It is said that one of the articles which in its preparation beguiled her, perchance, of some melancholy thoughts, was a waistcoat which, having richly and beautifully embroidered, she sent to her son; and that this selfish prince was heartless enough to reject the offering because his mother (still surely Queen of Scotland in his eyes) addressed it to him as prince. The poet so often quoted wrote the subjoined sonnet in Queen Elizabeth's praise, whose skill with her needle was remarkable. She was especially an adept in the embroidering with gold and silver, and practised it much in the early part of her life, though perhaps few specimens of her notability now exist:-- "When this great queene, whose memory shall not By any terme of time be overcast; For when the world and all therein shall rot, Yet shall her glorious fame for ever last. When she a maid had many troubles past, From jayle to jayle by Maries angry spleene: And Woodstocke, and the Tower in prison fast, And after all was England's peerelesse queene. Yet howsoever sorrow came or went, She made the needle her companion still, And in that exercise her time she spent, As many living yet doe know her skill. Thus shee was still, a captive, or else crown'd, A needlewoman royall and renown'd." Of Mary II., the wife of the Prince of Orange, Bishop Fowler writes thus:--"What an enemy she was to idleness! even in ladies, those who had the honour to serve her are living instances. It is well known how great a part of the day they were employed at their needles and several ingenuities; the queen herself, when more important business would give her leave, working with them. And, that their minds might be well employed at the same time, it was her custom to order one to read to them, while they were at work, either divinity or some profitable history." And Burnet thus:--"When her eyes were endangered by reading too much, she found out the amusement of work; and in all those hours that were not given to better employment she wrought with her own hands, and that sometimes with so constant a diligence as if she had been to earn her bread by it. It was a new thing, and looked like a sight, to see a queen working so many hours a day." Her taste and industry in embroidery are testified by chairs yet remaining at Hampton Court.