Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/447

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and its Green Border-Land.
433

singularly with the walls to which they were hung and other articles of olden furniture. Everywhere the Bear and Ragged Staff meets the visiter or inmate. Then there are the scripture and other mottoes noticed so pleasantly by Hawthorne, enjoining all sorts of Christian virtues and patriotic and brotherly sentiments.

Among the relics preserved and exhibited, there was a small one at which many must linger with peculiar interest. It is a piece of embroidery on silk wrought by the fingers of Amy Robsart. A few years ago an American, by the name of Connor, of New York, on seeing this small piece of her handy-work, left half a sovereign as his contribution to a frame for it. The brethren added each a small sum, and a deep, massive frame of carved oak, from Kenilworth Castle, was obtained, as black as ebony with age. In this it is now exhibited among other relics. The chapel of the hospital is a gem in its way, both of the earliest and very latest styles of architecture and embellishment. It is built over a deep cut or vaulted passage, through which runs one of the main streets. It has recently been renovated in its interior arrangements, and makes a beautiful little sanctuary, in which the brethren assemble for prayers daily. The "living" of the Master makes him a comfortable berth of £400 a year, with a good house for his rectory, and other