It is also
remarkable that this inventory, in mentioning such an article, should
call it simply _a very long piece of cloth, embroidered with figures and
writing, representing the conquest of England_, without any reference to
the royal artist or the donor.
Observations of this nature will suggest themselves to every one, and
the arguments urged by the Abbe de la Rue are very strong; and yet I
confess that my own feelings always inclined to the side of those who
assign the highest antiquity to the tapestry. I think so the more since
I have seen it. No one appears so likely to have undertaken such a task
as the female most nearly connected with the principal personage
concerned in it, and especially if we consider what the character of
this female was: the details which it contains are so minute, that they
could scarcely have been known, except at the time when they took place:
the letters agree in form with those upon Matilda's tomb; and the
manners and customs of the age are also preserved.--Mr. Stothard, who is
of the same opinion as to the date of the tapestry, very justly
observes, that the last of these circumstances can scarcely be
sufficiently insisted upon; for that "it was the invariable practice
with artists in every country, excepting Italy, during the middle ages,
whatever subject they took in hand, to represent it according to the
costume of their own times.
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