117

same, with many wise sayings painted upon them” The style and pointof these wise sayings are displayed in a publication of 1601 : —

“ Read what is written on the painted cloth:

Do no man wrong; be good unto the poor;

Beware the mouse, the maggot, and the moth;

And ever have an eye unto the door.”

And Shakspeare, in his Rape of Lucrcce, says,

“ Who fears a sentence, or an old man’s saw,

Shall by a painted cloth be kept in awe.”

For small rooms, there was yet another style of hangings in Eli-zabeth’s time, of which some of the apartments at Hardwick, in Derby-shire, present specimens ; this was embossed leather, with gold devices oncoloured grounds. A similar kind of material is still to be had in Holland.

The introduction into this country of the art of weaving tapestry,Walpole assigns to the reign of Henry VIII. : but we have seen, that in1392 Lord Arundel bequeathed the hangings of his hall, which had beenthen recently made in London ; and ten years before, Richard II .granted a license to Cosmo Gentilis, the pope’s receiver of revenues inEngland, to export cloths of various kinds and colours, without payingduty. The first article in that grant consisted of six pieces of tapestry,of a green ground, powdered with roses, which the king sent as apresent to the pope. It may, however, be fairly inferred, that the artwas lost amidst the contentions of the two houses, and re-introduced, byWilliam Sheldon, in the reign of Henry .

Another attempt to establish this art in England was made in thereign of James I. by Sir Francis Crane, who built a house for thepurpose at Mortlake in Surrey, towards which the king gave 2000/.,and his son and successor, Charles I. , contributed a like sum annually.Francis Cleyn , a painter of considerable reputation, in the service of the