![[See larger image]](#8958526208864448133_tapestry115.jpg.id-4910756229434874772.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
THE PASSING OF VENUS
Merton Abbey Tapestry. Cartoon by Burne-Jones
![[See larger image]](#8958526208864448133_tapestry116.jpg.id-9014892991377469974.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
ANGELI LAUDANTES
Merton Abbey Tapestry
But criticism of this aberration cannot hurt the wondrous inspired work directed by Morris, and which it were well for a beauty-loving world to have often repeated. Unhappily, the Merton Abbey works are bound not to repeat the superb series of the Grail. The entire set has been woven twice, and three pieces of it a third time—and there it ends. This is well for the value of the tapestries, but is it not a providence too thrifty when the public is considered? In ages to come, perhaps, other looms will repeat, and our times will glow with the fame thereof.
Before leaving the subject of the Merton Abbey tapestries, it is interesting to note a technical change in the weaving. By intertwisting the threads of the chain or warp at the back, a way is found to avoid the slits in weaving that are left to be sewn together with the needle in all old work. This method has been proved the stronger of the two. The strain of hanging proves too great for the strength of the stitches, and on many a tapestry appear gaping wounds which call for yet more stitching. But in the new method the fabric leaves the loom intact.