24 TAPESTRY AT RENISHAW HALL. 



spouts from the nostrils of two horses of stone into a cistern 

 beneath. The stream may be seen again issuing below from 

 the mouths of three vessels, guarded by the figure of a river 

 god, who is represented as crowned with reeds, and holding a 

 kind of paddle in his left hand. The final receptacle is a lake 

 or large fountain in the lowest foreground, and from the verge 

 of this rises the pedestal of the structure upon which the central 

 figure reclines against an oblong cistern. Behind, and standing 

 by a couchant lion, is a female figure capped with a head-dress 

 imitating an elephant's head, with tusks and extended trunk. 

 In her left hand she holds out a fish towards the fountain, 

 and with her right sustains a sheaf of wheat beneath her arm. 

 On the dexter side of the hanging stands a majestic turbaned 

 figure, whom another figure, in a sitting posture and holding 

 a narwhal's horn, is addressing. In the background a vast lay- 

 out of gardens and pastures leads up to terraces and yew arcades : 

 the centre is occupied by an elaborate palace of fountains, with 

 niches and statues, in front of which a large square pool of water 

 is refreshed by the jets which descend from spouting dolphins of 

 stone. This hanging also has the name of Ludocus de Vos, and 

 the Brussels trade mark, concealed behind the frame in the lower 

 sinister corner. Both these fine hangings in the Ball Room were 

 carefully cleaned with breadcrumbs in the South Kensington 

 Museum, in 1888, by Mr. F. W. Andrew, who is employed in the 

 tapestry department there. The other three pieces in the great 

 Drawing Room have never been taken down since they were hung 

 at the completion of the room in 1803. 



There are two fine examples of greeneries in a bedroom at this 

 end of the mansion, which were evidently executed in the 

 seventeenth century, and which may be coeval with the older 

 part of the house. No weaver's marks are visible. The texture 

 is not so fine as that of the hangings already described, and they 

 may be of English workmanship. 



Two more pieces are now in a store room — one of which has 

 an interesting landscape, and is about twelve feet in length by 

 four feet in height, and is well and neatly woven. The other is 



