ail of minute animal and vegetable forms--the flora and
fauna, as it were in worsted--are unique for their conscientious
finish. They almost amount to catalogues of plants and beasts.
The one which displays Summer is a herbal and a Noah's Ark turned
loose about a full-sized Classical Deity, who presides in the centre
of the composition.

Among English makers of tapestries was a workman named John Bakes,
who was paid the magnificent sum of twelve pence a day, while in an
entry in another document he is said to have received only fourpence
daily.

The Hunting Tapestries belonging to the Duke of Devonshire are
as perfect specimens as any that exist of the best period of the
art. They are represented in colour in W. G. Thomson's admirable
work on Tapestries, and are thus available to most readers in some
public collection.

Another splendidly decorative specimen is at Hampton Court, being
a series of the Seven Deadly Sins. They measure about twenty-five
by thirteen feet each, and are worked in heavy wools and silks.

As technical facility developed, certain weaknesses began to show
themselves. Tapestry weavers had their favourite figures, which,
to save themselves trouble, they would often substitute for others
in the original design.

Arras tapestries were no longer made in the sixteenth
century, and the best work of that time was accomplished in the
Netherlands. About 1540 Brussels probably stood at the head of the
list of cities famous for the production of these costly textiles.
The Raphael tapestries were made there, by Peter van Aelst, under
the order of Pope Leo X. They were executed in the space of four
years, being finished in 1519, only a year before Raphael's death.

In the sixteenth century the Brussels workers began to make certain
"short cuts" not quite legitimate in an art of the highest standing,
such as touching up the faces with liquid dyes, and using the same
to enhance the effect after the work was finished. A law was passed
that this must not be done on any tapestry worth more than twelve
pence a yard. In spite of this trickery, the Netherlandish tapestries
led all others in popularity in that century.

It was almost invariable, especially in Flemish work, to treat
Scriptural subjects as dressed in the costume of the period in
which the tapestry happened to be made. When one sees the Prodigal
Son attired in a delightful Flemish costume of a well-appointed
dandy, and Adam presented to God the F