From that moment the evenings were employed at Malmaison in making lint, and the empress yielded to none in activity at this work. Few of my readers will have accompanied me to this point without anticipating the name with which these slight notices of royal needlewomen must conclude--a name which all know, and which, knowing, all reverence as that of a dignified princess, a noble and admirable matron--Adelaide, our Dowager Queen. It was hers to reform the morals of a court which, to our shame, had become licentious; it was hers to render its charmed circle as pure and virtuous as the domestic hearth of the most scrupulous British matron; it was hers to combine with the chilling etiquette of regal state the winning virtues of private life, and to weave a wreath of domestic virtues, social charities, and beguiling though simple occupations, round the stately majesty of England's throne. The days are past when it would be either pleasurable or profitable for the Queen of the British empire to spend her days, like Matilda or Katharine, "in poring over the interminable mazes of tapestry;" but it is well known that Queen Adelaide, and, in consequence of her Majesty's example, those around her, habitually occupied their leisure moments in ornamental needlework; and there have been, of late years, few Bazaars throughout the kingdom, for really beneficent purposes, which have not been enriched by the contributions of the Queen Dowager--contributions ever gladly purchased at a high price, not for their intrinsic worth, but because they had been wrought by a hand which every Englishwoman had learnt to respect and love. FOOTNOTES: [129] This sacred standard was taken by the Saxons in Devonshire, in a fortunate onset, in which they slew one of the Sea-kings with eight hundred of his followers. So superstitious a reverence was attached to this ensign that its loss is said to have broken the spirit of even these ruthless plunderers. It was woven by the sisters of Inguar and Ubba, who divined by it. If the Raven (which was worked on it) moved briskly in the wind, it was a sign of victory, but if it drooped and hung heavily, it was supposed to prognosticate discomfiture. [130] Von Raumer's Contributions. CHAPTER XXV. ON MODERN NEEDLEWORK. "Our Country everywhere is fild With Ladies, and with Gentlewomen, skild In this rare Art." Taylor. "For here the needle plies its busy task, The pattern grows, the well-depicted flower Wrought patiently into the snowy lawn, Unfolds its bosom; buds, and leaves, and sprigs, And curling tendrils gracefully dispos'd, Follow the nimble fingers of the fair; A wreath that cannot fade." Cowper.