Among indoor games and kindred topics, each in a separate article, in the Britannica, are:

Needlework, etc.

Needlework as treated in the Britannica has one element of peculiar value and novelty. In this department, as throughout the book, the illustrations have been chosen upon a principle unusual in works of reference: they really illustrate; they throw light on the text; they are not mere pretty pictures intended to catch the eye and inserted in the book haphazard. Turn for instance to the article Lace (Vol. 16, p. 37). Among its 61 illustrations are not only small diagrams explaining different stitches and meshes and patterns and larger halftone illustrations of “Bone Lace” “Reticella Needlepoint”, “Gros Point de Venise”, “Point de Flandres à Brides” “Point de Venise à Brides Picotées,” “Réseau Rosacé,” etc., but there are reproductions of portraits of the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, showing not merely patterns of lace but the method in which it was used and how it “combined” and harmonized with styles of costume, and of hair dressing. These “lace portraits” are: one from the Louvre, about 1540 of Catherine de’ Medici, wearing a linen upturned collar of cut work and needlepoint lace; one by Morcelse, about 1600, of Amelie Elisabeth, comtesse de Hainault, wearing a ruff of needlepoint reticella lace; one, 1614, of Mary, countess of Pembroke, wearing a coif and cuffs of reticella lace; one by Le Nain, about 1628, of Henri II, duc de Montmorency, wearing a falling lace collar; one by Riley, about 1685, of James II, wearing a jabot and cuffs of raised needlepoint lace; one, about 1664, of Mme. Verbiest, wearing pillow-made lace à reseau; one, about 1695, of Princess Maria Teresa Stuart, wearing a flounce or tablier of delicate needlepoint lace with small relief clusters; and one of de Vintimille, about 1730, wearing needlepoint of the Point de Venise à brides picotées. This article on Lace, equivalent in length to 60 pages of this Guide, is by A. Summerly Cole, author of Ancient Needle Point and Pillow Lace. Embroidery (Vol. 9, p. 309) is by Mr. Cole and A. F. Kendrick, keeper of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington; and is illustrated with 18 figures showing many styles of early embroidery. There are also articles on Tapestry, Needlework, Knitting, Yarn, etc.

Dancing, the Stage, etc.

On dancing and the stage there is much of interest in the Britannica. The article on the Dance (Vol. 7, p. 794) distinguishes dancing as an expression of emotion, whether social joy or religious exultation; dancing for pleasure to the dancer or the spectator; and mimetic dancing, “to represent the actions or passions of other people.” A section on primitive and ancient dancing describes various early dances, many of them not unlike the “trots” and “hugs” so notorious during the last few years. At an Aztec feast, “called Huitzilopochtli, the noblemen and women danced tied together at the hands, and embracing one another, the arms being thrown over the neck.” Primitive imitative dances, the attitude of the ancient Romans towards the dance, religious dances and the attacks on the dance of such Puritan sects as the Albigenses and Waldenses close the section on ancient dancing.

“Modern dancing” describes the branle (or brawl), the pavane, saraband, minuet, gavotte, écossaise, cotillon, galop, lancers, schottische, bourrée, waltz, fandango, bolero, jota, Morris dances, hornpipe, and other English dances of the 17th and 18th centuries. In treating of present-day dancing the article deals especially with the waltz, quadrille, country-dance, lancers, polka, galop, Washington Post and other American barn-dances, polka-mazurka, Polonaise, Schottische and Sir Roger de Coverley. And it discusses ballet dancing (on which there is also a separate article) and musical gymnastics. There are separate articles on the following dances: Allemande, Bergamask, Chaconne, Chasse, Courante, Gavotte, Jig, Mazurka, Morris Dance, Passacaglia, Pavane, Polka, Polonaise, Quadrille, Saraband, Schottische.

For a sufficient knowledge of the theatre and the drama to heighten his enjoyment of a play, the theatre-goer should read up the subject, the period and the author in the Britannica. For a more serious and thorough study of opera, music in general and the drama as a literary form, he may turn to special chapters of this Guide.

TRAVEL AT HOME AND ABROAD

If the traveler would make the most of his vacation journeys—as has already been suggested—he should “read up” in the Britannica, even if he does not wish to make a systematic study of the literature, art, architecture, music, etc., of the country he is to visit. If he does wish to pursue systematic study he can use the Britannica to better advantage than a whole library of books of travel or special treatises.