s that of large cartoons, in colours, these following the
old. Then it remains for the weaver to set his loom with the
corresponding number of threads, that the new fabric may match the old
in fineness. Then, too, comes the test of matching colours, a test
that almost never discovers a worker equal to its exactions. That is
as often as not the fault of the dyer who has supplied colours too
fresh.

It is the repairs done by the needle that give the best effect,
although such restorations are costly and slow.

Old repairs on old tapestries have been made, in some instances, very
long ago. It often happens, in old sets, that a great piece of another
tapestry has been roughly set in, like the knee-patches of a farm boy.
The object has been merely to fill the hole, not to match colour
scheme or figure. And these patches are by the judicious restorer
taken out and their place carefully filled with the needle.

Moths, say some, do not devour old tapestries. The reason given is
that the ancient wool is so desiccated as to be no longer nutritious.
A pretty argument, but not to be trusted, for I have seen moths
comfortably browsing on a Burgundian hanging, keeping house and
raising families on such precious stuff.

Commerce demands that tricks shall be played in the repair room, but
not such great ones that serious corruption will result. The coarse
verdures of the Eighteenth Century that were thrown lightly off the
looms with transient interest are sought now for coverings to antique
chairs. To give the unbroken greens more charm, an occasional bird is
snipped from a worn branch where he has long and mutely reposed, and
is posed anew on the centre of a back or seat. It is the part of the
repairer to see that he looks at home in his new surroundings.

If metal threads have not been spoken of in this chapter on _modus
operandi_, it is because metal is so little used since the time of
Louis XV as to warrant omitting it. And the little that appears seems
very different from the "gold of Cyprus" that made gorgeous and
valuable the tapestries of Arras, of Brussels and of old Paris.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY

A. D. 1066

So long as one word continues to have more than one meaning, civilised
man will continue to gain false impressions. The word tapestry suffers
as much as any other--witness the attempt made for hundreds of years
among all nations to set apart a word that shall be used only to
designate the