usy with her needle, gave due attention."

The Chateau of Blois, during the reign of Louis XII. and Ann of
Brittany, is described as being regally appointed with tapestries:
"Those which were hung in the apartments of the king and queen,"
says the chronicler, "were all full of gold; and the tapestries
and embroideries of cloth of gold and of silk had others beneath
them ornamented with personages and histories as those were above.
Indeed, there was so great a number of rich tapestries, velvet
carpets, and bed coverings, of gold and silk, that there was not
a chamber, hall, or wardrobe, that was not full."

In an inventory of the Princess of Burgundy there occurs this curious
description of a tapestry: "The three tapestries of the Church
Militant, wrought in gold, whereon may be seen represented God Almighty
seated in majesty, and around him many cardinals, and below him many
princes who present to him a church."

Household luxury in England is indicated by a quaint writer in 1586:
"In noblemen's houses," he says, "it is not rare to see abundance of
arras, rich hangings, of tapestrie... Turkie wood, pewter, brasse,
and fine linen.... In times past the costly furniture stayed there,
whereas now it is discarded yet lower, even unto the inferior
artificers, and many farmers... have for the most part learned to
garnish their beds with tapestries and hangings, and their tables
with carpetts and fine napery."

Henry VIII. was devoted to tapestry collecting, also. An agent
who was buying for him in the Netherlands in 1538, wrote to the
king: "I have made a stay in my hands of two hundred ells of goodly
tapestry; there hath not been brought this twenty year eny so good
for the price." Henry VIII. had in his large collection many subjects,
among them such characteristic pieces as: "ten peeces of the rich
story of King David" (in which Bathsheba doubtless played an important
part), "seven peeces of the Stories of Ladies," "A peece with a man
and woman and a flagon," "A peece of verdure... having poppinjays
at the nether corners," "One peece of Susannah," "Six fine new
tapestries of the History of Helena and Paris."

A set of six "verdure" tapestries was owned by Cardinal Wolsey,
which "served for the hanging of Durham Hall of inferior days."
The hangings in a hall in Chester are described as depicting "Adam,
Noe, and his Shyppe." In 1563 a monk of Canterbury was mentioned as
a tapestry weaver. At York, Norwich, and other cit