266 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Paet II. 



or by their employers, there is little prospect of improvement 

 in our mechanically finished houses. If the architect must 

 be a man of the highest education, the house-decorator should 

 at least possess, besides all the ordinary requirements of his 

 trade, such historical knowledge as will acquaint him with 

 the customs of the times, or countries, to which various styles 

 of furniture belong ; for we are as much offended by a mix- 

 ture of classical and mediaeval objects in a Tudor room, as 

 by some of those modern French figures of Charles Martel, 

 and others who, though they lived before 1000 A.D., appear 

 in the plate-armour worn four and five centuries later. He 

 must also have great skill in drawing; a correct eye for 

 proportion, form, and colour ; and a quick perception of the 

 combination of different objects, so as to be able to group 

 them artistically, and display them with the greatest ad- 

 vantage to themselves, and to the general character of the 

 room. If decorators seldom possess artistic knowledge, and 

 the few who do have little influence on the general mass of 

 the inferior members of their trade ; how much less do 

 upholsterers possess it ! Were they all properly educated for 

 their calling, we should not be offended at the usual bad 

 taste and discord of colour in our dwelling-houses ; nor see 

 an unmeaning medley of heterogeneous' furniture, like odds 

 and ends accidentally brought together, without the recom- 

 mendation of intentional and judicious variety. Nor should 

 we find crowds of chairs, sofas, ottomans, and tables, some 

 with thick, others with thin, legs, round, or square, or of 

 various shapes and sizes, and for no particular purpose, together 

 with nic-nacs, and such a wilderness of things, that their own 

 safety is endangered, as well as that of the many visitors who 

 are frequently crowded into the insignificant and over- 

 furnished apartments of a town-house. Much will of course 

 depend on the character of a room, as this will on the archi- 

 tecture of the house ; so that it is difficult to decide upon a 



