The monkish chronicler aforesaid has
preserved an anecdote of Pope Innocent IV.
which has been often quoted, but cannot well
be omitted from a work dealing with the
subject. It is said that the pope, admiring
some gold-embroidered vestments, and asking
where they were made, learnt that they were
English. Forthwith, we are told, he caused
messages to be sent to the abbots of the
Cistercian order in England that he desired
to have some gold embroideries sent to him.
This incident is assigned to the year 1246.
The story in itself is sufficient to show that
English work was already becoming famous
on the continent of Europe before the middle
of the thirteenth century.
Among actual existing examples of the
period covered by this chapter, the first place
must be assigned to the famous embroidery
now preserved in the Museum at Bayeux in
Normandy. Although perhaps not strictly
English, but rather Norman work, it claims
a reference in this book (Plate 2). The work
is so well known as the " Bayeux tapestry "
that this title must not be interfered with.
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