. It was the same as an Egyptian sign, meaning “land” (plate [25]). Donelly fancifully claims the sign as being that of the garden of Eden, and of the four rivers flowing from it (see “Atlantis”).
[545] See plate [70], No. 1. In the upper part of the Halberstadt diptych, No. 1, the “gens togata” are sitting on Olympus, clothed in such purple garments embroidered with the chrysoclavus.
[546] I would instance the little church of St. Mary, built and adorned by the late W. E. Street, at Feldy, in Surrey.
[547] The art of illumination had in general kept a little in front of that of the painter, and illumination and embroidery went hand in hand.
[548] The fine brocades of velvet and gold, of which we find examples in the centres of palls, and a notable one in the celebrated Stoneyhurst cope, are still reproduced to order at Lyons, Genoa, Florence, and in Spain. The Florentine is distinguished by the little loops of gold thread which pervade it.
[549] In the English ritual gold was permitted wherever white was enjoined. This shows a true appreciation of the effect of the metal, separating and isolating all colours, and being of none.
[550] The purple is not one of the five mystic colours named; it is included in blue, and therefore the most ritualistic critic need not object to it.
[551] Under the Carlovingians, priestly garments were often enriched with splendid fringes, trimmed with bells. A Bishop of Elne, who died in 915, left to his church a stole embroidered with gold and garnished with bells. So rich were the fringes at that epoch, that King Robert, praying one day in the church, became aware that while he was lost in meditation a thief had ripped off part of the fringes of his mantle. He interrupted his proceedings by saying, “My friend, suppose you content yourself with what you have taken, and leave the rest for some other member of your guild.” See “Histoire du Tissu Ancien,” Union Central des Arts Décoratifs. For a fringe with bells, see the beautiful example in Bock’s “Liturgische Gewänder” (plates xli. xlii. xliii. vol. ii. p. 297), already quoted.
[552] Resembling the fringe of St. Cuthbert’s corporax, with its silver bells.