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in the estimation of “ devysors” of by-gone times. Richard, earl ofArundel, so early as 1392, bequeathed to his wife Philippa thehangings of his hall, which had been made in London , of bluetapestry, with red roses, and the arms of his three sons. In 1503,Katherine, Lady Hastings , disposed by will of “ counterfeit arras withmy lord’s armes, counterfeit arras with the imagery of women, alsoepieces I have of blew and better blew with my lord’s armes; and alsopieces of hangings of verd that now hang in my chamber and the parlour.”The latter were probably hangings of rich silk in one colour, or, in fact,flowered damask.

Spencer mentions that description of tapestry :

“ Thence back again faire Alma led them right,

And some into a goodly parlour brought,

That was with royall arras richly dight,

In which was nothing pourtrahed nor wrought;

Not wrought, nor pourtrahed, but easie to be thought.”

Faery Queene, Book II. Canto 33.

Nor were these splendid embellishments confined to the interiors;on occasions of festivals, or processions of great ceremony, they weredisplayed on the fronts of houses :

“ Then collours caste they o’er the walls, and deckt old houses gaye.”

unknown as such. Among the rest, we have also Hannibal, Holofernes, Romulus and Remus , Mneas, and Susannah. §bjjr ffiUJl’S combat with the dragon in Northumberland, issaid to be represented in tapestry in Warwick Castle . These hangings appear to havebeen in Warwick Castle before the year 1398. They were then such distinguished pieces offurniture, that a special grant, conveying “ that suit of arras hangings in Warwick Castle which contained the story of the famous Guy, earl of Warwick, ” together with the Castle ofWarwick , and other possessions, to Thomas Holland, earl of Kent. And in the restoration offorfeited property to this lord after his imprisonment, they are particularly specified in thepatent of King Henry IV., dated 1399.— From Warton’s History of English Poetry,