NEEDLEWORK. 3 n the “London Chronicle” of 1767 will be found an account of the opening of a Scandinavian barrow, near Wareham, in Dorset shire. Within the hollow trunk of an oak were found many bones, wrapped in a covering of deerskins neatly sewn together. There were the remains of a piece of lace of gold wire 4 inches long, and 2 \ inches broad, Fig. 1; black and much decayed, of the old ozenge pattern, that oldest and most universal of all designs, again ound depicted on the coats of the ancient Danes, where the borders are edged with an open or network of the same pattern. 14 Professor W orsaae ascribes this specimen to the Iron age. Fig. 1. Gold lace found in a barrow. Our Anglo-Saxon ladies excelled in this womanly accomplish ment ; and gorgeous are the accounts of the gold-starred and scarlet-embroidered tunics and violet sarks worked by the nuns Ihe “opus anglicanum” was sought for by foreign prelates, and made the subject of papal correspondence. 15 Nor did our Anglo- aaxoa lungs ever fail, in their pilgrimages to Rome, to bestow on re soveieign Pontiff garments richly embroidered in gold and precious stones. Royai and noble ladies plied their needles for the adornment . e c urck, and great St. Dunstan himself designed patterns to be executed by their hands. 16 The four daughters of Edward the Elder were famed for their ability. Their father, says William of Malmesbury, caused them m childhood “to give their whole attention to letters, and 14 Strutt. 11 r**' e . rlcb b- el ubroidered orphreys of ie ^nglisli clergy excited the admiration 01 Rope Innocent IV. (1246), who in quired ' vl 'ci e they were made, and bein'* answered in England, he exclaimed, ™ y En g'and is our garden of delight where n, U WpU inexhaustible . and’ thenee 616 ' 8 great abundance; from immpl- m Ch “ ay be extr ‘icted.” And < lately he despatched official letters lo some of the Cistercian abbots in Eng land, enjoining them to procure a certain quantity of such embroidered vestments, and send them to Rome for his own use. —Matthew of 1’aris. 10 Ethelwynne, a noble lady, is recorded to have enlisted him in her service, to design the ornaments of a stole; and Dunstan sat daily in the lady’s bower, superintending her work, together with the maidens. H 2