These rural scenes are extremely frequent in mediæval illustrated MSS. An illuminated MS. of the 11th century in the British Museum shows a good example of slinging (see “Social England,” Vol. I., p. 316). The Louterell Psalter, which dates from the early years of the 14th century, gives many scenes of ploughing and harrowing (see Vetusta Monumenta, Vol. VI., especially Plates XXI. and XXII.). The shoulder collars and the iron shoes worn by the horses in these borders are held by some to have been an invention only made at the end of the 11th century.
VII.—BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Mr. F. R. Fowke has written a short and extremely clear account of the Tapestry in “The Bayeux Tapestry; a History and Description” (George Bell & Sons, 1898), with a reproduction of the Tapestry. This invaluable book has been reprinted (1913) by Messrs. Bell in cheaper form. Professor Lethaby (“Embroidery, 1908-9”) holds that the Tapestry may have been made in Kent.
In the study of the subject from an archæological point of view there are two admirable articles by Mr. J. Horace Round: “The Bayeux Tapestry” (“Monthly Review,” December 1904) and “The Castles of the Conquest” (Archæologia, LVIII). Mr. Round has also contributed an article on the Bayeux Tapestry to the “Encyclopædia Britannica.”
In the Archæological Journal, Vol. LX., Sir W. H. St. John Hope has an article on “Fortresses of the 10th and 11th Centuries.” All these books and articles support the belief that the Tapestry is practically contemporary with the events narrated.
M. le Commandant Lefebvre de Noëttes has approached the subject from a different point of view in the “Bulletin Monumental” of April 1912. He discusses the armour, weapons, harness of the horses and kindred subjects, coming to the conclusion that the Tapestry was probably made between 1120 and 1130, a date neither so late nor so early as extremists on either side have asserted.
The antiquity of the Tapestry has been attacked by M. Marignan in his “La Tapisserie de Bayeux” (1902). He wishes to prove that its date cannot be before the middle of the 13th century. His views have, however, met with little support and have been answered by M. Lanore in his volume “La Tapisserie de Bayeux” (1903).
J. C. Bruce, in “The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated with Coloured Illustrations” (1856), is inaccurate on some points but indulges in much ingenious speculation.
Two fresh books on the Tapestry have appeared in recent years. Mr. Hillaire Belloc (“The Book of Bayeux Tapestry,” London, 1914), assigns the work to the second half of the 12th century. M. A. Levé (“La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde,” Paris, 1919) holds that it was made for the consecration of Bayeux Cathedral in 1077.