ALENNON.

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precept of the favourite was carried out in the style of design : aninsouciance and laisser-aller typical of a people regardless of themorrow.

Towards the latter end of the reign, a change came over thenational taste. It appears in the architecture and domesticdecoration. As the cabriole legs of the chairs are replaced by

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the “ pieds de daim,” so the running patterns of the lace giveplace to compact and more stiff designs. The flowers are rigid andangular, of the style called bizarre,” or rococo, of almost com en-tional form. With Louis XVI. began the ground seme with com-pact little bouquets, all intermixed with small patterns (hig. 81),spots (pois), fleurons, rosettes, and tears (larmes), which towards