When the illuminators of manuscripts began to put in golden shadings all over their painting the tapestry-workers did the same. Such a manner cannot be relied on as a criterion whereby to judge of the exact place where any specimen of tapestry had been wrought, or to tell its precise age. To work figures on a golden ground and to shade garments, buildings, and landscapes with gold, are two different things. Upon several pieces at South Kensington gold thread has been very plentifully used, but the metal is of so debased a quality that it has become almost black. The use of tapestry for church decoration and household furniture, both in England and abroad, was for a long period very great. Many large pieces, mostly of a scriptural character, were provided by cardinal Wolsey for his palace at Hampton court. In the next generation, a very famous set was made in Flanders, which for many years decorated the walls of the House of Lords: it represented the defeat of the Spanish Armada. This magnificent memorial was destroyed in the fire of 1834. One fragment only is known to exist. This piece was cut out to make way for a gallery at the time of the trial of queen Caroline, and was secreted by a German servant of the Lord Chamberlain. The relic was bought some years after for £20 and presented to the corporation of Plymouth, who still possess it. [Illustration: The Weaver; from the engraving by J. Amman.] The most beautiful series now in the world is in the Vatican at Rome, and may be judged of by looking at a few of the original cartoons (at present in the S. K. museum). Duke Cosimo tried to set up tapestry work at Florence but did not succeed. Later, Rome produced some good things; among others, the fine copy of Da Vinci’s Last Supper still hung up on Maunday Thursday. England made several attempts to re-introduce the manufacture: first at Mortlake, then afterwards in London, at Soho. Works from these two establishments may be met with. At Northumberland house there was a room hung with large pieces of tapestry wrought at Soho, and for that mansion, in the year 1758. The designs were by Francesco Zuccherelli and consisted of landscapes composed of hills crowned here and there with the standing ruins of temples or strewed with broken columns, among which groups of country folks are wandering and amusing themselves. Mortlake and Soho were failures. Not so the Gobelins at Paris, as every one well knows. In many English houses, especially in the country, good samples of late Flemish tapestry may be found. Close to London, Holland house is adorned with some curious specimens, particularly in the raised style. An earlier example (engraved on the next page) of the fifteenth century, representing the marriage of Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany is in a foreign collection.