Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/377

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352 MISS LIN WOOD S EMBROIDERY.

tion, even from those who have visited the unparalleled establishment of the Gobelines at Paris. There you are moved with pity for the pale operatives, who with the glowing patterns behind them, exhaust both health and life in their joyless imitations. Here, the ex- quisiteness of the tissues are in accordance with the native taste and sphere of my own sex, wrought out by the instrument whose use was divinely taught them in Paradise, and of which they ought never to be ashamed.

The force and delicate mingling of light and shade, by Miss Linwood, both in figures, landscape, and histor ical design, and the felicity with which she has copied the ancient masters, are truly remarkable. Her collection consists of more than sixty pieces, among which the " Salvator Mundi," from Carlo Dolci, " Jepthah s Rash Vow," from Opie, and the " Judgment upon Cain," quite a large picture, are distinguished by their power and beauty. She entered this elegant department of needle work, at the age of thirteen, and pursued it with un- weared industry, until she had completed her 78th year. She has led a life of great respectability, and still sur vives, having nearly reached fourscore years and ten.

Another exhibition of female genius and perseverance is the splendid collection of wax figures, by Madame Tussaud, in Portman-Square. Here are groups of the striking, or illustrious characters of various lands, many of them actual likenesses, modelled from life, by this accomplished woman. Their costumes are in accord ance with their rank, and the age in which they lived ; and in some of the more modern figures, the deception

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