Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/339

Rh knights jousting, lions fighting, amices barred with amethysts and pearls, &c. Without enumerating more, all are cumulative proofs of the gorgeous effects produced by the English needle. They were finished too in the most elaborate manner, the nicest details of Gothic tracery or personal peculiarity of expression being accurately pourtrayed.

An idea of the pecuniary value of these works of art may be gleaned from the Liberate Roll 24. Hen. III. (1241), where among other entries of a similar kind, we find this monarch ordering the payment of £24. 1s. 6d. to Adam de Basinges, for a cope of red silk, given to the bishop of Hereford: also to the same person £17. 18s. 10d. for two diapered and one precious cloth of gold, for a tunic and dalmatican entirely ornamented with gold fringe, and also £17 and one mark, for two embroidered chesables for the royal chapel. Reckoning the comparative cost of these vestments according to the present increased rate of money, which the calculations of Dr. Henry and of Adam Smith have made out to be fifteen times greater than at that period, the cope presented to the bishop of Hereford must have been worth £361. 2s. 6d. The monarch also gave to this newly-elected bishop (Peter de Aqua Blanca) a mitre costing £82, which, pursuing the same kind of calculation as that just instituted, must have equalled in value £1,230 sterling. And a sum as large as £140, equalling it is presumed £2,100 now, was given to Thomas Cheiner for a vest of velvet embroidered with divers work, purchased by Edward III. for his own chaplain. I must confess upon applying the test of the two cambists already mentioned, this computation appears exaggerated. Yet even reverting to the charge first named, £140 for a vest of embroidered velvet, indicates that the skill displayed must have been something extraordinary, or it would not have drawn so large a reimbursement from the royal exchequer; whilst it adds another to the numerously-existing evidences of the encouragement afforded to this species of English workmanship, afforded, at a period too, when the arts had risen to their highest state of perfection in Great Britain.

It may be true that very little is still existing by which their merit may be fairly tested, since from various causes these works have generally perished; in some measure through an