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ENGLISH MEDIEVAL EAIBROIDERY. 293 suspendendam coram Sancto altare, candelabraque maxima qua; fabricantur apud Sanctum Laudum, corouam (pioque et sceptrum, calicesque ac vesti- mentum, atque aliud vestimentum quod operatur in Anglia, et cum omni- bus ornamentis equi, atque omnia vasa mea, exceptis illis qua; antea deduio alicubi in vita mea ; et Chetehulmum {Quetchon en Cotentm) in Normannia, et duas mansiones in Anglia do Sanctse Triuitati Cadonii. Ha;c omnia concessu doinini mei Reii-is facio^. Ex Cartulario Sancta' Trin. Bill. Reg. Paris, No. 5050. At this period then it is quite clear that the females of England were highly celebrated for their skill in using gold tambour, and they continued successfully to practise this accomplishment for several centuries. It was exclusively in its highest perfection an English art, almost to the reign of the Stuarts, when it sunk into a style of debasement so very low, that nothing more was requisite to blunt the point of the needle, and obliterate the few remaining vestiges of good taste and elegance, than the adoption of the German system of mechanically toiling in chequers, which now so extensively disfigures the rooms over every domestic threshold that can l)e crossed. These were matters considered grave and important enough for even ecclesiastical historians of old to introduce into their narratives ; they even gave occasion for preternatural inter- ference. Thus Reginald of Durham furnishes us with the to following stories. 'When,' says he, Olaud, the daughter of Waltheof, and the widow of Simon de St. Liz, was passuig through Durham, with her husband, David king of Scotland, she carried in her retinue a female attendant named Helisend. The monk describes this young woman as a person nobly skilled in the science of weaving purple, and one of the most celebrated of her age for working in the best manner every kind of embroidery, or gold weaving of artificial composition, ilelisend having heard that there were peculiar limits to the cemetery of St. Cuthbert, which it was not permitted for females to pass, was determined to try the experiment of escaping from all the penalties denounced against such a transgression, and in defiance of the threatenings uttered iigainst such temerity, persisted in her resolution, and covered with a black hood, the upper part only of which disclosed the countenance, and all the rest of her body being concealed, she Essais historiques sur la ville de Caen par M. I'Abbi; De la Rue, vol. i. Pieuves, No. 1. vol.. IV. U (1