The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by Louis the XIV., caused large numbers of weavers to come to England, bringing their art and tradition with them, and many established themselves at Spitalfields which soon rose to some importance. The patterns, necessarily, were purely French in treatment, consisting of natural arrangements of flowers; a sketch is here given of a Spitalfields design for silk damask. [Illustration: FLOWER VASE PATTERN] The textile fabrics of Flanders reached a high degree of perfection in the 16th and 17th centuries, Bruges being famous for its silk damasks and velvets, the patterns showing the traditional Persian or the pomegranate and artichoke type of the Florentine textiles. Block printing had been introduced into Flanders in the 15th century and many fine patterns with Indian motives were produced up to the 17th century. [Illustration: DESIGN FOR A SPITALSFIELD SILK FABRIC DATED 1739 SKM] At Ypres, fine diapered linen was manufactured, and Ghent was famous for its woollens, but the remarkable prosperity of Flanders was destroyed by the Spanish occupation (1556-1648). [Illustration: SINGLE MULLION PATTERN] Then large numbers of Flemish weavers came to England and settled in many parts of the country, bringing their traditions and craftsmanship, which have undoubtedly had a most marked influence upon the production of cotton and woollen textile fabrics in England. Tapestry, of which many fine examples of the 16th and 17th centuries are treasured in our museums and palaces, differs from most woven fabrics in its method of production, which consists of interweaving and knotting short pieces of coloured wefts, which form the pattern, to a strong warp, a ground weft being thrown across each pick to bind the material well together; [Illustration: TEXTILE FABRICS. Plate 39. ] this is almost the same method as that used in the manufacture of the Indian and Persian carpets. It was during the 14th and 15th centuries, at Arras in Flanders, that storied tapestries were brought to their culmination and the tapestry workers became a most powerful guild. From about 1480, Brussels produced many magnificent hangings from designs by the great masters of the Italian Renascence. Raphael’s famous cartoons which are now in the South Kensington Museum are the original designs for the ten tapestries manufactured at Brussels for Pope Leo X. for the enrichment of the Sistine chapel in the Vatican; the seven cartoons, three being lost, were purchased by Charles I. Many of the great Flemish painters also designed for the Brussels tapestries, such as Van Orley, Van Leyden and Jan Mabuse.