Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/583

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OF CELEBRATED WOMEN.
569

of Mr. Locke for her acquired endowments, and skill in arithmetic, geography, chronology, history, philosophy, and divinity; as a testimony of her gratitude to his memory, she drew up the account of him printed in the Great Historical Dictionary, and there said to be written by a lady.

This appears to have been the last of her performances; and she survived the person who was the subject of it only three years, dying, 1708. She was buried in the middle aisle of the Abbey church, at Bath.

Female Worthies.



MASQUIERE (FRANCES),

A French poetess, who died 1728.




MATILDA, Daughter of Baldwin de Lille, Count of Flanders, and Wife of William of Normandy, afterwards King of England, her Relation.

The pope granted them absolution for this marriage, on condition of building two chapels, one for men, the other for women. The first was erected by the Conqueror, and the last by Matilda. She is distinguished for working the famous tapestry in wool, portraying the descent upon England. The leaders have their different armorial bearings; and the vessels also are part-coloured. It was given by William to his brother Eudes, bishop of Bayeux, where it is yet preserved in the cathedral. There is a learned explanation of it given by Mr. Lancelot, in the 8th vol. of Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions. Her kindness and generosity to her eldest son Robert, in some degree recompensed him

for