Transcriber's Note
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INCLUDING
SOME NOTICES OF THE
ANCIENT HISTORICAL TAPESTRIES
EDITED BY
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE COUNTESS OF WILTON.
“I WRITE THE NEEDLE’S PRAYSE.”
THIRD EDITION.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,
GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
——
1841.
TO
HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY
THE QUEEN DOWAGER
THIS LITTLE WORK,
INTENDED TO ILLUSTRATE THE HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF AN ART
ENNOBLED BY HER MAJESTY’S PRACTICE, AND BY HER EXAMPLE
RECOMMENDED TO THE
WOMEN OF ENGLAND,
IS,
BY HER MAJESTY’S MOST GRACIOUS PERMISSION,
INSCRIBED,
WITH THE UTMOST RESPECT,
BY HER MAJESTY’S MOST GRATEFUL
AND MOST OBEDIENT SERVANT,
THE AUTHORESS.
If there be one mechanical art of more universalapplication than all others, and therefore of moreuniversal interest, it is that which is practised withthe Needle. From the stateliest denizen of theproudest palace, to the humblest dweller in thepoorest cottage, all more or less ply the busy needle;from the crying infant of a span long and an hour’slife, to the silent tenant of “the narrow house,” allneed its practical services.
Yet have the Needle and its beautiful and usefulcreations hitherto remained without their due meedof praise and record, either in sober prose or soundingrhyme,—while their glittering antithesis, thescathing and destroying sword, has been the themeof admiring and exulting record, without limit andwithout end!
The progress of real civilization is rapidly puttingan end to this false prestige in favour of the“Destructive” weapon, and as rapidly raising the[Pg vi]“Conservative” one in public estimation; and thetime seems at length arrived when that triumph offemale ingenuity and industry, “The Art of Needlework”may be treated as a fitting subject of historicaland social record—fitting at least for a female hand.
The chief aim of this volume is that of affording acomprehensive record of the most noticeable facts, andan entertaining and instructive gathering togetherof the most curious and pleasing associations, connectedwith “The Art of Needlework,” from theearliest ages to