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were of a lighter colour, and held paintings of figures and fantastic 
ornaments. The common painting was executed in water colour, 
the more elaborate in tempera painting. 
Mosaic work was cultivated by the Greeks, who taught it to 
the Romans. Oil Painting was used in mural decoration long 
before its so-called “ discovery” in 1410. The distemper painting 
of the Romans has been practised more or less ever since, and 
is still used for hasty decoration of public buildings. 
Coming down to the 15th century the wall decoration of the 
houses of the nobility consisted principally of tapestry. In 1572, 
Skipton Castle contained eight different tapestries. The walls of 
more than one rvom at the old Bank House, Burnley, were draped 
with tapestry, portions of which were in fair preservation in 1858. 
Painted tapestry has lately been introduced; it is more exact in 
colouring, and exhibits greater freedom and energy in the painting 
than ordinary tapestry allows. 
The rooms in the old mansions of North-East Lancashire 
were generally low,—there was not much wall space, therefore 
advantage was taken of the forests of the district, and the apart- 
ments were often panelled in oak wainscoting throughout,—some 
were ceiled in oak, and those not panelled throughout had an 
oak dado running round the room. Gawthorpe Hall is an 
example of the lavish plaster ornamentation which followed the 
introduction of Italian plasterers into England. There are 
interesting specimens of wood carving at Ormerod and Bareroft. 
Painted and gilded leather hangings, imvented by the 
Spaniards, were first used in England in the reign of Henry VIII. 
Some of the apartments at Chatsworth are hung with leather 
richly embossed with gold. 
Before the invention of paperhangings, cheap imitations of 
the costly tapestry, velvet and silk hangings were made of cotton 
and linen. To froma raised pattern these sometimes received 
an application of powdered woollen, which, when applied on 
paper, became known as flock paper. The art of manufacturing 
paperhangings came from China. The French made several 
improvements, one of which was the use of rolls of paper instead 
of pasting the sheets together after the pattern was printed. The 
trade in French papers in England consists chiefly of decorated 
centres and borders, and a variety of gorgeous designs. Wall 
papers are now exported from England to every civilized country. 
Although the old forms of mural decoration are still used 
occasionally in England, paperhangings—possessing the advant- 
ages of being less costly and more easily prepared—are the chief 
wall decorations of the 19th century. Some papers are now 
printed with oil colours, and are easily washed ; and successful 
attempts have been made to produce hygienic wall papers. The 
newest mural decorative material is Lincrusta Walton, a mixture 
