The Bayeux Tapestry

New Zealand Tablet, 22 November 1906, Page 33

The Bayeux Tapestry

Few besides.'f'Uiose who have visite-4 Bayeux or hay«jspecially studied the subject have ..any idea of what " this extraordinary work ol art ;is really like or haveany Authentic knowledge of its,, history! lt~ tells the" story of Edward, Harold, "and William, and of the conquest of William, in a series of pictures, so that its value is , great as a chronicle as well as a relic -.of ■ needlework 800 .years old. " . - - , . . The vicissitudes of the treasure' have been many. It is a curious fact that from 1476. until 1724 it* seems ' to have dropped entirely out of "the' world's knowledge. It was preserved with -care- among the' treasures of the - Bayeux Cathedral, and was brought out for eight, days every summer and hung about the nave of the Cathedral. No one but the.peasants ever saw it, and the cathedral authorities l car ed^ for" it only as a decoration.--In 1721 an old drawing -of part of the tapestry- came into the hands of . a learned antiquarian, who tried without success to find the -original. The Pere JMontfaucon also tried-.- to ; find it, and at last succeeded and told the world about it in his great .book, ' Monuments ,de •la Monarchic Francaise. • _ _- - ■ ■ "The Church had no -power- to' protect such -a-trea--sure in 1724, and the v ancient length of linen with its quaint embroidery .watjf? dragged out -of the cathedral 'and" used to cover one of the military wagons belonging to r> the local battalion. M. le Fores tier rushed to its rescue . and substituted a canvas to 'cover the' wagon., an-d brought,- the^ tapestry, .to his till he _ -was relieved from his " self-appointed mission by, a commis'-,-sion who undertook the protection of the work of art. Now the tapestry has been restored and may be- seen ■ framed under glass in a museum, of its own.