[581] Canon Jackson, writing of embroidery, says: “That this was cared for in the great monasteries at this early date appears from a MS. register of Glastonbury Abbey in the possession of the Marquis of Bath. It is called the Liber Henrici de Soliaco, and gives an account of the affairs of that abbey in A.D. 1189 (Richard I.).” There was a special official whose business it was to provide the monastery with church ornaments generally, and specially with “aurifrigium,” or gold embroidery, on vestments. For this a house and land, with an annual allowance of food, was set apart. Another tenant also held some land, to which was attached the obligation to find a “worker in gold.”—Letter from Canon Jackson to the Author.
[582] See Mrs. Lawrence’s “Woman in England,” vol. i. p. 360. She quotes an entry from Madox, a sum of £80 (equal to £1400 of to-day) for an embroidered robe for the Queen, paid by the Sheriffs of London.
[583] Matthew Paris, “Vit. Abb. St. Albani.” p. 46; Rock, “Church of our Fathers,” vol ii. p. 278.
[584] See Mrs. Dolby’s Introduction to “Church Vestments.”
[585] Strutt’s “Royal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of England,” ed. mdcclxxiii.
[586] Though the work was domestic, the materials came from the East and the South; and while the woven gold of Sicily and Spain was merely base metal on gilded parchment, our laws were directed to the preservation of pure metals for textile purposes.
[587] Matthew Paris, “Hist. Angl.,” p. 473, ed. Paris, 1644. See Hartshorne’s “Mediæval Embroideries,” pp. 23, 24.
[588] The reproduction by the Arundel Society of this picture will familiarize those who care for English art with what is, perhaps, its finest example, next to the crosses of Queen Eleanor. It has been erroneously attributed to Van Eyk, but it is undoubtedly English. That its art is contemporary with the time of Richard II., is shown by the design and motives of the woven materials and embroidery in which the king and his attendant saints are clothed. They remind us of the piece of silk in the Kensington Museum, into which are woven (probably in Sicilian looms) the cognizance of the King’s grandfather, the sun with rays; that of his mother Joan, the white hart; and his own, his dog Math. This is a good example of the value of an individual pattern. It helps us to affix dates to other specimens of similar style.
[589] See Miss Strickland’s mention of the Countess of Oxford in her “Life of Queen Elizabeth of York,” p. 46.
[590] From the fragments found, it appeared that King John’s mantle was of a strong red silk. Till lately, when it was effaced by being completely gilt, the mantle on the recumbent effigy was of a bright red, bordered with gold and gems. See Greene’s “Worcester,” p. 3, quoted in the “Report of the Archæological Association of Worcester,” p. 53.