_Servian_ rugs are woven throughout all Servia, but the principal seat of the industry is at Pirot, on the southern boundary of the Balkan Mountains. The rugs are of wool, and the best are very durable. The dyes are generally vegetable, the weaving is a home industry, and the designs are all worked on a black or red ground. The preferment in the modern rug is for red, but the older rugs had the black ground. The general design is an extended square, in the centre of which is a panel. The rest of the field is filled with stripes and geometrical forms in rather bright and varied coloring. _Roumanian_ rugs of modern make are quite inferior. They are woven on ordinary hand looms in the villages and towns among the mountains of Roumania. They are coarse, and the designs are in stripes, zigzag lines, or straight-lined figures. Occasionally flower designs have appeared, but these have been poorly reproduced, and in the most unsuitable combinations of color. Old Roumanian rugs are not in the market. They are owned by private individuals, and are not to be procured except at very high prices, if at all. These rugs differ from the modern ones in their better workmanship and designs. _Bulgarian_ rugs, as a rule, are very coarse in texture, loosely woven, and unattractive. Occasionally Bulgarian rugs are seen with finer weaving and well-chosen colors. Both men and women take part in preparing the wool, the former setting up the simple looms, preparing the darker dyes, and arranging the warp. The women choose the designs and colors, and weave the rugs. The colors commonly used are yellow, blue, brown, black, white, green, and red. ENGLISH RUGS In England the introduction of tapestries as hangings for walls was made by Eleanora, sister of Alfonso the Tenth of Castile, when she became the wife of Edward the First. In her journeyings these fabrics of the loom were carried as part of the royal baggage, and must have given some sense of cheer, particularly when they clothed the bare walls of the dreary castle of Cærnarvon. Edward the Third (1327-1377) invited Flemish weavers to settle in England. At that time England produced wool in large quantities, although very few fabrics were woven there, nine-tenths of the wool being sent to Ghent or Bruges to be manufactured; for the Flemish were the first people in the northern part of Europe who advanced in the arts and in manufactures. Throughout Northern and Western Europe rugs were seldom used, except for wall hangings and table covers, until the time of the Reformation in Germany. Great Britain is now quite active in the manufacture of rugs with certain designs, a decided impetus to the improvement of this industry being given by Mr. William Morris, the English poet and artistic decorator, who was born near London in 1834. [Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH RUG