e were certainly
individual looms, though we doubt whether it had yet become a national
industry, as we have so few specimens remaining. The St. Mary's
tapestries contain portraits of Henry VI., Cardinal Beaufort, &c., and
are probably contemporary works. The subject is the marriage of Henry
VI.

There is also a piece of tapestry at Bude, in Cornwall, the property
of Mr. Maskell, which came from a royal sale. Here the marriage of
Henry VII. is depicted, and the style resembles that of the Coventry
hangings. The costumes are certainly English, and the original
pictures must have been English, though they might have been wrought
at Arras, reminding one of the groups of figures and the dresses on
the Dunstable Pall (see Plate 78).

Dr. Rock also quotes the reredos belonging to the Vintners' Company,
representing St. Martin sharing his cloak with a beggar. He thinks
this is executed by the monks of St. Alban's, and attributes to those
of Canterbury the fine tapestries of the legends of the Virgin at Aix,
in Provence, of which we have the history. They were originally given
to Canterbury Cathedral by Prior Godstone, and were called Arras work.
There is no doubt that there were looms and artists in the convents
and monasteries before there was any recognized school of such work in
England. Probably till the Reformation such hangings were being woven
all over Europe, and only then ceased in Germany and England. One
cannot but regret that the weight of the evil which preponderated over
the good in the Houses of the Church, should have caused so much that
was beautiful in art to be crushed by their ruin.

Chaucer speaks of "tapestry of verd."[417] This green tapestry seems
to have been intended to give a bowery effect to the room it hung; and
one can imagine that it pleased the taste of the poet of the "Flower
and the Leaf." It seems to have been much the fashion in England and
elsewhere about that period, and generally represented landscapes and
woody foregrounds only; but sometimes figures and animals were
portrayed, and always in the same tints of bluish-green.

Dr. Rock gives us an extract from the wardrobe accounts of Edward II.,
containing the following items: "To a mercer of London for a green
hanging of wool, woven with figures of kings and earls upon it; for
the king's service upon solemn feast days in London;" therefore the
"tapestry of verd" was not a novelty even in the time of Chaucer.[418]

Oudenarde was famo