“The usual manner,” says Percy in his preface to the Northumberland Household Book, “of hanging the rooms in the old castles, was only to cover the naked stone walls with tapestry or arras, hung upon tenter hooks from which they were easily taken down upon every removal.” Afterwards it seems to have been hung on projecting frames leaving a space between it and the wall, affording a convenient hiding-place. It will be remembered that Hamlet killed Polonius behind the arras, where the latter had concealed himself. Footnote 3: So called from the town of that name in Flanders. Footnote 4: “_Read what is written in the painted cloth Do no man wron; be good unto the poor Beware the mouse, the maggot and the moth And ever have an eye unto the door._” (Old Tract, 1601). Footnote 5: The cushion was in favour at an early date; it is mentioned in _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_, “Whyssynes upon quelde-poyntes” (1340 c); in the Will of Edward the Black Prince in Nichol’s _Royal Wills_, “74 curtyns quissyns” (1361); Chaucer’s _Troylus_, “And down she sett here by hym upon a quysshon gold y-bete” (1229); _Isumbras_, “Bryn a chayere an a qwyschene” (1400); Wyclif, “Seetis of skynnes ethir cuyschuns” (1388) Wyclif, _Ezek iii_, “Woo to hem that sewen tegider cusshens” (1382); Mallory, “And there was laid a cusshyn of gold that he should knele upon” (1470–85); and Berners, _Arth. Lyt. Bryt._, “They set them down on cosshyns of sylke” (1530). Footnote 6: _Cymbeline_, Act II. Scene IV. Footnote 7: A heavy ribbed silk. Footnote 8: “Taunt him with the license of ink; if thou _thou’st_ him some thrice, it shall not be amiss; and as many lies as will lie in thy sheet of paper, although the sheet were big enough for the bed of Ware in England, set ’em down.”—_Twelfth Night_, Act III, Scene II. Footnote 9: This name occurs as early as 1301. LOUIS XIV. PERIOD [Illustration: PLATE XII] [Illustration] LOUIS XIV. PERIOD The culminating period of the long reign of Louis XIV. (1643–1715) was reached at the Treaty of Nimeguen in 1678. From this time forward, France not only dominated Europe by force of arms, but also by her taste and achievements in art. Paris set the fashions for the whole Continent and for the Court of Charles II. across the Channel.