the preparation of apparel has fallen to woman's share, the spinning, the weaving, and the manufacture of the material itself from which garments were made. But, though we read frequently of high-born dames spinning in the midst of their maids, it is probable that this drudgery was performed by inferiors and menials, whilst enough, and more than enough of arduous employment was left for the ladies themselves in the rich tapestries and embroideries which have ever been coveted and valued, either as articles of furniture, or more usually for the decoration of the person. Rich and rare garments used to be infinitely more the attribute of high rank than they now are; and in more primitive times a princess was not ashamed to employ herself in the construction of her own apparel or that of her relatives. Of this we have an intimation in the old ballad of 'Hardyknute'--beginning "Stately stept he east the wa', And stately stept he west." "Farewell, my dame, sae peerless good, (And took her by the hand,) Fairer to me in age you seem, Than maids for beauty fam'd. My youngest son shall here remain To guard these lonely towers, And shut the silver bolt that keeps Sae fast your painted bowers. "And first she wet her comely cheeks, And then her boddice green, Her silken cords of twisted twist, Well plett with silver sheen; And apron set with mony a dice Of needlewark sae rare, Wove by nae hand, as ye may guess, Save that of Fairly fair." But it harmonises better with our ideas of high or royal life to hear of some trophy for the warrior, some ornament for the knightly bower, or some decorative offering for the church, emanating from the taper fingers of the courtly fair, than those kirtles and boddices which, be they ever so magnificent, seem to appertain more naturally to the "milliner's practice." Therefore, though we give the gentle Fairly fair all possible praise for notability in the "Apron set with mony a dice Of needlework sae rare," we certainly look with more regard on such work as that of the Danish princesses who wrought a standard with the national device, the Raven,[129] on it, and which was long the emblem of terror to those opposed to it on the battle-field. Of a gentler character was the stupendous labour of Queen Matilda--the Bayeux tapestry--on which we have dwelt too long elsewhere to linger here, and which was wrought by her and under her superintendence.