Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/253

Rh once been white. No artificial colour is introduced except in the frontal. The ends are terminated by fringes of the thread with which the cloth is woven.

The cloth is divided across, into five compartments by borders from 1 in. to 2 in. wide, of varying patterns. The central portion has within the narrow border a second about 3 in. wide, composed of figures of winged dragons whose tails branch into elegant scrolls of foliage, a part of which is hold in the mouth of the succeeding dragon. The larger part of the space enclosed is filled up by a quatrefoil, with straight-lined cusps between each foil. This encloses a circle within which are figures of the Virgin Mary crowned and seated on a throne at the right hand of our Saviour. The latter holds an orb in the left hand, and has the right raised in benediction. In the circle is the legend, Gloria in excelsis deo et in terra pax ominibus. Within the spaces left by the quatrefoil outside the circle, are, on the sides, St. Peter and St. Paul, and, at the top and bottom two pairs of angels. One of those at the top seems to swing a censer, the other plays on a violin. One of those at the bottom plays on a flageolet, the other on a sort of triangle. As if placed on the cusps are open crowns from which proceed scrolls of foliage. The remainder of the ground is divided by narrow bands into lozenge-shaped compartments, the alternate lines of which are occupied by grotesque animals, dragons or birds, and by letters. Both the monsters and the letters are made to terminate in small sprigs of foliage. The letters are {sc|got.mot.es.volden.dat.vi.ix.neer.}} Owing to the manner in which the letters are placed there are, of course, no stops or breaks to indicate the separation of the words, but if divided as above it may be understood to mean, "May God will that we come near to him." There is, however, a certain irregularity in the placing of the last letters, and it is questionable whether they ought not to stand. A most competent authority questions the admissibility of the former reading, but thinks that the latter may mean, "That we desire (yearn after) him."

The two divisions next to the central one have the dragon border only on their sides; the centre is occupied by large quatrefoils (without the cusps which are in the central division) enclosing circles, and with crowns and foliage at the entering angles of the quatrefoils. In one of these divisions the subject within the circle is the appearance of our Saviour to Mary Magdalen in the garden (John xx. 15), when "she took him for the gardener," and he is here represented holding a spade in the left hand, while the right is raised. In the circle are the words—Maria ven sokest du hir Ihesus van Naseret. Two angels with censers and four with violins, a sort of guitar, and a pair of handbells, fill the spaces left within the quatrefoil. The ground of this compartment is filled in a similar manner to that of the central one, except that in addition to the letters and monsters there is a third alternate row which contains alternately fylfots and crosses. The letters in this compartment are In the lozenge following the one which contains the last  is what may be meant as a contraction for que; supplying, therefore, the  omitted in the third word, the sense would be "God giveth all things, but hath not therefore less and less."