Again, in the rush-strewn hall of mediæval knight or baron hung with tapestry, the work of his lady and her dependants, depicting his deeds and those of his ancestors, we read the same tale of the spinning-wheel and distaff with its allied arts of weaving and embroidery.
Nay, did she not write history, too, this noble spinster, with her spindle and loom,
“Who, as she plied the distaff,
In a sweet voice and low,
Still sang of noble houses,
And fights fought long ago”?
TROOPS FOR THE INVASION OF ENGLAND, FROM
THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY.
As Helen embroidered the combats of Greeks and Trojans, so now, two thousand years later, Queen Matilda and her maidens are seen spinning and weaving the Norman Conquest of England into the Bayeux Tapestry. Surely the muse Clio might wield spindle as well as stylus as a symbol of her patronage of history. It was no shame to those high-born women to ply the distaff and figure in the songs of chivalry as the makers of all manner of household fabrics.