—————— err 
By Pardoe Yates. -" 245 
Europe, and the Flemings soon oui-distanced all competitors in 
producing the finest and most artistic work. The art regained 
something of its former position in France under Francis I., who 
established tapestry works at Fontainebleau, which continued to be 
supported and encouraged by Henry II. and Catherine de Medecis. 
But it was to Colbert that the great revival of the industry in 
France was due. In 1664 the celebrated minister of Louis XIV. 
founded at Beauvais both carpet and tapestry works, the production 
of whose looms for a long time remained unrivalled for artistic 
design and delicacy of texture; and to Colbert also we owe the 
famous Gobelins in Paris, which reached the zenith of their prosperity 
in the prosperous days of the First Napoleon. 
A Factory ESTABLISHED AT WILTON. 
From France the art of weaving was first introduced into England 
in the time of Henry VIII., and in the reign of James I. a small 
factory was established at Mortlake, which, though patronised by 
the King, did not prove a success. The use of carpets gradually 
became more common, but up to the middle ‘of the eighteenth 
century they were costly luxuries, only used in the most magnificently 
furnished rooms of the wealthy. The floors of ordinary houses were 
covered with white sand, in which ladies were skilful in making scrolls 
and figures with the aid of a broom and brush. The demand created 
by our cold and damp climate for a warm covering for floors was first 
met through a number of French carpet weavers leaving their homes 
owing to the. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Some of these 
skilled workmen settled at Wilton, where a manufactory was es- 
tablished, which proved se profitable that rival factories were speedily 
set up by persons who had served no apprenticeship to the trade. 
This led to the presenting of a petition to the King setting forth 
this grievance and the difficulty of the weavers in obtaining a 
livelihood by their “art and mistery,” and in 1701 William IIL, 
granted a charter, which was confirmed or renewed in 1706 and 
again in 1725, by which these skilled artisans were formed into a 
corporate body with power to grant stamped certificates to those 
