iv RIVERSIDE LETTERS 25 



of the decoration, which I enclose. The room 

 in which this decoration was found is quite a 

 small room, on the upper floor, next the roof ; 

 the decoration consists of a sort of bordering, 

 running all round the walls next to the ceiling, 

 its width is about one foot, and it is ap- 

 parently on the broad beams, which form 

 what are termed the plates, on which the 

 rafters rest. These beams are a little over a 

 foot in width and had been painted in tempera 

 of a cream colour ; on this the patterns are 

 worked in brownish colour. The execution is 

 very vigorous and evidently entirely free- 

 handed ; it is varied throughout, with no trace 

 of stencil anywhere. The interest of this work 

 is in the evidence it bears to the generally 

 prevailing artistic taste in the i6th century, 

 when we find such a small farm-house in the 

 country thus decorated. I do not believe the 

 whole work took very long to execute ; it is so 

 free and bold that I should say that it had been 

 begun and finished in a day ; probably most 

 house-painters in those times could easily 



