350 Notes on Two Pieces of English Medieval Embroidery. 



tunicles, which are the vestments proper to the deacon and sub- 

 deacon when "vested agreeably " according to the Canon. 



The conclusion thus arrived at is borne out by another example 

 of a similar conversion of vestments to other uses. In the Church 

 of Littledean, Gloucestershire, is a herse cloth entirely made up of 

 a pair of tunicles. They have been deprived of their sleeves, the 

 side seams undone, and the tunicles opened out lengthwise so as to 

 form two long strips, which have been sewn side by side and the 

 openings for the head filled up with portions of the sleeves. The 

 orphreys are untouched, and consist of tiers of figures of saints 

 under canopies, three in front and three behind, of precisely similar 

 work to the Sutton Benger embroidery. 1 



Besides the difference in the style of the canopies, there is an 

 interesting variation in the figures of the Sutton Benger series. 

 In one pair of tunicles the figures were those of saints and prophets 

 alternately, in the other apparently of saints only. Owing to the 

 somewhat dilapidated and worn condition of the whole it is not 

 always easy to identify the figures, but they appear to be as follows : 



Series A. : — 



1. (a) Mutilated', (b) A prophet in cap and ermine-bordered 



mantle, holding a scroll; (c) An apostle (emblem 

 destroyed) . 



2. (a) Mutilated; (b) Moses, with rod and Tables of the 

 Law ; (c) St. James the Greater, as a palmer. 



3. {a) An apostle, mutilated; (b) A prophet in gold robe, 

 blue tippet and coif, holding a scroll ; (c) St. Peter, with 

 two keys, 



4. (a) A prophet (?) in gold mantle, mutilated; (b) St. 

 James the Less, with fuller's bat; (c) a prophet in cap 

 and gold mantle. 



Among the pieces cut from this series are the head and shoulders 

 of a second figure of Moses, and of two other prophets, part of 

 another holding a sceptre, and the top of the head of a saint. 



1 See Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries, 2nd Series, xii., 255 — 257. 



