During the seventeenth century, tapestry, the material in use for hanging and decorating the walls of splendid rooms in France, was made also in this country. Factories were set up at Mortlake, where several copies were made of the Raphael tapestries, the cartoons of which were in this country; and in Soho fields. Sometimes tapestry was hung on bare walls; occasionally it was strained over the older panelled work of the days of the Tudor and Stuart sovereigns, the fruitful period of country house architecture in England. [Illustration: An English table and chairs of the year 1633, from a woodcut of that date.] With a woodcut (on preceding page) of a bedroom holy-water vessel we finish the account of this period. CHAPTER X. FURNITURE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. As the eighteenth century draws on, we arrive at furniture of which examples are more readily to be met with, and we are reminded of houses and rooms more or less unaltered which have come under general observation. The fashions were led in France. Boule work grew into bigger and more imposing structures as the manufacture passed into the hands of a greater number of workmen. Commodes or large presses were made with edgings and mounts, in the form of "egg and tongue" and other classic or renaissance mouldings. The tops were formed into one or three pedestals, to hold clocks and candelabra. Other changes were introduced to carry out the taste for gilding which then prevailed, and the broken shell-shaped woodwork, popularly known as Louis quinze work, began to be adopted for the frames of large glasses and the mouldings of room panels. The panels grew tall, were arched or shaped at the top, and occupied the wall space from the dado to the moulded and painted ceilings, in narrow panels. The fantastic forms of curve, emblems of the affected manners of the day, called Rococo from the words _rocaille coquille_, rock and shell curves, were well calculated to show off the lustre of gilding. The gold was admirably laid on, thick and very pure, and both in bronze gilding and in the woodwork, maintains its lustre to the present time. The severe classical grandeur of the old roll mouldings of fireplace jambs, wall and door panels, of the former reign gave way everywhere to this lighter work.