_Examitum_, _xamitum_, or, as it is called in our old English documents so often, _samit_, is a word made up of two Greek ones, εξ, “six,” and μίτοι, “threads,” the number of the strings in the warp of the texture. That stuffs woven so thick must have been of the best, is evident. Hence, to say of any silken tissue that it was “examitum,” or “samit,” meant that it was six-threaded, in consequence costly and splendid. At the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth centuries, “examitum,” as the writer still names the silk, was much used for vestments in Evesham abbey, as we gather from the “Chronicon” of that house, published lately for the Master of the Rolls.[103] About the same period, among the best copes, chasubles, and vestments in St. Paul’s, London, many were made of “sametum;” so Master Radulph de Baldock chose to call it in his visitation of that church as its dean, A.D. 1295.[104] As we observed just now, these rich silks, which were in all colours, with a warp so stiff, became richer still from having a woof of golden thread, or, as we should now say, being shot with gold. But years before, “examitum” was shortened into “samet;” for among the nine gorgeous chasubles bequeathed to Durham cathedral by its bishop, Hugh Pudsey, A.D. 1195, there was the “prima de rubea samete nobiliter braudata cum laminis aureis et bizanciis et multis magnis perlis et lapidibus pretiosis.”[105] About a hundred years afterwards the employment of it, after its richest form, in our royal wardrobes, has been pointed out just now, p. xxviii., &c. In that valuable inventory, lately published, of the rich vestments belonging to Exeter cathedral, A.D. 1277, of its numerous chasubles, dalmatics, tunicles, besides its seventy and more copes, the better part were made of this costly tissue here called “samitta;” for example: “casula, tunica, dalmatica de samitta--par (vestimentorum) de rubea samitta cum avibus duo capita habentibus;” “una capa samitta cum leonibus deauratis.”[106] In a later document, A.D. 1327, this precious silk is termed “samicta.”[107] Our minstrels did not forget to array their knights and ladies in this gay attire. When Sir Lancelot of the Lake brought back Gawain to King Arthur:-- Launcelot and the queen were cledde In robes of a rich wede, Of samyte white, with silver shredde: * * * * * The other knights everichone, In samyte green of heathen land, And their kirtles, ride alone.[108] [103] Pp. 282-88. [104] Dugdale’s St. Paul’s, new ed. pp. 316, &c. [105] Wills and Inventories, part i. p. 3, published by the Surtees Society. [106] Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, and a History of the Cathedral, by Oliver, pp. 297, 298. [107] Ibid. 313. [108] Ellis’s Metrical Romances, i. 360. In his “Romaunt of the Rose,” Chaucer describes the dress of _Mirthe_ thus:--