three other houses are equally well
provided. The ground of one of these suites of five pieces of
embroidery, of animals and flowers, is described as being "Stannel
cloth lined with cannevois" (canvas). Each room has chairs, cushions,
carpets (which appear to have covered the floor and the tables), and
"Cabinutts" (cabinets) covered with embroideries.

In a Florentine Palace (the Alessandri), there is a state
apartment,[465] where the bed, the walls, the curtains, and the
furniture are entirely decorated with the same splendid materials,
i.e. gold brocaded with crimson velvet. The eye longs for some repose
amidst the gorgeous reiterated forms and colours. If the bed and
curtains had been either plain crimson velvet or embroidery, it would
have been much more beautiful. This sort of example is a lesson and a
warning, which is valuable even under less splendid conditions.

Amongst our fine Indian embroideries, those of Lucknow, Gulbargah,
Aurungabad, and Hyderabad are well fitted for beds and furniture.
These we can study in the Indian Museum, and it seems a pity not to
profit by, and encourage the resources of our own Empire.

Carpets and rugs were sometimes embroidered as well as woven in
patterns. They were anciently spread on thrones, couches and sofas, at
entertainments;[466] and used for covering the catafalques at funeral
ceremonies, or for laying over tombs, as is still the custom in the
East. We who restrict their use to domestic purposes, are beginning to
understand that these decorations look best when the patterns are
geometrical, and that natural objects, such as rabbits and roses, even
when conventionalized, are unpleasant to tread upon.

The sofa and chairs are so often the vehicles for embroidery that we
must give them a separate share of our attention. The square shapes of
the chair-backs repeated several times give us an opportunity for
balancing colours and introducing forms of decoration which may be
made to contrast with everything else in the room, and so enhance the
general effect. Say that the carpet is red, and the furniture and
hangings are of tender broken tints, it will be a pleasure to the eye
if the cushions on the sofa and the chairs and seats are panelled with
a deeper or lighter colour than the carpet, but always reposing the
eye by contrasting plain surfaces with richness of design. Then the
footstool or cushion should break away entirely from the carpet on
which it lies, that the po