AUTHORESS OF 'HISTORY OF THE ART OF NEEDLEWORK,' ENGLISH Awhile let me your patience crave, Baptistery. LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER AND SON, WEST STRAND. 1858. [The Author reserves the right of Translation.] •270. br. 162. PREFACE. HIS book is not the hastily-penned effusion of THIS morbid sentiment: it is a careful collation of a portion of the varied notes accumulated during many years of a very retired, and oftentimes lonely life. It is moreover, of necessity, the last publication I can make which shall involve any additional reading or research. I had projected, and indeed had prepared, a more extended work; but on consideration I have expunged many notes and sketches which, though strictly true, and consonant with the general tenor of the volume, partook more of the nature of personal reminiscence than of historical record. What is thus lost in variety is gained in brevity, and, perhaps, in unity, though I frankly admit the work to be miscellaneous and wayward.' The subject may not seem at first sight a very attractive one. But if it be a little startling to find so many pages devoted to 'graves, and worms, and epitaphs,' it may reassure us to call to mind that |