The map of Africa (Fig 41), which is surrounded by a delightful border of spangles, and which seems to have been used as a fire-screen, is interesting now that so much more is known of the continent, for many of the descriptions have undergone considerable change, such as the Grain Coast, Tooth Coast, and Slave Coast, which border on the Gulf of Guinea. The sampler is also noteworthy as having been done at Mrs Arnold's, which was presumably a school in Fetherstone Buildings, High Holborn, hardly the place where one would expect to find a ladies' seminary nowadays. American Samplers Tapestry pictures have such a Royalist air about them that it is hardly probable that they found favour with the Puritan damsels of the Stuart reigns, and, consequently, it may be doubted whether the fashion for making them crossed the Atlantic to the New World with the Pilgrim Fathers, or those who followed in their train. Samplers, on the other hand, with their moralities and their seriousness, would seem to be quite akin to the old-fashioned homes of the New Englanders, and doubtless there must be many specimens hanging in the houses of New England and elsewhere which were produced from designs brought from the Old Country, but over which a breath of native art has passed which imparts to them a distinctive interest and value. Three notable ones, we know, crossed the Atlantic with the early settlers. One, that of Anne Gower (spelled Gover on the sampler), first wife of Governor Endicott (Fig. 42), is now a cherished possession of the Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts. As Governor Endicott's wife arrived at Salem in 1628, and died the following year, we have in her sampler the earliest authentic one on record. The inscription of very well-designed and elaborately-worked letters, difficult to distinguish in the photograph, is:-- ANNE [Diamond] GOVER S T V W X Y Z J K L M N O P Q R A a B C d E F G H [Illustration: FIG. 42.--DRAWN-WORK SAMPLER BY ANNE GOVER, FIRST WIFE OF GOVR. J. ENDICOTT.] [Illustration: FIG. 43.--SAMPLER OF LOARA STANDISH, DAUGHTER OF THE PILGRIM FATHER, MILES STANDISH, NOW IN PILGRIM HALL, PLYMOUTH, U.S.A.] [Illustration: FIG. 44.--SAMPLER BEARING NAMES OF MILES AND ABIGAIL FLEETWOOD. DATED 1654. _Property of Mrs Frank Boxer._] [Illustration: FIG. 45.--SAMPLER BY ABIGAIL RIDGWAY. 1795. _Mr A. D. Drake's Collection._] [Illustration: PLATE XIII.--AMERICAN SAMPLER BY MARTHA C. BARTON. DATED 1825. _Mr Joseph Pennell._ Mr Joseph Pennell's Sampler, which finds a place here as a specimen of American work, has little to distinguish it from its fellows that were produced in England in the reign of George IV. The border, it is true, only preserves its uniformity on two of the four sides, but where it does it is designed on an old English pattern, that of the wild strawberry. So, too, we find the ubiquitous stag and coach dogs, Noahs, ash trees, birds, and flower baskets.]