Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/319

 ENGIJSII MKDIKVAL KM RKOIDERY. 295 whole of the iK)])ihty ])reseiited themselves before hiin in golden raiment. Tliis practice seems to have endnred until the time of Henry II., who in the fonrth year of his reign, keeping his Easter at Worcester with great solemnity, dis- continued it : when he and Eleanor his queen, going up to the altar to present their usual oblation, took off theii' crowns and placed thcni upon it, as an offering to God, vowing they would wear them no longer. After this, the three festivals were observed with less splendom-, though Henry HI., when a minor, kept his Christmas with considerable magnificence at Northampton on more than one occasion. These customs tended to increase the gaiety and attractions of the court of the Plantagenets, and imparted to it a brilliancy which the feudal lords with all their natural roughness of manners uld not but dwell upon with admiration. From hence the CO C'liffords and Fitz-Alans carried the ideas of elegance to their border fortresses of Hereford and Clun, while Albrincis at Dover, and Peverel amid the wild fastnesses of the Peak or the more genial heights of Bolsover, implanted the severe ele- ments of other tastes, which will, as they become better known and appreciated, constitute the model for imitation among future architects. Besides the em- broidered garments worn by the monarch and his nobility, and the vestments requi- site for the use of the Church, he was burdened with an- nual payments, more courteously termed offerings, which were occasionally made in the form of presents of gold, or of em- broidered cloth, to the high altar, or to the slu'ine of some reputed saint. Thus Edward I. made ob- lations to the banner of St. John of Be- herelory. St. Richju^d, Cirencester