attachment to a belt, and is fixed at each side near a strong double
loop of silver thread, used when pulling the bag open. The lining is of
pink silk. This particular bag is perfect in colour as well as
condition, but usually the silver has turned black, or nearly so.
Besides these very ornamental bags, others of quite simple workmanship
are occasionally found, worked in outline with coloured silks. As well
as the embroidered bags, certain rectangular cloths variously
ornamented, some richly, some plainly, were made and used for the
protection of embroidered books, when being read. These, like the bags,
only seem to have been used during the seventeenth century. A
particularly fine example belongs to a New Testament bound in
embroidered satin in 1640. It is of fine linen, measuring 16-1/2 by
9-1/4 inches, and is beautifully embroidered in a floral design, with
thick stalks of gold braid arranged in curves and bearing conventional
flowers and leaves, all worked in needle-point lace with coloured silks
in a wonderfully skilful manner.

In the centre is a double red rose with separate petals, and among the
other flowers are corn-flowers, honeysuckles, carnations, strawberries,
and several leaves, all worked in the same way, and appliqués at their
edges. Some, however, of the larger leaves and petals are ornamentally
fastened down to the linen by small coloured stitches arranged in lines
or patterns over their surfaces, as well as by the edge stitches. There
are several spangles scattered about in the spaces on the linen, and the
edge is bound with green silk and gold. On the book itself to which this
cover belongs there is a good deal of the same needle-point work,
probably executed by the same hand; but the cover is a finer piece
altogether than the book,--in fact it is the finest example of such work
I have ever seen.