It is impossible to deal properly with the question of many-coloured carpets except at great length; but, as a basis, it may be useful to remember that there are only three primary colours, and that in every multi-coloured carpet there should be represented some red, some yellow, and some blue. That is not saying that these should be primaries. The red may be a terra-cotta, the yellow a tan, the blue a slate. But if you have forty shades in a carpet they can all (except, of course, black and white) be scientifically analysed into reds, yellows, and blues, even if some of them are secondaries or tertiaries. That is to say, that, according to its collocation, a purple will be acting either as a blue or as a red, a green either as a yellow or as a blue, and so on. It follows, therefore, that in practice the carpet designer or colourist who has a large range of colours at his disposal will arrange them in sets: a tan with a cream, three blues, two reds and a ruby, and so on. From this point of view, the manufacturer of Wilton is not so hopelessly outclassed by the maker of Axminster and Chenille. With his five or six colours, irrespective of planting, he can produce an effect which is satisfying, and artistically perfect; though he may have to use one shade, where two or three would give additional softness and richness. Much, however, depends on the nature of the design; and it is obvious that if it is desired to represent, say, a flower in a naturalistic manner, the fabric that commands a large number of colours, combined with a reasonably fine pitch, will come off best. A dictum of that eminent art-critic, Owen Jones, may perhaps be appropriately quoted at this point. In a lecture on Decorative Art he writes— “Carpets should be darker in tone and more broken in line than any portion of a room, both because they present the largest mass of colour, and because they serve as a background to the furniture placed upon them. As a general rule, lighter carpets may be used in rooms thinly furnished than the contrary, as we should otherwise have too overpowering a mass of shade.”