The borders that run above and below well repay study. They not only make an admirable framework for the main narrative, but have an object of their own in keeping up a kind of running commentary on the events portrayed within their boundaries; strange birds and beasts, the subjects of fable, hybrids, and human forms, sometimes pursuing their ordinary avocations, sometimes engaged in battle or lying dead, form these borders, teaching by their actions, attitudes or expressions, the import of each scene. They express the hopes and fears of the rival factions and perform almost the functions of a Greek Chorus. They are delightful, too, in themselves, and there is in them something truly expressive of the mediæval mind. [Illustration: FIG. 2. PLOUGHING (_see_ p. 27).] There are several interesting features to be observed in connection with the Tapestry besides that of its evident bias. There runs throughout the assumption that the story will be familiar not only in outline, but also in detail to the examiners of the Tapestry--a fact which is in itself strong evidence of a contemporary date. For instance, in 17 occurs the mysterious subject “UBI UNUS CLERICUS ET ÆLFGYVA” (“where a certain clerk and Ælfgyva”). Who Ælfgyva was permits of the widest conjecture; who a certain clerk may have been no one even pretends to know. But it is evident that the subject was sufficiently well known at the time to be inserted quite naturally and without any further explanation. At this distance of time it is impossible to explain the allusion. Again, who were Turold (12), Wadard (49), Vital (62)? They are honoured in the Tapestry with their names above them, and so were evidently thought to be persons of importance. But few can have heard of them to-day. The archæologist Amyot, indeed, discovered that there were three vassals of Bishop Odo called by these names. If these are the people shown in the Tapestry, their appearance would be a compliment to the Bishop as well as themselves. In fact, throughout the story Bishop Odo appears with a prominence that can hardly have been attractive to his illustrious brother. Not only do his three servants appear in this way, but in 54 he is seated in state with the Conqueror and the Conqueror’s eldest son, Count Robert, while in the crisis of the battle it was Odo, not William, who rallied the troops and turned into victory what had seemed certain defeat. Again, when William was giving his orders for the preparation of the Expedition (41) Odo stood by his side ever ready with advice. It may be remembered what William thought later of the ambition of his brother, and how some time after the Conquest was over he sent him packing back to his Bishopric. Odo was certainly a great benefactor to his Cathedral of Bayeux, and the prominence given to him has been used as an argument that the Tapestry was ordered by him and the design made by an artist intent on the gratification of his lord. III--HISTORY OF THE TAPESTRY.