Clothes of gold and halles
Arras[[3]] of rich arraye
Freshe as flowers in Maye.”
Tapestry, which had become something of a lost art during the Wars of the Roses, had been again brought into favour by Henry VIII., and a fresh interest is now given to it on account of the beautiful articles that are being made at the Mortlake factory established by James I.
Another hanging, not quite banished as yet, was “painted cloth,” canvas painted in tempera, or oil, with various devices, figures, mottoes, proverbs and wise sayings. Falstaff’s comparison “Slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth,” shows us that Biblical subjects were represented. The saucy Beatrice of Much Ado about Nothing admits that she took her witty answers from the painted cloth.[[4]]
PLATE VIII
Hangings of embossed leather from Spain, with figures in gold, silver, and various colours, were also used, especially in the adornment of the small rooms. Another novelty at this period was chintz, figured or flowered. In 1663, Pepys notes in his Diary: “Bought my wife a chint, that is a painted Indian calico for to line her new study.”
The latter must have been a kind of boudoir, or, possibly, a library. In some houses there was a special room set apart for books. These “studies” had been popular in England long before the time of Mrs. Pepys, since Leland describes one that was called “Paradise,” and which might be imitated with advantage in modern homes, especially where there is a restricted space for books. He writes:
“At Wressil Castle, Yorkshire, the seat of the Percies, there was one thing I liked exceedingly in one of the towers; that was a study called Paradise, wher was a closett in the middle of eight squares lattised about; and at the top of every square was a deske ledged to fit bookes on and cofers within them, and these seemed as joined hard to the top of this closett; and yet by pulling, one or al would come down briste high in rabattes, and serve for deskes to lay bookes on.”