Originally there were red silk ribbons to tie the book together at the front edges, but there is only a trace of them now left. The back is divided into five panels, bearing alternately white and Tudor roses, with leaves, stems, and buds. It is said that Archbishop Parker kept in his own house" painters . . . writers, and bookbinders," so it is very likely that this book was bound under his own eyes. It is said that only twenty copies of it were printed, and that no two were alike. It contains the biographies of sixty-nine Archbishops, but not Parker's own. This omission was afterwards supplied by the publication of a little satirical tract, in 1574, entitled Histriola, a little Storye of the Actes and Life of Matthew, now Archbishop of Canterbury. The two title-pages and the leaf with the Archbishops' coats-of-arms are vellum, and the woodcuts, borders, and arms throughout the volume are emblazoned in gold and colors. It is now part of the old royal collection in the British Museum.

A small copy of the New Testament in Greek, printed at Leyden in 1576, is covered in white ribbed silk, and embroidered in gold, for Queen Elizabeth. Each board has the same pattern upon it; in the centre the royal arms of England, ensigned with the crown, and surrounded by the Garter, in both of which are inserted several seed pearls. This is surrounded by an irregular border of thick gold cord, interlaced, in which are leafy sprays of single and double roses. The arrangement of this border is admirably designed. The colors of the arms, the Garter, and the red roses are painted, probably in water-colors, on the silk itself-the earliest specimen of such work that is known to me. From the delicacy of the material on which the embroidery is done, and the high projection of many of the threads, the book has evidently got into very bad condition at a remote period; and it has been entrusted to some one to repair, who has removed all the original binding and reinlaid it on new boards, the result being that he has increased the damage already existing.

A little book, Orationis DominictC Explicatio, per Lambertum Danaeum, printed at Geneva in 1583, is covered in black velvet, and ornamented with a very effective design, worked with broad gold cord (Fig. II). An outer arabesque border, having also flowers of silver guimp, encloses an inner panel which has two white roses in the centre, and a red rose in each of the inner corners. Each of these roses has a little green leaf at the junction of the petals, and they are apparently outlined with silver thread. It is, however, often difficult with old books to say for certain whether a thread has been gold or silver, as the gold cord has a tendency to wear white, and the silver cord often turns yellow. The contrast of color on this little book is very charming even now, and it must have been particularly beautiful when it was first done. It has the remains of ties at the front edges of red silk and gold cord.

There is another embroidered book belonging to the old royal collection in the British Museum that seems to have been bound for Queen Elizabeth. It is a copy of The Common Places of Dr. Peter Martyr, translated by Anthonie Marten, printed in London in 1583, and dedicated to the queen. It is covered in blue purple velvet, and ornamented with silver wire and guimp. There is an outer border formed of double lines, made easily and effectively by means of a spiral wire flattened down, giving the appearance of small overlaid rings. This border encloses a series of clusters, formed with stitches of silver guimp, arranged in a basket-work pattern. In the centre is an ornament of diamond shape, outlined with the same silver-wire edge and enclosing again the basket-work design, and the four inner corners are filled up with quarter circles of the same work. The book has been rebacked, and it is not in very good condition; but the effect of the silver on the deep purple ground still has a very admirable effect. The broad gilt edges are very handsomely and elaborately decorated with gauffied work of Elizabethan character.