e different
patterns or pictures on the two sides of the web. This
would almost appear to be impossible, but that it has
been done in late years, according to Rock, who tells us
that he saw a banner so woven, with the Austrian eagle
on one side and the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception
on the other. He says that the same manufacturer was
then being employed in producing ecclesiastical garments
with the colours and patterns so varied.

[436] In old tapestries three tints only were employed
for the complexions of men, women, and children--the
man's reddish, the woman's yellow, and the child's
whiter than either. It is an agreeable economy of
colours, simple and effective, and avoids the pictorial
imitation that one deprecates. See M. Charles Blanc's
"Grammaire des Arts Decoratifs: Tapisserie," p. 112.

[437] The poet here refers to H.R.H. the Princess
Christian.

CHAPTER VII.

HANGINGS.

"... Her bedchamber was hang'd
With tapestry of silk and silver...."

"Cymbeline," Act II., Scene IV.

The most important works that have been executed in embroidery, have
been hangings or carpets. We may look upon these as belonging to the
history of the past. Never again will such works be undertaken. Their
_raison d'etre_, as well as the means for their production, have
ceased to exist. We have very ancient historical evidence of the use
of hangings (or tapestries), either as curtains to exclude prying
eyes, or as coverings to what was sacred or else unseemly, or as
ornamental backgrounds in public and private buildings.

There is no doubt that in pillared spaces the enclosures and
subdivisions were completed by hangings from pillar to pillar, from
the earliest times of Asiatic civilization. In Assyria, and afterwards
in Greece and Rome, the open courts and rooms were shaded from the sun
and rain by umbrella-like erections with hangings stretched over them.
From the Coliseum's vast area to that of the smallest atrium in the
Pompeian house, the covering principle was the same.

Palace-halls and temples alike were furnished in this way, and the
cold splendour of the polished marbles was enhanced by contrast with
the shadowing folds of soft textures richly embroidered in bright
colours and gold. The statues, the gold and silver vessels, the
shrines heaped with votive offerings, were all brought into higher
reli