spirits, fairies, goblins rare, Guarding man with tenderest care."

These fables, says Warton, were not only perpetually repeated at the festivals of our ancestors, but were the constant objects of their eyes. The very walls of their apartments were clothed with romantic history.

We have mentioned the history of Alexander in Tapestry as forming an important part of the peace offering of the king of France to Bajazet, and probably there were few princes who did not possess a suit of tapestry on this subject; a most important one in romance, and consequently a desired one for the loom.

There seems an innate propensity in the writers of the Romance of Chivalry to exaggerate, almost to distortion, the achievements of those whose heroic bearing needed no pomp of diction, or wild flow of imagination to illustrate it. Thus Charlemagne, one of the best and greatest of men, appears in romance like one whose thirst for slaughter it requires myriads of "Paynims" to quench.

Arthur, on the contrary, a very (if history tell truth) a very "so-so" sort of a man, having not one tithe of the intellect or the magnanimity of him to whom we have just referred--Arthur is invested in romance with a halo of interest and of beauty which is perfectly fascinating; and it seems almost impossible to divest oneself of these impressions and to look upon him only in the unattractive light in which history represents him.

A person not initiated in romance would suppose that the real actions of Alexander--the subjugator of Greece, the conqueror of Persia, the captor of the great Darius, but the generous protector of his family--might sufficiently immortalize him. By no means. He cuts a considerable figure in many romances; but in one, appropriated more exclusively to his exploits, he "surpasses himself." The world was conquered:--from north to south, and from east to west his sovereignty was acknowledged; so he forthwith flew up into the air to bring the aerial potentates to his feet. But this experiment not answering, he descended to the depths of the waters with much better success; for immediately all their inhabitants, from the whale to the herring, the cannibal shark, the voracious pike, the majestic sturgeon, the lordly salmon, the rich turbot, and the delicate trout, with all their kith, kin, relations, and allies, the lobster, the crab, and the muscle,

"The sounds and seas with all their finny drove"

crowd round him to do him homage: the oyster lays her pearl at his feet, and the coral boughs meekly wave in token of subjection. Doubtless in addition to the legitimate "battles" these exploits, if not fully displayed, were intimated by symbols in the Tapestry.

The Tale of Troy was a very favourite subject for Tapestry, and was found in many noble mansions, especially in France. It has indeed been conjectured, and on sufficient grounds, that the whole Iliad had been wrought in a consecutive series of hangings. Though during the early part of the middle ages Homer himself was lost, still the "Tale of Troy divine" was kept alive in two Latin works, which in 1260 formed the basis of a prose romance by a Sicilian.

The great original himself however, had become the companion not only of the studious and learned, but also of the fair and fashionable, while yet the Flemish looms were in the zenith of their popularity. This subject formed part of the decoration of Holyrood House, on the occasion of the marriage of Henry the Seventh's daughter to James, King of Scotland in 1503. We are told in an ancient record, that the "hanginge of the queene's gret chammer represented the ystory of Troye toune, that the king's grett chammer had one table, wer was satt, hys chamerlayne, the grett sqyer, and many others, well served; the which chammer was haunged about with the story of Hercules, together with other ystorys." And at the same solemnity, "in the hall wher the qwene's company wer satt in lyke as in the other, an wich was haunged of the history of Hercules."

The tragic and fearful story of Coucy's heart gave rise to an old metrical English Romance, called the 'Knight of Courtesy and the Lady of Faguel.' It was entirely represented in tapestry. The incident, a true one, on which it was founded, occurred about 1180; and was thus:--

"Some hundred and odd years since, there was in France one Captain Coucy, a gallant gentleman of an ancient extraction, and keeper of Coucy Castle, which is yet standing, and in good repair. He fell in love with a young gentlewoman, and courted her for his wife. There was a reciprocal love between them; but her parents understanding of it, by way of prevention, they shuffled up a forced match 'twixt her and one Monsieur Faiell who was a great heir: Captain Coucy hereupon quitted France in discontent, and went to the wars in Hungary against the Turk; where he received a mortal wound, not far from Bada. Being carried to his lodging, he languished for some days; but a little before his death he spoke to an ancient servant of his, that he had many proofs of his fidelity and truth; but now he had a great business to intrust him with, which he conjured him by all means to do, which was, That after his death, he should get his body to be opened and then to take his heart out of his breast, and put in an earthen pot, to be baked to powder; and then to put the powder in a handsome box, with that bracelet of hair he had worn long about on his left wrist, which was a lock of Mademoiselle Faiell's hair, and put it among the powder, together with a little note he had written with his own blood to her; and after he had given him the rites of burial, to make all the speed he could to France, and deliver the box to Mademoiselle Faiell. The old servant did as his master had commanded him, and so went to France; and coming one day to Monsieur Faiell's house, he suddenly met with him, who examined him because he knew he was Captain Coucy's servant, and finding him timorous and faltering in his speech, he searched him, and found the said box in his pocket with the note, which expressed what was therein. He dismissed the bearer with menaces, that he should come no more near his house: Monsieur Faiell going in, sent for his cook, and delivered him the powder, charging him to make a little well-relished dish of it, without losing a jot of it, for it was a very costly thing; and commanded him to bring it in himself, after the last course at supper. The cook bringing in the dish accordingly, Monsieur Faiell commanded all to void the room, and began a serious discourse with his wife: However since he had married her, he observed she was always melancholy, and he feared she was inclining to a consumption; therefore he had provided for her a very precious cordial, which he was well assured would cure her. Thereupon he made her eat up the whole dish; and afterwards much importuning him to know what it was, he told her at last, she had eaten Coucy's heart, and so drew the box out of his pocket, and showed her the note and bracelet. In a sudden exultation of joy, she with a far-fetched sigh said, '_This is precious indeed_,' and so licked the dish, saying, '_It is so precious, that 'tis pity to put ever any meat upon 't_.' So she went to bed, and in the morning she was found stone dead."[92]

But a more national, a more inspiriting, and a more agreeable theme for the alert finger or the busy loom is found in the life and adventures of that prince of combatants, that hero of all heroes, Guy Earl of Warwick. Help me, shades of renowned slaughterers, whilst I record his achievements! Bear witness to his deed, ye grisly phantoms, ye bloody ghosts of infidel Paynims, whom his Christian sword mowed down, even as corn falls beneath the the reaper's sickle, till the redoubtable champion strode breast deep in bodies over fifteen acres covered with slaughtered foes![93] And all this from Christian zeal!

"In faith of Christ a Christian true The wicked laws of infidels, He sought by power to subdue.

"So passed he the seas of Greece, To help the Emperour to his right, Against the mighty Soldan's host Of puissant Persians for to fight: Where he did slay of Sarazens And heathen Pagans many a man, And slew the Soldan's cousin dear, Who had to name, Doughty Colbron.

"Ezkeldered that famous knight, To death likewise he did pursue, And Almain, king of Tyre also, Most terrible too in fight to view: He went into the Soldan's host, Being thither on ambassage sent, And brought away his head with him, He having slain him in his tent."

Or passing by his

"Feats of arms In strange and sundry heathen lands,"

note his beneficent progress at home--

"In Windsor forest he did slay A boar of passing might and strength; The like in England never was, For hugeness both in breadth and length. Some of his bones in Warwick yet, Within the castle there do lye; One of his shield bones to this day Hangs in the city of Coventry.

"On Dunsmore heath he also slew A monstrous wild and cruel beast, Call'd the dun cow of Dunsmore heath, Which many people had opprest; Some of her bones in Warwick yet Still for a monument doth lie, Which unto every looker's view, As wondrous strange they may espy.

"And the dragon in the land, He also did in flight destroy, Which did both men and beasts oppress, And all the country sore annoy:"

Or look we at him all doughty as he was, as the pilgrim of love, as subdued by the influence of the tender passion, a suppliant to the gentle Phillis, and ready to compass the earth to fulfil her wishes, and to prove his devotion:

"Was ever knight for lady's sake So tost in love, as I, Sir Guy; For Phillis fair, that Lady bright, As ever man beheld with eye; She gave me leave myself to try The valiant knight with shield and spear, Ere that her love she would grant me, Who made me venture far and near."

Or, afterwards view him as--

"All clad in grey in Pilgrim sort, His voyage from her he did take, Unto that blessed, holy land, For Jesus Christ, his Saviour's sake."

Lastly, recal we the time when the fierce and ruthless Danes were ravaging our land, and there was scarce a town or castle as far as Winchester, which they had not plundered or burnt, and a proposal was made, and per force acceded to by the English king to decide the struggle by single combat. But the odds were great: Colbrand the Danish champion, was a giant, and ere he came to a combat he provided himself with a cart-load of Danish axes, great clubs with knobs of iron, squared barrs of steel lances and iron hooks wherewith to pull his adversary to him.

On the other hand the English--and sleepless and unhappy, the king Athelstan pondered the circumstance as he lay on his couch, on St. John Baptist's night--had no champion forthcoming, even though the county of Hants had been promised as a reward to the victor. Roland, the most valiant knight of a thousand, was dead; Heraud, the pride of the nation, was abroad; and the great and valiant Guy, Earl of Warwick, was gone on a pilgrimage. The monarch was perplexed and sorrowful; but an angel appeared to him and comforted him.

In conformity with the injunctions of this gracious messenger, the king, attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Chichester, placed himself at the north gate of the city (Winchester) at the hour of prime. Divers poor people and pilgrims entered thereat, and among the rest appeared a man of noble visage and stalwart frame, but wan withal, pale with abstinence, and macerated by reason of journeying barefoot. His beard was venerably long and he rested on a staff; he wore a pilgrim's garb, and on his bare and venerable head was strung a chaplet of white roses. Bending low, he passed the gate, but the king warned by the vision, hastened to him, and entreated him "by his love for Jesus Christ, by the devotion of his pilgrimage, and for the preservation of all England, to do battle with the giant." The Palmer thus conjured, underwent the combat, and was victorious.

After a solemn procession to the Cathedral, and thanksgiving therein, when he offered his weapon to God and the patron of the Church, before the High Altar, the pilgrim withdrew, having revealed himself to none but the king, and that under a solemn pledge of secrecy. He bent his course towards Warwick, and unknown in his disguise, took alms at the hands of his own lady--for, reader, this meek and holy pilgrim, was none other than the wholesale slayer, whose deeds we have been contemplating--and then retired to a solitary place hard by--

"Where with his hand he hew'd a house, Out of a craggy rock of stone; And lived like a palmer poor, Within that cave himself alone."

Nor was this at all an unusual conclusion to a life of butchery; all the heroes of romance turned hermits; and as they all, at least all of Arthur's Round Table, were gifted with a very striking development of the organ of combativeness, their profound piety at the end of their career might not improbably give rise to a very common adage of these days regarding sinners and saints.

But here was a theme for Tapestry-workers! a real original, genuine English romance; for though the only pieces now extant be, or may be, translated from the French, still there are many concurring circumstances to prove that the original, often quoted by Chaucer, was an ancient metrical English one. That it is difficult to find who Sir Guy was, or in fact, to prove that there ever was a Sir Guy at all, is nothing to the purpose; leave we that to antiquarians, and their musty folios. Guy of Warwick was well known from west to east, even as far as Jerusalem, where, in Henry the Fourth's time, Lord Beauchamp was kindly received by those in high stations, because he was descended from

"A shadowy ancestor, so renowned as Guy."

One tapestry on this attractive subject which was in Warwick Castle, before the year 1398, was so distinguished and valued a piece of furniture, that a special grant was made of it by King Richard II. conveying "that suit of arras hangings in Warwick Castle, which contained the story of Guy Earl of Warwick," together with the Castle of Warwick and other possessions, to Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent. And in the restoration of forfeited property to this lord after his imprisonment, these hangings are particularly specified in the patent of King Henry IV., dated 1399.

And the Castle wherein the tapestry was hung was worthy of the heroes it had sheltered. The first building on the site was supposed to be coeval with our Saviour, and was called Caer-leon; almost overthrown by the Picts and Scots, it lay in ruins till Caractacus built himself a manor-house, and founded a church to the honour of St. John the Baptist. Here was afterwards a Roman fort, and here again was a Pictish devastation. A cousin of King Arthur rebuilt it, and then lived in it--Arthgal, first Earl of Warwick, a Knight of the Round Table; this British title was equivalent to _Ursus_ in Latin, whence Arthgal took the Bear for his ensign: and a successor of his, a worthy progenitor of our valiant Sir Guy, slew a mighty giant in a duel; and because this giant's delicate weapon was a tree pulled up by the roots, the boughs being snagged from it, the Earls of Warwick, successors of the victor, bore a ragged staff of silver in a sable shield for their cognisance.

We are told that,--

"When Arthur first in court began, And was approved king, By force of arms great victoryes wanne, And conquest home did bring. Then into England straight he came With fifty good and able Knights, that resorted unto him, And were of his round table."

Of these the most renowned were Syr Perceval, Syr Tristan, Syr Launcelot du Lac, Syr Ywain, Syr Gawain, Syr Galaas, Syr Meliadus of Leonnoys, Sir Ysaie, Syr Gyron, &c. &c., and their various and wondrous achievements were woven into a series of tales which are known as the "Romances of the Round Table." Of course the main subject of each tale is interrupted by ten thousand varied episodes, in which very often the original object seems entirely lost sight of. Then the construction of many of these Romances, or rather their want of construction, is marvellous; their genealogies are interminable, and their geography miraculous.

One of the most marvellous and scarce of these Romances, and one, the principal passages of which were frequently wrought into Tapestry, was the "Roman du Saint Greal," which is founded upon an incident, to say the least very peculiar, but which was perhaps once considered true as Holy Writ. St. Joseph of Arimathoea, a very important personage in many romances, having obtained the hanap, or cup from which our Saviour administered the wine to his disciples, caught in the same cup the blood which flowed from his wounds when on the Cross. After he had first achieved various adventures, and undergone an imprisonment of forty-two years, St. Joseph arrives in England with the sacred cup, by means of which numerous miracles are performed; he prepares the Round Table, and Arthur and his Knights all go in quest of the hanap, which by some, to us unaccountable, circumstance, had fallen into the hands of a sinner. All make the most solemn vow to devote their lives to its recovery; and this they must indeed have done, and not short lives either, if all recorded of them be true. None, however, but two, ever _see_ the sacred symbol; though oftentimes a soft ray of light would stream across the lonesome wild, or the dark pathless forest, or unearthly strains would float on the air, or odours as of Paradise would entrance the senses, while the wandering and woeworn knight would feel all fatigue, all sense of personal inconvenience, of pain, of sickness, or of sorrow, vanish on the instant; and then would he renew his vows, and betake himself to prayer; for though all unworthy to see the Holy Grayle, he would feel that it had been borne on viewless pinions through the air for his individual consolation and hope. And Syr Galahad and Syr Perceval, the two chaste and favoured knights who, "after the dedely flesshe had beheld the spiritual things," the holy St. Grael--never returned to converse with the world. The first departed to God, and "flights of angels sang him to his rest;" the other took religious clothing and retired to a hermitage, where, after living "a full holy life for a yere and two moneths, he passed out of this world."

But wide as is the range of the Romances of the "Round Table," they form but a portion of those which solaced our ancestors. Charlemagne and his Paladins were, so to speak, the solar system round which another circle revolved; Alexander furnished the radiating star for another, derived chiefly perhaps from the East, where numbers of fictitious tales were prevalent about him; and many Romances were likewise woven around the mangled remains of classic heroes.

"The mightiest chiefs of British song Scorn'd not such legends to prolong; They gleam through Spenser's elfic dream, And mix in Milton's heavenly theme; And Dryden in immortal strain, Had raised the 'Table Round' again."

The Stories of the Tapestry in the Royal Palaces of Henry VIII. are preserved in the British Museum.[94]

These are some of them re-copied from Warton:--

In the tapestry of the Tower of London, the original and most ancient seat of our monarchs, there are recited, Godfrey of Bulloign; the Three Kings of Cologne; the Emperor Constantine; St. George; King of Erkenwald; the History of Hercules; Fame and Honour; the Triumph of Divinity; Esther and Ahasueras; Jupiter and Juno; St. George; the Eight Kings; the Ten Kings of France; the Birth of our Lord; Duke Joshua; the Riche History of King David; the Seven Deadly Sins; the Riche History of the Passion; the Stem of Jesse; Our Lady and Son; King Solomon; the Woman of Canony; Meleager; and the Dance of Maccabee.

At Durham Place were the Citie of Ladies (a French allegorical Romance); the Tapestrie of Thebes and of Troy; the City of Peace; the Prodigal Son; Esther, and other pieces of Scripture.

At Windsor Castle the Siege of Jerusalem; Ahasueras; Charlemagne; the Siege of Troy; and Hawking and Hunting.

At Nottingham Castle, Amys and Amelion.

At Woodstock Manor, the tapestrie of Charlemagne.

At the More, a palace in Hertfordshire, King Arthur, Hercules, Astyages, and Cyrus.

At Richmond, the arras of Sir Bevis, and Virtue and Vice fighting.

Among the rest we have also Hannibal, Holofernes, Romulus and Remus, Æneas, and Susannah.

Many of these subjects were repeated at Westminster, Greenwich, Oatlands, Bedington in Surrey, and other royal seats, some of which are now unknown as such.

FOOTNOTES:

[84] Warton.

[85] Arras, a very common anachronism. After the production of the arras tapestries, arras became the common name for all tapestries: even for those which were wrought before the looms of Arras were in existence.

[86] Moynes--nun. Lady Werburg

[87] _Spyre_--twig, branch.

[88] _Youre_--burnt.

[89] _Hallynge_--Tapestry.

[90] _Faythtes_--feats, facts.

[91] _Brothered_--embroidered.

[92] Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ.

[93] "Fifteen acres were covered with the bodies of slaughtered Saracens; and so furious were the strokes of Sir Guy, that the pile of dead men, wherever his sword had reached, rose as high as his breast."--Ellis, vol. ii.

[94] Harl. MSS. 1419.