browns, and the colours were mostly confined to the blue scheme first named, but there are examples extant of an entire design carried out in shades of red, as in the Tudor and early 16th century hangings one finds blues responsible for the whole colouring. These vary in tone, and in the late copies of the designs the blue has a very green tinge about it.[2]

In the reign of Queen Anne taste reverted to the older lighter designs, grotesques were eliminated, massiveness gave place to grace, and brightness of colour to a soft modified brilliancy that was very engaging. In the Georgian copies heaviness again obtained favour, and gradually the designs deteriorated, and were eventually temporarily lost in "the limbo of the past." The vogue for lace work in the reign of William and Mary influenced the stitches in the crewel embroidery, and in Queen Anne's day the variety of stitches was reminiscent of the earlier period, some of the fillings being beautiful.

The material used was through all the phases the same, viz., a twill fabric, of which the warp was of linen, the weft of cotton; the wools varied somewhat in the twist, but were always worsted, the word crewel being a diminutive of clew, "a ball of thread," and probably came into vogue with the importation of wools from Germany, the corresponding word in that language being Knäuel.

A. F. MORRIS HANDS

Op. I

PLATE 1

THIS plate was sketched from a very old strip of Tudor work, measuring about 5ft. 8in. in length and 1ft. 8in. in width. Each leaf was about 22in. long and 19in. across. The strip had evidently been part of a bed valance, and, as far as one could tell—for it was much faded—had been worked in two shades of wool only—dark indigo blue and bright green; the latter had faded, almost everywhere, to a soft mignonette colour.

Op. II

PLATE 2

A group of blue leaves, etc., taken from some old cushions at Knole Park, Sevenoaks.

No. 1. Stem stitch contour: Maidenhair in buttonhole stitch. Star in buttonhole stitch on background of small crosses.

No. 2. Stem stitch.

No. 3. Stem stitch contours. Centre in loop stitch.

No. 4. Stem stitch contours. Centre loop stitch and maidenhair in buttonhole stitch.

No. 5. Stem stitch.

PLATE 2a

GROUP of the lighter details that break up the heavy masses in the earliest and latest examples.

The medlar-like fruit is worked in Crewel stitch in bands of brown, stem lighter in shade.

The leaves, Example I & II, satin stitch with stem stitch outline both sides, centre veinings in stem stitch, turnover in leaf, II, in block stitch.

III Buttonhole edging with darned centre, centre filled with strands of wool caught down at intervals with double back stitch.

IV Flowers in soft blues in satin stitch, acorns have their cups worked in French knots.

Op. III

THE following plates were sketched from an old strip of work done in deep indigo worsted wool, with a rather lighter wool, both in colour and make, used in the fine buttonhole work and darning, of which there is much throughout the work. The design was a branching one, the flowers and leaves—most of which appear in the following plates—are hanging from stems about a quarter of an inch thick done in herring-bone stitch, with the exception of the violas (plate 5) which have a thicker stem of their own in herring-bone, stem stitch and loops. The thistles (plate 3, No. 1) reproduced the same size as in the work, were scattered about in groups of three, making a very pleasing contrast to the hanging roses (plate 6), whilst the irises reared their heads all along the bottom of the strip, but owing to the work having been cut, it was impossible to see how they joined their straight stalks to the branching ones above.

PLATE 3

No. 1. Stem stitch contour: diaper work done in coral stitch, with a French knot filling in each alternate square. Four rows of buttonhole stitch at top of flower.

No. 2. Stem-stitch, coral stitch and darning.

No. 3. Buttonhole stitch, French knot and stem stitch.

No. 4. Stem stitch and buttonhole stitch.

No. 5. Coral stitch. (These tendrils occurred all over the work and were very effective.)

No. 6. Buttonhole stitch: centre and stalk in stem stitch.

No. 7. Stem stitch and loops.

PLATE 4

THE iris shown here was worked as follows: The contours in stem stitch throughout. The centre and two side petals have stem stitch veins, edged buttonhole stitch and were filled in with big knots. The smaller petals were partially filled in with buttonhole stitch and darning. The dark petal on left was done in Cretan[3] stitch edged stem stitch.

PLATE 5

No. 1. Contour in stem stitch, filled in lightly with buttonhole stitch, and darning and long-and-short stitch.

No. 2. Ditto, with the addition of herring-bone stitch on two upper petals.

No. 3. (Stalk) herring-bone stem stitch with loops between.