of gold with orphreys before and behind set with pearls, blue, white and red, with plates of gold enamelled, wanting fifteen plates, &c."[1] bestowed by John of Gaunt's duchess of Lancaster, upon Lincoln Cathedral, is another instance to show how such a kind of rich ornamentation was sewed to garments, especially for church use, in such large quantities.
Here, in England, the old custom was to sew a great deal of goldsmith's work, for enrichment, upon articles meant for personal wear, as well as on ritual garments. When our first Edward's grave, in Westminster Abbey, was opened, A.D. 1774, on the body of the king, besides other silken robes, was seen, a stole-like band of rich white tissue put about the neck, and crossed upon his breast: it was studded with gilt quatrefoils in filigree work and embroidered with pearls. From the knees downwards the body was wrapped in a pall of cloth of gold. Concerning attire for liturgical use, the fact may be verified in those instances we have elsewhere given.[2] When Henry III., in the latter end of his reign, bestowed a frontal on the high altar in Westminster Abbey, besides carbuncles in golden settings, as we have just read, p. xxxvi, we may have observed that along with several larger pieces of enamel, there were as many as 866 smaller ones—the "esmaux de plique" of the French—all fastened on this liturgical embroidery.
A good instance of the appliance of figured solid gold or silver, upon church vestments, is the following one of a cope beaten all over with lions in silver, given by a well-wisher to Glastonbury Abbey:—"dederat unam capam rubeam cum leonibus laminis argenteis capæ infixis, &c."[3]
In the Norman-French, for so long a period in use at our Court, silken stuffs thus ornamented were said to be "batuz," or as we now say beaten with hammered-up gold. Among the liturgical furniture provided by Richard II. for the chapel in the castle of Haverford, were "ii rydell batuz"—two altar-curtains beaten (no doubt with ornaments in gilt silver.)[4]
For the secular employment of this same sort of decoration, we have several curious examples. Our ladies' dresses for grand occasions were so adorned, as we may see in the verses following:—
In a robe ryght ryall bowne,
Of a redd syclatowne,
Be hur fadur syde;
