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diff --git a/41664-0.txt b/41664-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..466e1ad --- /dev/null +++ b/41664-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4699 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41664 *** + + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original | + | document have been adjusted. | + | | + | Italics is displayed as _PLATE XXIV_. | + | Small caps have been replaced with all caps. | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For | + | a complete list, please see the end of this file. | + | | + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +OLD TIME WALL PAPERS + +WE HAVE PRINTED 75 SIGNED AND NUMBERED COPIES OF THIS BOOK ON FRENCH +JAPAN PAPER, AND 975 NUMBERED COPIES ON AMERICAN PLATE PAPER. THE TYPE +HAS BEEN DISTRIBUTED. NUMBER. + +[Illustration] + + + + + OLD TIME WALL PAPERS + + AN ACCOUNT OF THE PICTORIAL PAPERS + ON OUR FOREFATHERS' WALLS + + WITH A STUDY OF THE + + HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WALL + PAPER MAKING AND DECORATION + + BY + + KATE SANBORN + + [Illustration] + + GREENWICH CONNECTICUT + THE LITERARY COLLECTOR PRESS + NEW YORK + 1905 + + CLIFFORD & LAWTON + 19 UNION SQUARE WEST, NEW YORK CITY + _SOLE AGENTS_ + + + + + Copyright, 1905 + BY KATE SANBORN + + + + +TO + +A. S. C. + +THE CHATELAINE OF ELM BANK + +[Illustration] + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE + + +If a book has ever been written on this subject it has been impossible +to discover; and to get reliable facts for a history of the origin and +development of the art of making wall-papers has been a serious task, +although the result seems scanty and superficial. Some friends may +wonder at the lack of fascinating bits of gossip, stories of rosy +romance and somber tragedy in connection with these papers. But those +who chatted, danced, flirted, wept or plotted in the old rooms are long +since dust, and although the "very walls have ears" they have not the +gift of speech. But my collection of photographs is something entirely +unique and will increase in value every year. The numerous +photographers, to whom I have never appealed in vain, are regarded by me +as not only a skillful but a saintly class of men. + +I am greatly indebted to Miss Mary M. Brooks of Salem and Miss Mary H. +Buckingham of Boston for professional assistance. Many others have most +kindly helped me by offers of photographs and interesting facts +concerning the papers and their histories. But I am especially indebted +to Mrs. Frederick C. Bursch, who has given much of her time to patient +research, to the verification or correction of doubtful statements, and +has accomplished a difficult task in arranging and describing the +photographs. Without her enthusiastic and skillful assistance, my +collection and text would have lacked method and finish. + +To the many, both acquaintances and strangers, who have volunteered +assistance and have encouraged when discouragement was imminent, sending +bracing letters and new-old pictures, I can only quote with heartfelt +thanks the closing lines of the verse written by Foote, the English +actor, to be posted conspicuously to attract an audience to his +benefit-- + + Like a grate full of coals I'll glow + A great full house to see; + And if I am not grateful, too, + A great fool I shall be. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I Page + + FROM MUD WALLS AND CANVAS TENTS TO DECORATIVE PAPERS 1 + + II + + PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT IN THE ART 23 + + III + + EARLIEST WALL PAPERS IN AMERICA 41 + + IV + + WALL PAPERS IN HISTORIC HOMES 61 + + V + + NOTES FROM HERE AND THERE 85 + + VI + + REVIVAL AND RESTORATION OF OLD WALL PAPERS 103 + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + + + + LIST OF PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PLATES + + Old English Figure paper--in Colors. Plate I + + Rural Scenes--Detail in Colors. II + + French paper, Watteau Style--Detail in Colors. III + + Adventures of a Gallant--Reduction. IV + + Adventures of a Gallant--Detail in Colors. V + + Racing paper--Timothy Dexter House. VI + + The Bayeux Tapestry--Burial of Edward. VII + + The Bayeux Tapestry--Harold hearing News. VIII + + Oldest English paper--Borden Hall, "A." IX + + Borden Hall paper, Design "B." X + + Early English Pictorial paper--Chester, Eng. XI + + Old Chinese paper, Cultivation of Tea--Dedham, Mass. XII-XIV + + Early American fresco--Westwood, Mass. XV-XVIII + + Early Stencilled paper--Nantucket, Mass. XIX + + A Peep at the Moon--Nantucket, Mass. XX + + Hand-colored Figures, repeated--Claremont, N. H. XXI + + Nature Scenes, repeated--Salem, Mass. XXII + + The Alhambra, repeated--Leicester, Mass. XXIII + + Cathedral Views, repeated--Ware, Mass. XXIV + + Cathedral Views, repeated on architectural background--Waltham, + Mass. XXV + + Pictured Ruins, Hall and Stairway--Salem, Mass. XXVI + + Birds of Paradise and Peacocks--Waltham, Mass. XXVII + + Sacred to Washington--Mourning paper. XXVIII + + Dorothy Quincy Wedding paper--Quincy, Mass. XXIX + + The Pantheon--King's Tavern, Vernon, Conn. XXX + + Canterbury Bells--Wayside Inn, Sudbury, Mass. XXXI + + The First Railway Locomotive--Salem, Mass. XXXII + + Rural Scene from same room. XXXIII + + Pizarro in Peru--Duxbury, Mass. XXXIV-V + + Tropical Scenes--Peabody, Mass. XXXVI-VII + + On the Bosporus--Montpelier, Vt. XXXVIII-IX + + Oriental Scenes--Stockport, N. Y. XL-XLIII + + Early Nineteenth Century Scenic paper--Deerfield, Mass. XLIV-V + + Same Scenic paper, other examples--Warner, N. H., and Windsor, Vt. + XLVI-VII + + Harbor Scene--Waterford, Vt., Gilmanton, N. H., and Rockville, + Mass. XLVIII + + The Spanish Fandango--same paper. XLIX + + Strolling Players--same paper. L + + Rural Scenes--Ashland, Mass., and Marblehead. LI, LII + + French Boulevard Scenes--Salem, Mass., and Nantucket, Mass. + LIII, LIV + + Gateway and Fountain, with Promenaders. LV + + Scenes from Paris--Salem, Mass., etc. LVI, LVII + + Bay of Naples--Hanover, N. H., etc. LVIII-LXII + + Cupid and Psyche--panelled paper. LXIII, LXIV + + The Adventures of Telemachus--Taunton, Mass., etc. LXV-IX + + Scottish Scenes--same paper. LXX + + The Olympic Games--Boston, Mass. LXXI + + A tribute to Homer--same paper. LXXII + + The shrine of Vesta--same paper. LXXIII + + Worship of Athene--same paper. LXXIV + + Oblation to Bacchus--same paper. LXXV + + Oblation to Bacchus and Procession before Pantheon--Keene, N. H. + LXXVI + + The Lady of the Lake--Greenbush, Mass., and Portsmouth, N. H. + LXXVII-LXXX + + The Seasons--Hanover, N. H. LXXXI-III + + + ILLUSTRATIONS. + + Devil paper, Gore Mansion, Waltham, Mass. See end papers. + + Devil paper, details, Pages viii, 19, 61 + + Mill and Boat Landing--Fairbanks House, Dedham, Mass. vii + + Gallipoli Scenes--Knox Mansion, Thomaston, Me. ix, 23, 103 + + Adventures of Cupid--Beverly, Mass. xi, 116 + + Fisher Maidens--Draper House, N. H. x + + Peasant Scene. xi + + Hunters and Dog. xiv + + The Gypsies--Stevens House, Methuen, Mass. 1 + + Bandbox (Stage-coach) and Cover--Spencer, Mass. 20 + + The Grape Harvest. 37 + + Torches and Censers--Thomaston, Me. 38 + + Bandbox, Volunteer Fire Brigade--Norwich, Conn. 58 + + Chariot Race--Detail of Olympic Games paper. 85 + + Horse Race--Newburyport, Mass. 100 + +[Illustration] + + + + +I + +FROM MUD WALLS AND CANVAS TENTS TO DECORATIVE PAPERS + +[Illustration] + + + + +I + +FROM MUD WALLS AND CANVAS TENTS + +TO DECORATIVE PAPERS + + +"How very interesting! Most attractive and quite unique! I supposed all +such old papers had gone long ago. How did you happen to think of such +an odd subject, and how ever could you find so many fine old specimens? +Do you know where the very first wall-paper was made?" + +These are faint echoes of the questions suggested by my collection of +photographs of wall-papers of the past. The last inquiry, which I was +unable to answer, stimulated me to study, that I might learn something +definite as to the origin and development of the art of making such +papers. + +Before this, when fancying I had found a really new theme, I was +surprised to discover that every one, from Plato and Socrates to +Emerson, Ruskin and Spencer, had carefully gleaned over the same ground, +until the amount of material became immense and unmanageable. Not so +now. I appealed in vain to several public libraries; they had nothing at +all on the subject. Poole's Index--that precious store-house of +information--was consulted, but not one magazine article on my theme +could be found. I then sent to France, England and Italy, and employed +professional lookers-up of difficult topics; but little could be +secured. The few who had studied paper hangings were very seldom +confident as to positive dates and facts. + +One would seem safe in starting with China, as paper was certainly +invented there, and many of the earliest designs were of Chinese scenes; +but the honor is also claimed for Japan and Persia and Egypt. It is +difficult to decide in view of the varying testimony. + +I was assured by a Japanese expert, who consulted a friend for the +facts, that neither the Chinese nor the Japanese have ever used paper to +cover their walls. At the present day, the inner walls of their houses +are plastered white, and usually have a strip of white paper running +around the bottom, about a foot and a half high. + +On the other hand, Clarence Cook, in his book, _What Shall We Do With +Our Walls?_, published in 1880, says as to the origin of wall-paper: "It +may have been one of the many inventions borrowed from the East, and +might be traced, like the introduction of porcelain, to the Dutch trade +with China and Japan." And he finds that the Japanese made great use of +paper, their walls being lined with this material, and the divisions +between the rooms made largely, if not entirely, by means of screens +covered with paper or silk. Japanese wall-paper does not come in rolls +like ours, but in pieces, a little longer than broad, and of different +sizes. He adds: + + + + +_PLATE II._ + + One of the cruder papers popular a hundred years ago; containing + three groups of figures engaged in rural occupations. Beside the + gray ground this paper contains eleven shades of color, roughly + applied, with little attention paid to register. + +[Illustration] + +"What makes it more probable that our first European notion of +wall-papers came from Japan, is the fact that the first papers made in +Holland and then introduced into England and France, were printed in +these small sizes [about three feet long by fifteen inches wide]. Nor +was it until some time in the eighteenth century that the present mode +of making long rolls was adopted. These early wall-papers were printed +from blocks, and were only one of many modifications and adaptations of +the block printing which gave us our first books and our first +wood-cuts. + +"The printing of papers for covering walls is said to have been +introduced into Spain and Holland about the middle of the sixteenth +century. And I have read, somewhere, that this mode of printing the +patterns on small pieces of paper was an imitation of the Spanish +squares of stamped and painted leather with which the grandees of Spain +covered their walls, a fashion that spread all over Europe. + +"We are told that wall-paper was first used in Europe as a substitute +for the tapestry so commonly employed in the middle ages, partly as a +protection against the cold and damp of the stone walls of the houses, +partly, no doubt, as an ornament." + +But here is something delightfully positive from A. Blanchet's _Essai +sur L'Histoire du Papier et de sa Fabrication_, Exposition retrospective +de la Papetier, Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1900. + +Blanchet says that paper was invented in China by Tsai Loon, for +purposes of writing. He used fibres of bark, hemp, rags, etc. In 105 A. +D. he reported to the government on his process, which was highly +approved. He was given the honorary title of Marquis and other honors. +The first paper book was brought to Japan from Corea, then a part of +China, in 285. The conquest of Turkestan by the Arabs, through which +they learned the manufacture of paper, came in the battle fought on the +banks of the River Tharaz, in July, 751. Chinese captives brought the +art to Samarcand, from which place it spread rapidly to other parts of +the Arabian Empire. Damascus was one of the first places to receive it. +In Egypt, paper began to take the place of papyrus in the ninth century, +and papyrus ceased to be used in the tenth. The Arabian paper was made +of rags, chiefly linen, and sized with wheat starch. European paper of +the thirteenth century shows, under the microscope, fibres of flax and +hemp, with traces of cotton. About 1400, animal glue was first used for +sizing. The common belief that Arabian and early European paper was made +of cotton is a mistake. There has never been any paper made of raw +cotton, and cotton paper anywhere is exceptional. In 1145, when the +troops of Abd el Mounin were about to attack the capital of Fez, the +inhabitants covered the vault of the mihrab of the mosque with paper, +and put upon this a coating of plaster, in order to preserve from +destruction the fine carvings which are still the admiration of +visitors. The mihrab of an Arabic mosque is a vaulted niche or alcove, +in which the altar stands and towards which the worshippers look while +they pray. This is probably the earliest approach to the use of +wall-paper and shows the excellent quality of the paper. + +Herbert Spencer states that "Dolls, blue-books, paper-hangings are +lineally descended from the rude sculpture paintings in which the +Egyptians represented the triumphs and worship of their god-kings." No +doubt this is true, but the beginning of paper, and probably of +wall-paper, was in China. + +Paper made of cotton and other vegetable fibres by the Chinese was +obtained by the Arabs in trade, through Samarcand. When they captured +that city, in 704 A.D. they learned the process from Chinese captives +there, and soon spread it over their empire. It was known as "Charta +Damascena" in the Middle Ages, and was extensively made also in Northern +Africa. The first paper made in Europe was manufactured by the Moors in +Spain, at Valencia, Toledo, and Xativa. At the decline of Moorish power, +the Christians took it up, but their work was not so good. It was +introduced into Italy through the Arabs in Sicily; and the Laws of +Alphonso, 1263, refer to it as "cloth parchment." The earliest documents +on this thick "cotton" paper date from the twelfth and thirteenth +centuries, as a deed of King Roger of Sicily, dated 1102, shows. When +made further north, other materials, such as rags and flax, were used. +The first mention of rag paper, in a tract of Peter, Abbott of Cluny +from 1122 to 1150, probably means woolen. Linen paper was not made until +in the fourteenth century. + +The Oriental papers had no water mark,--which is really a wire mark. +Water-mark paper originated in the early fourteenth century, when +paper-making became an European industry; and a considerable +international trade can be traced by means of the water marks. + +The French Encyclopædia corroborates Blanchet's statement that the +common notion that the Arabic and early European papers were made of +cotton is a mistake; the microscope shows rag and flax fibres in the +earliest. + +Frederic Aumonier says: "From the earliest times man has longed to +conceal the baldness of mud walls, canvas tents or more substantial +dwellings, by something of a decorative character. Skins of animals, the +trophies of the chase, were probably used by our remote ancestors for +ages before wall-paintings and sculptures were thought of. The extreme +antiquity of both of these latter methods of wall decoration has +recently received abundant confirmation from the valuable work done by +the Egyptian Research Department, at Hierakonopolis, where +wall-paintings have been discovered in an ancient tomb, the date of +which has not yet been determined, but which is probably less than seven +thousand years old; and by the discovery of ancient buildings under the +scorching sand dunes of the great Sahara, far away from the present +boundary line of habitable and cultivated land. The painted decorations +on the walls of some of the rooms in these old-world dwellings have been +preserved by the dry sand, and remain almost as fresh as they were on +the day they left the hand of the artist, whose bones have long since +been resolved into their native dust." + +From the Encyclopædia Britannica I condense the long article on "Mural +Decoration": + +There is scarcely one of the numerous branches of decorative art which +has not at some time or other been applied to the ornamentation of +wall-surfaces. + +I. Reliefs sculptured in marble or stone; the oldest method of wall +decoration. + +II. Marble veneer; the application of thin marble linings to wall +surfaces, these linings often being highly variegated. + +III. Wall linings of glazed bricks or tiles. In the eleventh and +twelfth centuries, the Moslems of Persia brought their art to great +perfection and used it on a large scale, chiefly for interiors. In the +most beautiful specimens, the natural growth of trees and flowers is +imitated. About 1600 A. D., this art was brought to highest perfection. + +IV. Wall coverings of hard stucco, frequently enriched with relief and +further decorated with delicate paintings in gold and colors, as at the +Alhambra at Granada and the Alcazar at Seville. + +V. Sgraffito; a variety of stucco work used chiefly in Italy, from the +sixteenth century down. A coat of stucco is made black by admixture of +charcoal. Over this a second very thin coat of white stucco is laid. The +drawing is made to appear in black on a white ground, by cutting away +the white skin enough to show the black undercoat. + +VI. Stamped leather; magnificent and expensive, used during the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in Italy, Spain, France, and later +in England. + +VII. Painted cloth. In _King Henry IV._, Falstaff says his soldiers are +"slaves, as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth." Canvas, painted to +imitate tapestry, was used both for ecclesiastical and domestic +hangings. English mediæval inventories contain such items as "stayned +cloth for hangings"; "paynted cloth with stories and batailes"; and +"paynted cloths of beyond-sea-work." The most important existing example +is the series of paintings of the Triumph of Julius Caesar, now in +Hampton Court. These designs were not meant to be executed in tapestry, +but were complete as wall-hangings. Godon, in _Peinture sur Toile_, +says: "The painted canvasses kept at the Hôtel Dieu at Rheims were done +in the fifteenth century, probably as models for woven tapestries. They +have great artistic merit. The subjects are religious." Painted cloths +were sometimes dyed in a manner similar to those Indian stuffs which +were afterwards printed and are now called chintzes. It is recorded +somewhere, that the weaving industry was established at Mulhouse +(Rixheim) by workers who left Rheims at a time when laws were passed +there to restrict the manufacture of painted cloths, because there was +such a rage for it that agriculture and other necessary arts were +neglected. + +VIII. Printed hangings and wall-papers. The printing of various textiles +with dye-colors and mordaunts is probably one of the most ancient of the +arts. Pliny describes a dyeing process employed by the ancient +Egyptians, in which the pattern was probably formed by printing from +blocks. The use of printed stuffs is of great antiquity among the Hindus +and Chinese, and was practised in Western Europe in the thirteenth +century, and perhaps earlier. The South Kensington Museum has +thirteenth-century specimens of block-printed linen made in Sicily, with +beautiful designs. Later, toward the end of the fourteenth century, a +great deal of block-printed linen was made in Flanders and was imported +largely into England. + +Tapestries as wall-hangings were used in the earliest times, and, as +tiles and papers were copied from them, they must be spoken of here. One +remarkable example of tapestry from a tomb in the Crimea is supposed by +Stephani to date from the fourth century before Christ. Homer frequently +describes tapestry hangings, as when he alludes to the cloth of purple +wool with a hunting scene in gold thread, woven by Penelope for Ulysses. +Plutarch, in his Life of Themistocles, says, "Speech is like cloth of +Arras, opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; +whereas in thoughts they lie but as in packs." + +The oldest tapestry now in existence is the set of pieces known as the +Bayeux Tapestry, preserved in the library at Bayeux, near Caen, in +France, and said to be the work of Matilda, Queen of William the +Conqueror. These pieces measure two hundred and thirty-one feet long and +twenty inches wide. + +It is generally believed, and stated as a fact in the various +guide-books, that the Bayeux Tapestry was the work of Queen Matilda, the +consort of the Conqueror, assisted by her ladies. At that time, English +ladies were renowned for their taste and skill in embroidery. Their work +was known throughout Europe as English work. The Conquest having brought +the people of Normandy and England into close intercourse, it is pointed +out that on William's return to France, he must have taken with him many +Saxons, with their wives and daughters, in honorable attendance upon +him; and that these ladies might have helped Matilda and her companions +in making this historical piece of needlework. Many historians, however, +incline to the opinion that Matilda and her ladies had nothing to do +with the tapestry, although it was done during her lifetime. + +It is amusing to note how Miss Strickland, in her _Lives of the Queens +of England_, takes up the cudgels in a very vigorous manner on behalf of +Matilda's claim: + +"The archæologists and antiquaries would do well to direct their +intellectual powers to more masculine objects of enquiry, and leave the +question of the Bayeux Tapestry (with all other matters allied to +needle-craft) to the decision of the ladies, to whose province it +belongs. It is a matter of doubt whether one out of the many gentlemen +who have disputed Matilda's claim to that work, if called upon to +execute a copy of either of the figures on canvas, would know how to put +in the first stitch." + +But Dr. Daniel Rock, in his exhaustive work on Tapestries, casts the +gravest doubts upon the tradition that this needlework owed its origin +to Matilda and her ladies: "Had such a piece anywise or ever belonged to +William's wife, we must think that, instead of being let stray away to +Bayeux, toward which place she bore no particular affection, she would +have bequeathed it, like other things, to her beloved church at Caen." + +The author points out that there is no mention of the tapestry in the +Queen's will, while two specimens of English needlework, a chasuble and +a vestment, are left to the Church of the Trinity at Caen, the beautiful +edifice founded by her at the time when her husband founded the +companion church of St. Etienne in the same city. In fact, Dr. Rock +thinks the tapestry was made in London, to the order of three men quite +unknown to fame, whose names appear more than once on the tapestry +itself. Coming over with the Conqueror, they obtained wide possessions +in England, as appears from the Doomsday Book, and would naturally have +wished to make a joint offering to the cathedral of their native city. +In support of this view, it is shown that the long strip of needlework +exactly fits both sides of the nave of the cathedral at Bayeux, where +until recent times it has hung. + +The tapestry has undergone so many vicissitudes that it is a matter for +wonder that it has been preserved in such good condition for eight +hundred years. At one time it was exhibited at the Hôtel de Ville, at +Bayeux, fixed panorama-fashion on two rollers, so that it was at the +disposal of the fingers as well as the eyes of the curious. When +Napoleon was thinking of invading this country, he had the tapestry +carried to the various towns of France and publicly exhibited, so as to +arouse popular enthusiasm on behalf of his designs. + +In 1871, when the Prussians were thought to be in dangerous proximity to +Bayeux, the tapestry was taken down, enclosed in a metal cylinder, and +buried in a secret place until the close of the war. Now it is kept in +the Public Library in an upright glass case, which forms the sides of a +hollow parallelogram, the tapestry being carried first round the outside +and then round the inside space, so that every part of it is open to +inspection, while it cannot be touched or mutilated. This valuable +information is given by Mr. T. C. Hepworth. + +In the Old Testament we find records of "hangings of fine twined linen" +and "hangings of white cloth, of green, of blue, fastened with cords of +fine linen and purple." Shakespeare has several allusions to tapestry: +as, "fly-bitten tapestry"; "worm-eaten tapestry"; "covered o'er with +Turkish tapestry"; "the tapestry of my dining chambers"; "it was hanged +with tapestry of silk"; "in cypress chests my arras"; "hangings all of +Tyrian tapestry." + +Cardinal Wolsey's private accounts and inventories, still preserved, +state that in 1552 he bought one hundred and thirty-two large pieces of +Brussels tapestry, woven with Scriptural subjects and mostly made to +order, so as to fit exactly the various wall spaces. Among the +wall-pieces, "in addition to the numerous sacred subjects are mentioned +mythological scenes, romances, historical pieces and hangings of +verdure," the last being decorative work, in which trees and foliage +formed the main design, with accessory figures engaged in hunting, +hawking and the like. + +We read in Gibbon's Rome that Charles the Sixth despatched, by way of +Hungary, Arras tapestry representing the battles of the great Alexander. +And Macaulay inquires, "Where were now the brave old hangings of Arras +which had adorned the walls of lordly mansions in the days of +Elizabeth?" + +According to Shakespeare, the arras was found convenient to conceal +eaves-droppers, those planning a frolic or plotting mischief; or for a +hasty lunch, as in _The Woman Hater_, by Beaumont and Fletcher: + + I have of yore made many a scrambling meal, + In corners, behind arrases, on stairs. + +Arras was used precisely the same as a curtain; it hung on tenters or +lines from the rafters or from some temporary stay, and was opened, held +up, or drawn aside, as occasion required. The writers of the day +frequently mentioned these wall-hangings. Evelyn, in his diary, 1641, +says, "We were conducted to the lodgings, tapestry'd with incomparable +arras." + +Scott, in _The Lady of the Lake_, has this couplet: + + In vain on gilded roof they fall, + And lighten up a tapestried wall. + +And in _Waverley_ he speaks of "remnants of tapestried hangings, window +curtains and shreds of pictures with which he had bedizened his +tatters." + +After the seventeenth century, these tapestries were used for covering +furniture, as the seats and backs of sofas and arm chairs, desks and +screens; and fire-screens covered with tapestry as beautiful as a +painting were in vogue. In the _Comedy of Errors_ we recall this +passage: + + In the desk + That's covered o'er with Turkish tapestry + There is a purse of ducats. + +Clarence Cook says: "There was a kind of tapestry made in Europe in the +fifteenth century--in Flanders, probably--in which there were +represented gentlemen and ladies, the chatelaine and her suite walking +in the park of the chateau. The figures, the size of life, seem to be +following the course of a slender stream. The park in which these noble +folk are stiffly disporting is represented by a wide expanse of meadow, +guiltless of perspective, stretching up to the top of the piece of stuff +itself, a meadow composed of leaves and flowers--bluebells, daisies, and +flowers without a name--giving the effect of a close mosaic of green, +mottled with colored spots. On the meadow are scattered various figures +of animals and birds--the lion, the unicorn, the stag, and the rabbit. +Here, too, are hawks and parrots; in the upper part is a heron, which +has been brought down by a hawk and is struggling with the victor, some +highly ornamental drops of blood on the heron's breast showing that he +is done for. And to return to the brook which winds along the bottom of +the tapestry, it is curious to note that this part of the work is more +real and directly natural in its treatment than the rest. The water is +blue, and is varied by shading and by lines that show the movement of +the stream; the plants and bushes growing along its borders are drawn +with at least a conventional look of life, some violets and fleur-de-lis +being particularly well done; and in the stream itself are sailing +several ducks, some pushing straight ahead, others nibbling the grass +along the bank, and one, at least, diving to the bottom, with tail and +feet in the air." + +The best authority on tapestries in many lands is the exhaustive work by +Muntz, published in Paris, 1878-1884, by the Société anonyme de +Publication Périodique--three luxuriously bound and generously +illustrated volumes, entitled _Histoire Générale de la Tapisserie en +Italie, en Allemagne, en Angleterre, en Espagne_. + +We learn here that in 1630 Le François, of Rouen, incited by the +Chinese colored papers imported by the missionaries, tried to imitate +the silk tapestries of the wealthy in a cheaper substance. He spread +powdered wool of different colors on a drawing covered with a sticky +substance on the proper parts. This _papier velouté_, called _tontisse_ +by Le François, was exported to England, where it became known as "flock +paper." The English claim a previous invention by Jeremy Lanyer, who, in +1634, had used Chinese and Japanese processes. At any rate, the +manufacture of flock papers spread in England and was given up in +France. Only toward the middle of the eighteenth century was the making +of real colored papers (_papier peints_) begun in France and England. +The first factory was set up in 1746, but the work was not extended +further until 1780, when it was taken up by the brothers George and +Frederic Echardt. + +Chinese picture papers were imported into France by Dutch traders and +used to decorate screens, desks, chimney-pieces, etc., as early as the +end of the seventeenth century. By the middle of the eighteenth, they +were an important ornament of elegant interiors. In the list of the +furniture given to Mlle. Desmares by Mlle. Damours, September 25, 1746, +is a fire-screen of China paper, mounted on wood, very simple. On July +25, 1755, Lazare Duvaux delivered to Mme. de Brancas, to be sent to the +Dauphiness, a sheet of China paper with very beautiful vases and +flowers, for making which he charged thirty livres. April 6, 1756, he +sold to the Countess of Valentinois, for one hundred and forty-four +livres, six sheets of China paper, painted on gauze with landscapes and +figures. + +May 8, 1770, M. Marin advertised for sale in a Paris newspaper +twenty-four sheets of China paper, with figures and gilt ornaments, ten +feet high and three and one-half feet wide, at twenty-four livres a +sheet; to be sold all together, or in lots of eight sheets each. By this +time whole rooms were papered. July 15, 1779, an apartment in Paris was +advertised to let, having a pretty boudoir with China paper in small +figures representing arts and crafts, thirteen sheets, with a length of +thirty-seven feet (horizontally) and height of eight feet ten inches, +with gilt beaded moulding. Dec. 31, 1781, "For sale, at M. Nicholas's, +China wall-paper, glazed, blue ground, made for a room eighteen feet +square, with gilt moulding." + +Mr. Aumonier says: "Notwithstanding the Chinese reputation for printing +from wooden blocks from time immemorial, no specimens of their work +produced by that process have ever come under the notice of the author, +in public museums or elsewhere, and it is far more probable that early +Chinese works imported into Europe were painted by hand, in imitation of +the wondrous needlework, for which, through unknown ages, the Eastern +peoples have been famous. A most perfect and beautiful example of this +work, of Japanese origin, may be seen in the "Queen's palace at the +Hague," called the _Huis-ten-Bosch_--the House-in-the-Wood. This is a +magnificent composition of foliage and flowers, birds and butterflies, +perfect in form and beauty of tint, worked in silks on a ground of +_écru_ satin. It is composed of many breadths forming one picture, +starting from the ground with rock-work, and finishing at the top of the +wall with light sprays of flowers, birds, butterflies and sky; the +colouring of the whole so judiciously harmonized as to be an object +lesson of great value to any decorator, and worth traveling many miles +to study." + +I think that we may now safely say that China holds the honors in this +matter. And as most of us grow a bit weary of continuous citations from +cyclopedias, which are quoted because there is nothing less didactic to +quote, and there must be a historical basis to stand on and start from, +let us wander a little from heavy tomes and see some of the difficulties +encountered in looking up old wall-papers to be photographed. + +An American artist, who has made his home in Paris for years, looked +over the photographs already collected, grew enthusiastic on the +subject, and was certain he could assist me, for, at the Retrospective +Exhibition held in that city in 1900, he remembered having seen a +complete exhibition of wall-papers and designs from the beginning. Of +course the dailies and magazines of that season would have full reports. +"Just send over to Jack Cauldwell--you know him. He is now occupying my +studio, and he will gladly look it up." + +I wrote, and waited, but never received any response; heard later that +he was painting in Algiers and apparently all the hoped-for reports had +vanished with him. My famously successful searcher after the elusive and +recondite gave up this fruitless hunt in despair. Other friends in Paris +were appealed to, but could find nothing. + +Then many told me, with confidence, that there must be still some +handsome old papers in the mansions of the South. And I did my best to +secure at least some bits of paper, to show what had been, but I believe +nearly all are gone "down the back entry of time." + +One lady, belonging to one of the best old families of Virginia, writes +me, "My brother has asked me to write to you about wall-papers. I can +only recall one instance of very old or peculiar papering in the South, +and my young cousin, who is a senior in the Columbia School of +Architecture and very keen on 'Colonial' details, tells me that he only +knows of one. He has just been through tide-water Virginia, or rather, +up the James and Rappahannock rivers, and he says those houses are all +without paper at all, as far as he knows. + +"At Charlestown, West Virginia, there is a room done in tapestry paper +in classic style, the same pattern being repeated, but this is not old, +being subsequent to 1840. The room that I have seen is wainscoted, as is +the one at Charlestown, and has above the wainscoting a tapestry paper +also in shades of brown on a white ground. + +"The principal wall has a large classical design, with columns, ships +and figures, not unlike the Turner picture of Carthage, as I remember +it. This picture is not repeated, but runs into others. Whether each is +a panel, or they are merged into one another by foliage, I am unable to +recall. I know that there is a stag hunt and some sylvan scenes. It +seemed as if the paper must have been made with just such a room in +mind, as the patterns seemed to fit the spaces. As the room was the +usual corner parlor common to Southern mansions, it was probably made +for the type. I was told by a boarder in this house that the paper was +old and there were similar papers in Augusta County. I do not know +whether these are choice and rare instances, or whether they are +numerous and plentiful in other sections." + +All my responses from the South have been cordial and gracious and +interesting, but depressing. + +I hear, in a vague way, of papers that I really should have--in Albany +and Baltimore. We all know of the papers in the Livingston and Jumel +mansions; the former are copied for fashionable residences. + +I heard of some most interesting and unusual papers in an old house in +Massachusetts, and after struggling along with what seemed almost +insurmountable hindrances, was at last permitted to secure copies. The +owner of the house died; the place was to be closed for six months; then +it was to be turned over to the church, for a parsonage, and I agonised +lest one paper might be removed at once as a scandalous presentment of +an unholy theme. I was assured that in it the Devil himself was caught +at last, by three revengeful women, who, in a genuine tug-of-war +scrimmage, had torn away all of his tail but a stub end. Finally I +gained a rather grudging permit for my photographer to copy the +papers--"if you will give positive assurance that neither house nor +walls shall be injured in the slightest degree." + + +_PLATE III._ + + In abrupt contrast with the preceding specimen, this old French + paper is printed with great care and shows high artistic taste. The + eight well-composed groups of figures that form the complete design + are after the manner of Watteau; the coloring is rich but quiet. + Seventeen shades and colors were imposed on a brown ground, and the + black mesh-work added over all. + +[Illustration] + +As the artist is a quiet gentleman--also an absolute abstainer--so that +I could not anticipate any damage from a rough riot or a Bacchanalian +revel, I allowed him to cross the impressive threshold of the former +home of a Massachusetts governor, and the result was a brilliant +achievement, as may be seen in the end papers of this book. + +Sometimes when elated by a promise that a certain paper, eagerly +desired, could be copied, I sent my man only to have the door held just +a bit open, while he heard the depressing statement that madam had +"changed her mind and didn't want the paper to be taken." + +All this is just a reminder that it is not entirely easy to get at what +is sure so soon to disappear. And I mourn that I did not think years ago +of securing photographs of quaint and antique papers. + +Man has been defined as "an animal who collects." There is no hobby more +delightful, and in this hunt I feel that I am doing a real service to +many who have not time to devote to the rather difficult pursuit of what +will soon be only a remembrance of primitive days. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + +II + +PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT IN THE ART + +[Illustration] + + + + +II + +PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT IN THE ART + + +If we go far enough back in trying to decide the origin of almost any +important discovery, we are sure to find many claimants for the honor. +It is said, on good authority, that "paper-hangings for the walls of +rooms were originally introduced in China." This may safely be accepted +as correct. The Chinese certainly discovered how to make paper, then a +better sort for wall hangings, and by Chinese prisoners it was carried +to Arabia. Travellers taking the news of the art to their homes in +various countries, it soon became a subject of general interest, and +variations and inventions in paper manufacture were numerous. + +We are apt to forget how much we owe to the Chinese nation--the +mariners' compass, gun-powder, paper, printing by moveable types (a +daily paper has been published in Pekin for twelve hundred years, +printed, too, on silk). They had what we call The Golden Rule five +hundred years before Christ was born. With six times the population of +the United States, they are the only people in the world who have +maintained a government for three thousand years. + +The earliest papers we hear of anywhere were imported from China, and +had Chinese or Indian patterns; coming first in small sheets, then in +rolls. Some of the more elaborate kinds were printed by hand; others +were printed from blocks. These papers, used for walls, for hangings, +and for screens, were called "pagoda papers," and were decorated with +flowers, symbolic animals and human figures. + +The Dutch were among the most enterprising, importing painted hangings +from China and the East about the middle of the sixteenth century. +Perhaps these originated in Persia; the word "chintz" is of Persian +origin, and the French name for its imitations was "perses." + +From the Dutch, these imported hangings were soon carried to England, +France, Germany and other Continental nations. Each nation was deadly +jealous in regard to paper-making, even resorting, in Germany in 1390, +to solemn vows of secrecy from the workman and threats of imprisonment +for betrayal of methods. Two or three centuries later, the Dutch +prohibited the exportation of moulds under no less a penalty than death. + +The oldest allusion to printed wall-papers that I have found is in an +account of the trial, in 1568, of a Dutch printer, Herman Schinkel of +Delft, on the charge of printing books inimical to the Catholic faith. +The examination showed that Schinkel took ballad paper and printed roses +and stripes on the back of it, to be used as a covering for attic walls. + +In the Library of the British Museum may be seen a book, printed in Low +Dutch, made of sixty specimens of paper, each of a different material. +The animal and vegetable products of which the workmen of various +countries tried to manufacture paper would make a surprising list. In +England, a paper-mill was set up probably a century before Shakespeare's +time. In the second part of _Henry the Sixth_ is a reference to a +paper-mill. + +About 1745, the Campagnie des Indes began to import these papers +directly. They were then also called "Indian" papers. August 21, 1784, +we find an advertisement: "For sale--20 sheets of India paper, +representing the cultivation of tea." + +Such a paper, with this same theme, was brought to America one hundred +and fifty years ago--a hand-painted Chinese wall-paper, which has been +on a house in Dedham ever since, and is to-day in a very good state of +preservation. Of this paper I give three reproductions from different +walls of the room. + +In _Le Mercure_, June, 1753, M. Prudomme advertised an assortment of +China paper of different sizes; and again, in May, 1758, that he had +received many very beautiful India papers, painted, in various sizes and +grounds, suitable for many uses, and including every kind that could be +desired. This was the same thing that was called "China" paper five +years before. + +The great development of the home manufacture of wall-papers, at the +beginning of the nineteenth century, put an end to the importation from +China. The English were probably the first importers of these highly +decorative Chinese papers, and quickly imitated them by printing the +papers. These "_papiers Anglais_" soon became known on the Continent, +and the French were also at work as rivals in their manufacture and use. +Of a book published in 1847, called _The Laws of Harmonious Colouring_, +the author, one David R. Hay, was house painter and decorator to the +Queen. I find that he was employed as a decorator and paper-hanger by +Sir Walter Scott, and he says that Sir Walter directed everything +personally. Mr. Hay speaks of a certain Indian paper, of crimson color, +with a small gilded pattern upon it. "This paper Sir Walter did not +quite approve of for a dining-room, but as he got it as a present, +expressly for that purpose, and as he believed it to be rare, he would +have it put up in that room rather than hurt the feelings of the donor. +I observed to Sir Walter that there would be scarcely enough to cover +the wall; he replied in that case I might paint the recess for the +side-board in imitation of oak." Mr. Hay found afterwards that there was +quite enough paper, but Sir Walter, when he saw the paper on the recess, +heartily wished that the paper had fallen short, as he liked the recess +much better unpapered. So in the night Mr. Hay took off the paper and +painted the recess to look like paneled oak. This was in 1822. + +Sir Walter, in a letter to a friend, speaks of "the most splendid +Chinese paper, twelve feet high by four wide; enough to finish the +drawing-room and two bed-rooms, the color being green, with rich Chinese +figures." Scott's own poem, _The Lady of the Lake_, has been a favorite +theme for wall-paper. + +Professor W. E. D. Scott, the Curator of Ornithology at Princeton +College, in his recent book, _The Story of a Bird Lover_, alludes, in a +chapter about his childhood, to the papers on the walls of his +grandfather's home: "As a boy, the halls interested me enormously; they +have been papered with such wall-paper as I have never seen elsewhere. +The entrance hall portrayed a vista of Paris, apparently arranged along +the Seine, with ladies and gentlemen promenading the banks, and all the +notable buildings, the Pantheon, Notre Dame, and many more distributed +in the scene, the river running in front. + +"But it was when I reached the second story that my childish imagination +was exercised. Here the panorama was of a different kind; it represented +scenes in India--the pursuit of deer and various kinds of smaller game, +the hunting of the lion and the tiger by the the natives, perched on +great elephants with magnificent trappings. These views are not +duplicated in the wall-paper; the scene is continuous, passing from one +end of the hall to the other, a panorama rich in color and incident. I +had thus in my mind a picture of India, I knew what kind of trees grew +there, I knew the clothes people wore and the arms they used while +hunting. To-day the same paper hangs in the halls of the old house." + +There are several papers of this sort, distinctly Chinese, still on +walls in this country. A house near Portsmouth, which once belonged to +Governor Wentworth, has one room of such paper, put on about 1750. In +Boston, in a Beacon Street house, there is a room adorned with a paper +made to order in China, with a pattern of birds and flowers, in which +there is no repetition; and this is not an uncommon find. A brilliant +example of this style may be seen in Salem, Mass. + +Chinese papers, which were made for lining screens and covering boxes, +were used in England and this country for wall-papers, and imitated both +there and here. One expert tells me that the early English papers were +often designed after India cottons, in large bold patterns. + +The first use in France of wall-papers of French manufacture was in the +sixth century. Vachon tells about Jehan Boudichon and his fifty rolls of +paper for the King's bed-chamber in 1481, lettered and painted blue; but +it is evident from the context that they were not fastened on the walls, +but held as scrolls by figures of angels. + +Colored papers were used for temporary decorations at this time, as at +the entrance of Louis XIII. into Lyons, on July 17, 1507. There is +nothing to show that the "_deux grans pans de papier paincts_," +containing the history of the Passion, and of the destruction of +Jerusalem from the effects of the cannon of St. Peter, were permanently +applied to a wall. So with another painted paper, containing the +genealogy of the Kings of France, among the effects of Jean Nagerel, +archdeacon at Rouen in 1750. These pictured papers, hung up on the walls +as a movable decoration, form one step in the development of applied +wall-papers. + +In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the commonest patterns for +unpictorial wall decoration were taken from the damasks and cut-velvets +of Sicily, Florence, Genoa, and other places in Italy. Some form of the +pine-apple or artichoke pattern was the favorite, a design developed +partly from Oriental sources and coming to perfection at the end of the +fifteenth century, copied and reproduced in textiles, printed stuffs, +and wall-papers, with but little change, down to the nineteenth century. + +From the Encyclopædia Britannica, Vol. XVII, I quote again: +"Wall-papers did not come into common use in Europe until the eighteenth +century, though they appear to have been used much earlier by the +Chinese. A few rare examples exist in England, which may be as early as +the eighteenth century; these are imitations, generally in flock, of the +fine old Florentine and Genoese cut-velvets, and hence the style of the +design in no way shows the date of the paper, the same traditional +patterns being reproduced for many years, with little or no change. +Machinery enabling paper to be made in long strips was not invented till +the end of the eighteenth century, and up to that time wall-paper was +painted on small squares of hand-made paper, difficult to hang, +disfigured by joints, and consequently costly; on this account +wall-papers were slow in superseding the older modes of mural +decoration, such as wood panelling, painting, tapestry, stamped leather, +and printed cloth. A little work by Jackson, of Battersea, printed in +London in 1744, gives some light on papers used at that time. He gives +reduced copies of his designs, mostly taken from Italian pictures or +antique sculpture during his residence in Venice. Instead of flowering +patterns covering the walls, his designs are all pictures--landscapes, +architectural scenes, or statues--treated as panels, with plain paper or +painting between. They are all printed in oil, with wooden blocks worked +with a rolling press, apparently an invention of his own. They are all +in the worst possible taste, and yet are offered as an improvement on +the Chinese papers then in vogue." + +In 1586 there was in Paris a corporation called _dominotiers_, domino +makers, which had the exclusive right to manufacture colored papers; and +they were evidently not a new body. "Domino" was an Italian word, used +in Italy as early as the fifteenth century for marbled paper. French +gentlemen, returning from Milan and Naples, brought back boxes or +caskets lined with these papers, which were imitated in France and soon +became an important article of trade. The foreign name was kept because +of the prejudice in favor of foreign articles. But French taste +introduced a change in the character of the ornament, preferring +symmetrical designs to the hap-hazard effect of the marbling. They began +then to print with blocks various arabesques, and to fill in the +outlines with the brush. + +In Furetiere's Dictionary, of the last quarter of the seventeenth +century, _dominotier_ is defined, "workman who makes marbled paper and +other papers of all colors and printed with various figures, which the +people used to call 'dominos'." + +On March 15, 1787, a decree of the French King's Council of State +declared that the art of painting and printing paper to be used in +furnishings was a dependence of the governing board of the +"_Marchands-Papetiers-Dominotiere-Feuilletinere_." + +This domino-work was for a long time principally used by country folk +and the humbler citizens of Paris to cover parts of their rooms and +shops; but near the end of the seventeenth century there was hardly a +house in Paris, however magnificent, that did not have some place +adorned with some of this domino-work, with flowers, fruits, animals and +small human figures. These pictures were often arranged in compartments. +The dominotiers made paper tapestries also, and had the right to +represent portraits, mythological scenes and Old and New Testament +stories. At first they introduced written explanations, but the letter +printers thought this an infringement of their rights; therefore it was +omitted. + +We are told by Aumonier that little precise information is to be found +concerning the domino papers. "Some were made from blocks of pear-tree +wood, with the parts to be printed left in relief, like type. The +designs were small pictures and in separate sheets, each subject +complete to itself. They were executed in printing-ink by means of the +ordinary printing-press. Some were afterwards finished by hand in +distemper colors; others were printed in oil, gold-sized and dusted over +with powdered colors, which gave them some resemblance to flock papers." + +Much is said about flock paper, and many were the methods of preparing +it. Here is one: "Flock paper, commonly called cloth paper, is made by +printing the figures with an adhesive liquid, commonly linseed oil, +boiled, or litharge. The surface is then covered with the flock, or +woolen dust, which is produced in manufactories by the shearing of +woolen cloths, and which is dyed of the requisite colors. After being +agitated in contact with the paper, the flocks are shaken off, leaving a +coating resembling cloth upon the adhesive surface of the figures." The +manufacture of this paper was practised, both in England and France, +early in the seventeenth century. I find in the Oxford Dictionary the +following examples of the early mention of flock cloth, which was the +thing that suggested to Le François his invention of flock paper: + +Act I of Richard III., C. 8, preamble: "The Sellers of such course +Clothes, being bare of Threde, usen for to powder the cast Flokkys of +fynner Cloth upon the same." Again in 1541, Act of Henry VIII., C. 18: +"Thei--shall (not) make or stoppe any maner Kerseies with flocks." + +"Flock, which is one of the most valuable materials used in paper +staining, not only from its cost, but from its great usefulness in +producing rich and velvety effects, is wool cut to a fine powder. The +wool can be used in natural color or dyed to any tint. The waste from +cloth manufactures furnished the chief supply, the white uniforms of the +Austrian soldiery supplying a considerable portion." + +Other substances have been tried, as ground cork, flock made from kids' +and goats' hair, the cuttings of furs and feathers, wood, sawdust, and, +lately, a very beautiful flock made of silk, which gives a magnificent +effect, but is so expensive that it can only be used for "_Tentures de +luxe_." + +Mr. Aumonier says: "Until quite recently there were on the walls of +some of the public rooms in Hampton Court Palace several old flock +papers, which had been hung so long ago that there is now no official +record of when they were supplied. They were of fine, bold design, +giving dignity to the apartments, and it is greatly to be regretted that +some of them have been lately replaced by a comparatively insignificant +design in bronze, which already shows signs of tarnishing, and which +will eventually become of an unsightly, dirty black. All decorators who +love their art will regret the loss of these fine old papers, and will +join with the writer in the hope that the responsible authorities will +not disturb those that still remain, so long as they can be kept on the +walls; and when that is no longer possible, that they will have the +designs reproduced in fac-simile, which could be done at a comparatively +small cost. + +"Mr. Crace, in his _History of Paperhangings_, says that by the +combination of flock and metal, 'very splendid hangings' are produced; +an opinion to which he gave practical expression some years afterwards +when he was engaged in decorating the new House of Parliament, using for +many of the rooms rich and sumptuous hangings of this character, +especially designed by the elder Pugin, and manufactured for Mr. Crace +from his own blocks." + +In England, in the time of Queen Anne, paper staining had become an +industry of some importance, since it was taxed with others for raising +supplies "to carry on the present war"--Marlborough's campaign in the +low countries against France. Clarence Cook, whom I am so frequently +quoting because he wrote so much worth quoting, says: + +"One of the pleasant features of the Queen Anne style is its freedom +from pedantry, its willingness to admit into its scheme of ornamentation +almost anything that is intrinsically pretty or graceful. We can, if we +choose, paint the papers and stuffs with which we cover our walls with +wreaths of flowers and festoons of fruits; with groups of figures from +poetry or history; with grotesques and arabesques, from Rome and +Pompeii, passed through the brains of Louis XIV's Frenchmen or of Anne's +Englishmen; with landscapes, even, pretty pastorals set in framework of +wreaths or ribbon, or more simply arranged like regular spots in rows of +alternate subjects." + +It may be interesting to remember that the pretty wall-papers of the +days of Queen Anne and early Georges were designed by nobody in +particular, at a time when there were no art schools anywhere; and one +can easily see that the wall-papers, the stuff-patterns and the +furniture of that time are in harmony, showing that they came out +of the same creative mould, and were the product of a sort of +spirit-of-the-age. + +Mica, powdered glass, glittering metallic dust or sand, silver dross, +and even gold foil, were later used, and a silver-colored glimmer called +cat-silver, all to produce a brilliant effect. This art was known long +ago in China, and I am told of a Chinese paper, seen in St. Petersburg, +which had all over it a silver-colored lustre. + +Block printing and stencilling naturally belong to this subject, but, as +my theme is "Old Time Wall Papers," and my book is not intended to be +technical, or a book of reference as regards their manufacture, I shall +not dwell on them. + +Nor would it be wise to detail all the rival claimants for the honor of +inventing a way of making wall-paper in rolls instead of small sheets; +nor to give the names even of all the famous paper-makers. One, +immortalized by Carlyle in his _French Revolution_, must be +mentioned--Revillon, whose papers in water colors and in flock were so +perfect and so extremely beautiful that Madame de Genlis said they cost +as much as fine Gobelin tapestry. Revillon had a large factory in the +Rue du Faubourg St. Antoine, Paris, and in 1788 was employing three +hundred hands. He was urged to incite his workmen to head the Faubourg +in open rebellion, but refused to listen; and angry at his inability to +coerce this honorable man the envoy caused a false report to be spread +about, that he intended to cut his wages one-half. + + +_PLATE IV._ + + Scenes from the life of an eighteenth century gallant form this + unusual old French paper--a gaming quarrel, a duel, an elopement + and other edifying episodes, framed in rococo scrolls. + +[Illustration] + +This roused a furious mob, and everything was ruined, and he never +recovered from the undeserved disaster. + +Carlyle closes his description of the fatal riot with these words: "What +a sight! A street choked up with lumber, tumult and endless press of +men. A Paper-Warehouse eviscerated by axe and fire; mad din of revolt; +musket volleys responded to by yells, by miscellaneous missiles, by +tiles raining from roof and window, tiles, execrations and slain +men!--There is an encumbered street, four or five hundred dead men; +unfortunate Revillon has found shelter in the Bastille." + +England advanced in the art of paper-making during the time the French +were planning the Revolution, and English velvet papers became the +fashion. In 1754 Mme. de Pompadour had her wardrobe and the passage that +led to her apartments hung with English paper. In 1758 she had the +bath-room of the Chateau de Champs papered with it, and others followed +her example. + +But in 1765 the importation of English papers--engraved, figured, +printed, painted to imitate damasks, chintzes, tapestries, and so +on--was checked by a heavy tax. So at this time papers were a precious +and costly possession. They were sold when the owner was leaving a room, +as the following advertisements will show: + +Dec. 17, 1782. "To-let; large room, with mirror over the fire-place and +paper which the owner is willing to sell." + +Feb. 5, 1784. "To-let; Main body of a house, on the front, with two +apartments, one having mirrors, woodwork and papers, which will be +sold." + +When the owner of the paper did not succeed in selling it, he took it +away, as it was stretched on cloth or mounted on frames. These papers +were then often offered for sale in the Parisian papers; we find +advertised in 1764, "The paperhangers for a room, painted green and +white"; November 26, 1766, "A hanging of paper lined with muslin, valued +at 12 Livres"; February 13, 1777, "For sale; by M. Hubert, a hanging of +crimson velvet paper, pasted on cloth, with gilt mouldings"; April 17, +1783, "38 yards of apple-green paper imitating damask, 24 livres, cost +38." + +By 1782, the use of wall-papers became so general that, from that time +on, the phrase "decorated with wall-paper" frequently occurs in +advertisements of luxurious apartments to let. Before this time, mention +had commonly been made, in the same manner, of the woodwork and mirrors. + +October 12, 1782, the _Journal general de France_ advertised: "To let; +two houses, decorated with mirrors and papers, one with stable for five +horses, 2 carriage-houses, large garden and well, the other with three +master's apartments, stable for 12 horses, 4 carriage-houses, etc." Oct. +28, 1782, "To let; pretty apartment of five rooms, second floor front, +with mirrors, papers, etc." Feb. 24, 1783, "To let; rue Montmartre, +first floor apartment, with antechamber; drawing-room, papered in +crimson, with mouldings; and two bed-rooms, one papered to match, with +two cellars." + +Mme. du Bocage, in her _Letters on England, Holland, and Italy_, (1750) +gives an account of Mrs. Montague's breakfast parties: "In the morning, +breakfasts agreeably bring together the people of the country and +strangers, in a closet lined with painted paper of Pekin, and furnished +with the choicest movables of China. + +"Mrs. Montague added, to her already large house, 'the room of the +Cupidons', which was painted with roses and jasmine, intertwined with +Cupids, and the 'feather room,' which was enriched with hangings made +from the plumage of almost every bird." + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + + + +III + +EARLIEST WALL PAPERS IN AMERICA + +[Illustration] + + + + +III + +EARLIEST WALL PAPERS IN AMERICA + + +Wall-papers of expensive styles and artistic variety were brought to +America as early as 1735. Before that time, and after, clay paint was +used by thrifty housewives to freshen and clean the sooty walls and +ceilings, soon blackened by the big open fires. This was prepared simply +by mixing with water the yellow-gray clay from the nearest claybank. + +In Philadelphia, walls were whitewashed until about 1745, when we find +one Charles Hargrave advertising wall-paper, and a little later Peter +Fleeson manufacturing paper-hangings and papir-maché mouldings at the +corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets. + +Those who could not afford to import papers painted their walls, either +in one color or stencilled in a simple pattern, or panelled, in +imitation of French papers; each panel with its own picture, large or +small. These attempts at decoration ranged with the taste and skill of +the artist, from fruit and floral designs and patterns copied from India +prints and imported china, to more elaborate and often horrible +presentments of landscapes and "waterscapes." The chimney breast, or +projecting wall forming the chimney, received especial attention. + +In my own farm-house, which was built in Colonial style in 1801 (with, +as tradition says, forty pumpkin pies and two barrels of hard cider to +cheer on the assisting neighbors), one of my first tasks was to have +five or six layers of cheap papers dampened and scraped off. And, to my +surprise, we found hand-painted flowers, true to nature and still +extremely pretty, though of course scratched and faded after such heroic +treatment--fuchsias in one room, carnation pinks in another, and in the +front hall honeysuckle blossoms, so defaced that they suggested some of +the animal tracks that Mr. Thompson-Seton copies in his books. What an +amount of painstaking and skilled work all that implied! That was a +general fashion at the time the house was built, and many such +hand-paintings have been reported to me. + +Mrs. Alice Morse Earle mentions one tavern parlor which she has seen +where the walls were painted with scenes from a tropical forest. On +either side of the fire-place sprang a tall palm tree. Coiled serpents, +crouching tigers, monkeys, a white elephant, and every form of +vivid-colored bird and insect crowded each other on the walls. And she +speaks of a wall-paper on the parlor of the Washington Tavern at +Westfield, Massachusetts, which gives the lively scenes of a fox chase. + +Near Conway, New Hampshire, there is a cottage where a room can still +be seen that has been most elaborately adorned by a local artist. The +mountains are evenly scalloped and uniformly green, the sky evenly blue +all the way round. The trees resemble those to be found in a Noah's Ark, +and the birds on them are certainly one-fourth as large as the trees. + +The painted landscapes are almost impossible to find, but I hear of one +room, the walls of which are painted with small landscapes, water +scenes, various animals, and trees. A sympathetic explorer has +discovered another in similar style at Westwood, Massachusetts, near +Dedham. + +In the old "Johnson House," Charlestown, New Hampshire, the door remains +on the premises, with hatchet marks still visible, through which the +Indians, "horribly fixed for war," dashed in pursuit of their trembling +victims. The hinges of hoop iron and latch with stringhole beneath are +intact. A portion of its surface is still covered with the paint of the +early settlers, made of red earth mixed with skimmed milk. + +A friend wrote me that her grandmother said that "before wall-paper +became generally used, many well-to-do persons had the walls of the +parlor--or keeping room as it was sometimes called--and spare room +tinted a soft Colonial yellow, with triangles, wheels or stars in dull +green and black for a frieze; and above the chair-rail a narrower +frieze, same pattern or similar, done in stencilling, often by home +talent. + +"My great aunt used to tell me that when company was expected, the edge +of the floor in the 'keeping room' was first sanded, then the most +artistic one of the family spread it evenly with a birch broom, and with +sticks made these same wheels and scallops around the edge of the room, +and the never-missing pitcher of asparagus completed the adornment." + +On the panels of a mantel, she remembers, an artist came from New +Boston and painted a landscape, while in the sitting-room, across the +hall, a huge vase of gayly tinted flowers was painted over the mantel. +On the mantel of another house was painted the Boston massacre. This was +in existence only a few years ago. + +Later came the black and white imitation of marble for the halls and +stairs, and yellow floors with the stencil border in black. This was an +imitation of the French. In Balzac's _Pierrette_ is described a +pretentious provincial house, of which the stairway was "painted +throughout in imitation of yellow-veined black marble." + +Madeleine Gale Wynne, in _The House Beautiful_, wrote most delightfully +about "Clay, Paint and other Wall Furnishings," and I quote her vivid +descriptions of the wall paintings she saw in Deerfield and Bernardston, +Massachusetts. + +"These wall paintings, like the embroideries, were derived from the +India prints or the Chinese and other crockery. Whether the dweller in +this far-off New England atmosphere was conscious of it or not, he was +indebted to many ancient peoples for the way in which he intertwined his +spray, or translated his flower and bud into a decorative whole. + +"Odd and amusing are many of the efforts, and they have often taken on a +certain individuality that makes a curious combination with the Eastern +strain. + +"An old house in Deerfield has the remains of an interesting wall, and a +partition of another done in blue, with an oval picture painted over the +mantel-tree. The picture was of a blue ship in full sail on a blue +ocean. + +"The other wall was in a small entry-way, and had an abundance of +semi-conventionalized flowers done in red, black, and browns. The design +was evidently painted by hand, and evolved as the painter worked. A +border ran round each doorway, while the wall spaces were treated +separately and with individual care; the effect was pleasing, though +crude. Tulips and roses were the theme. + +"This house had at one time been used as a tavern, and there is a +tradition that this was one of several public houses that were decorated +by a man who wandered through the Connecticut Valley during +Revolutionary times, paying his way by these flights of genius done in +oil. Tradition also has it that this man had a past; whether he was a +spy or a deserter from the British lines, or some other fly-from-justice +body, was a matter of speculation never determined. He disappeared as he +came, but behind him he left many walls decorated with fruit and +flowers, less perishable than himself. + +"We find his handiwork not only in Deerfield, but in Bernardston. There +are rumors that there was also a wall of his painting in a tavern which +stood on the border line between Massachusetts and Vermont. In +Connecticut, too, there are houses that have traces of his work. In +Bernardston, Massachusetts, there is still to be seen a room containing +a very perfect specimen of wall painting which is attributed to him. +This work may be of later date, but no one knows its origin. + +"This design is very pleasing, not only because of its antiquity and +associations, but because in its own way it is a beautiful and fitting +decoration. The color tones are full, the figures quaintly systematic +and showing much invention. + +"The body of the wall is of a deep cream, divided into diamond spaces +by a stencilled design, consisting of four members in diamond shape; the +next diamond is made up of a different set of diamonds, there being four +sets in all; these are repeated symmetrically, so that a larger diamond +is produced. Strawberries, tulips, and two other flowers of less +pronounced individuality are used, and the colors are deliciously +harmonized in spite of their being in natural tints, and bright at that. +Now, this might have been very ugly--most unpleasing; on the contrary, +it is really beautiful. + +"There is both dado and frieze, the latter being an elaborate festoon, +the former less good, made up of straggling palms and other ill +considered and constructed growths. One suspects the dado to be an +out-and-out steal from some chintz, while the tulips and strawberries +bear the stamp of personal intimacy. + +"The culminating act of imagination and art was arrived at on the +chimney-breast decoration; there indeed do we strike the high-water mark +of the decorator; he was not hampered either by perspective or +probability. + +"We surmise that Boston and its harbor is the subject; here are ships, +horses and coaches, trees and road-ways, running like garlands which +subdivide the spaces, many houses in a row, and finally a row of docile +sheep that for a century have fed in unfading serenity at their cribs in +inexplicable proximity to the base of the dwellings. All is fair in +love, war, and decoration. + +"The trees are green, the houses red, the sheep white, and the water +blue; all is in good tone, and I wish that it had been on my mantel +space that this renegade painter had put his spirited effort." + +A friend told me of her vivid recollection of some frescoed portraits +on the walls of the former home of a prominent Quaker in Minneapolis. +Her letter to a cousin who attends the Friends' Meeting there brought +this answer: "I had quite a talk with Uncle Junius at Meeting about his +old house. Unfortunately, the walls were ruined in a fire a few years +ago and no photograph had ever been taken of them. The portraits thee +asked about were in a bed-room. William Penn, with a roll in his hand +(the treaty, I suppose) was on one side of a window and Elizabeth Fry on +the other. These two were life size. + +"Then, (tell it not in Gath!) there was a billiard room. Here Mercury, +Terpsichore and other gay creatures tripped around the frieze, and there +was also a picture of the temple in Pompeii and Minerva with her owl. In +the sitting room on one side of the bay window was a fisher-woman +mending her net, with a lot of fish about her. On the other side of the +window another woman was feeding a deer. + +"On the dining-room walls a number of rabbits were playing under a big +fern and there was a whole family of prairie chickens, and ducks were +flying about the ceiling. Uncle Junius said, 'It cost me a thousand +dollars to have those things frescoed on, and they looked nice, too!' I +suppose when the Quaker preachers came to visit he locked up the +billiard room and put them in the room with William Penn and Elizabeth +Fry. He seemed rather mortified about the other and said it would not do +to go into a Quaker book, at all!" + +This house was built about the middle of the nineteenth century, when +Minneapolis was a new town; but it undoubtedly shows the influence of +the old New England which was the genial Friend's boyhood home. The +scores of Quaker preachers and other visiting Friends who accepted the +overflowing hospitality of this cheerfully frescoed house seem to have +had none of the scruples of Massachusetts Friends of an earlier date. A +lady sent me a strip of hideously ugly paper in squares, the colors dark +brown and old gold. She wrote me that this paper was on the walls of the +parlor of their house in Hampton, Massachusetts. The family were +Friends; and once, when the Quarterly Meeting was held there, some of +the Friends refused to enter their house, as the paper was too gay and +worldly. And it actually had to be taken off! + +After the clay paint and the hand painting came the small sheets or +squares of paper, and again I was fortunate in finding in my adopted +farm-house, in the "best room" upstairs, a snuff-brown paper of the +"wine-glass" pattern that was made before paper was imported in rolls, +and was pasted on the walls in small squares. The border looks as much +like a row of brown cats sitting down as anything else. You know the +family used to be called together to help cut out a border when a room +was to be papered; but very few of these home-made borders are now to be +found. + +I was told of a lady in Philadelphia who grew weary of an old and +sentimental pattern in her chamber, put on in small pieces and in poor +condition, and begged her husband to let her take it off. But he was +attached to the room, paper and all, and begged on his part that it +might remain. She next visited queer old stores where papers were kept, +and in one of them, in a loft, found enough of this very pattern, with +Cupids and doves and roses, to re-paper almost the entire room. And it +was decidedly difficult so to match the two sides of the face of the +little God of Love as to preserve his natural expression of roguishness +and merry consciousness of his power. + +It may interest some to learn just what drew my attention to the subject +of old-time wall-papers. One, and an especially fine specimen, is +associated with my earliest memories, and will be remembered to my +latest day. For, although a native of New Hampshire, I was born at the +foot of Mount Vesuvius, and there was a merry dance to the music of +mandolin and tambourine round the tomb of Virgil on my natal morn. Some +men were fishing, others bringing in the catch; farther on was a picnic +party, sentimental youths and maidens eating comfits and dainties to the +tender notes of a flute. And old Vesuvius was smoking violently. All +this because the room in which I made my début was adorned with a +landscape or scenic paper. + +Fortunately, this still remains on the walls, little altered or defaced +by the wear of years. When admiring it lately, the suggestion came to me +to have this paper photographed at once, and also that of the Seasons in +the next house; these were certainly too rare and interesting to be +lost. It is singular that the only papers of this sort I had ever seen +were in neighboring homes of two professors at Dartmouth College, and +remarkable that neither has been removed: now I find many duplicates of +these papers. + +What a keen delight it was to me as a child to be allowed to go to +Professor Young's, to admire his white hair, which I called "pitty white +fedders," and to gaze at the imposing sleighing party just above the +mantel, and at the hunters or the haymakers in the fields! A good +collection is always interesting, from choice old copies of first +editions to lanterns, cow-bells, scissors, cup-plates, fans or buttons; +and I mourn that I did not think of securing photographs of quaint and +antique papers years ago, for most of them have now disappeared. + +Showing the beginnings of my collection to an amateur photographer, he +was intensely interested, and said: "Why, I can get you a set as good as +these! The house has been owned by one family for eighty-five years, and +the paper was put on as long ago as that." And certainly his addition is +most interesting. The scenes in one are French. You see a little play +going on, such as we have been told in a recent magazine article they +still have in France--a street show in which a whole family often take +part. They appear as accompaniment to a fair or festival. The hole for +the stove-pipe, penetrating the foliage, has a ludicrous effect, +contrasting in abrupt fashion--the old and the new, the imposing and the +practical. + +This enthusiastic friend next visited Medfield, Massachusetts, where he +heard there were several such papers, only to be told that they had just +been scraped off and the rooms modernized. + +Hearing of a fine example of scenic paper in the old Perry House at +Keene, New Hampshire, I wrote immediately, lest that, too, should be +removed, and through the kindness of absolute strangers can show an +excellent representation of the Olympic games, dances, Greeks placing +wreaths upon altars, and other scenes from Grecian life, well executed. +These are grand conceptions; I hope they may never be vandalized by +chisel and paste, but be allowed to remain as long as that historic +house stands. They are beautifully preserved. + + +_PLATE V._ + + A detail of the preceding paper. Though well designed, this is not + a beautifully colored or very well printed paper; the color scheme + is carried out in fourteen printings. + +[Illustration] + +A brief magazine article on my new enthusiasm, illustrated with +photographs of papers I knew about, was received with surprising +interest. My mail-bag came crowded, and I was well-nigh "snowed in," as +De Quincy put it, by fascinating letters from men and women who rejoiced +in owning papers like those of my illustrations, or had heard of others +equally fine and equally venerable, and with cordial invitations to +journey here and there to visit unknown friends and study their +wall-papers, the coloring good as new after a hundred years or more. It +was in this unexpected and most agreeable way that I heard of treasures +at Windsor, Vermont; Claremont, New Hampshire; Taunton, Massachusetts, +and quaint old Nantucket, and was informed that my special paper, with +the scenes from the Bay of Naples (represented so faithfully that one +familiar with the Italian reality could easily recognize every one) was +a most popular subject with the early purchaser and was still on the +walls of a dozen or more sitting-rooms. + +The Reverend Wallace Nutting, of Providence, whose fame as an artistic +photographer is widespread, sent me a picture of a parlor in St. +Johnsbury, Vermont, where he found this paper. Three women dressed in +old-fashioned style, even to the arrangement of their hair, are seated +at table, enjoying a cup of tea. An old tabby is napping cosily in a +soft-cushioned chair. And above, on the right, Vesuvius is pouring forth +the usual volumes of smoke. A fine old mahogany side-board, at the foot +of the volcano, decorated with decanters and glasses large and small, +presents an inviting picture. + +The house at Hillsboro Bridge, New Hampshire, where Ex-Governor +Benjamin Pierce lived for years, and where his son, Franklin Pierce, +passed a happy boyhood, has this paper, and several similar letters show +how generally it was admired. Mrs. Lawrence, of Boston, wrote: + +"I send by this mail a package of pictures, taken by my daughter, of the +Italian wall-paper on her grandfather's old home in Exeter, N. H. The +house is now owned by the Academy and used as a dormitory. The views +which I enclose have never been published. We have two or three +remarkable specimens of wall-paper made in India a hundred and fifty +years ago; the strips are hanging on the wall, nailed up." + +The Italian paper proved to be my old friend Vesuvius and his bay. An +Exeter professor also wrote describing the same paper and adding +translations of the Greek inscriptions on the monuments. + +Friends would often write of such a wonderful specimen at some town or +village. I would write to the address given and be told of this Bay of +Naples paper again. They were all brought over and put on at about the +same time. + +One of the oldest houses in Windsor, Vermont, still has a charming +parlor paper, with landscape and water, boats, castles, ruins and +picturesque figures, which was imported and hung about 1810. This house +was built by the Honorable Edward R. Campbell, a prominent Vermonter in +his day, and here were entertained President Monroe and other notable +visitors. Later the Campbell house was occupied for some years by Salmon +P. Chase. It is now the home of the Sabin family. + +A Boston antique dealer wrote me: "In an article of yours in _The House +Beautiful_, you have a photograph of the paper of the old Perry House, +Keene, N. H. We want to say that we have in our possession here at this +store, strung up temporarily, a paper with the same subject. It forms a +complete scene, there being thirty pieces in attractive old shades of +brown. We bought this from a family in Boston some little time ago, and +it is said to have been made in France for a planter in New Orleans in +or before 1800. We feel we would be excused in saying that this is the +most interesting lot of any such thing in existence. It has been handed +down from family to family, and they, apparently, have shown it, because +the bottom ends of some of the sheets are considerably worn from +handling. You understand this paper was never hung on the wall and it is +just as it was originally made." He fairly raves over the beautiful rich +browns and cream and "O! such trees!" + +To my inquiry whether his price for this paper was really two thousand +dollars, as I had heard, he replied, "We would be very sorry to sell the +paper for two thousand dollars, for it is worth five thousand." + +An artist who called to examine the paper is equally enthusiastic. He +writes: "I was greatly impressed by the remarkably fine execution of the +entire work. Doubtless it was printed by hand with engraved blocks. A +large per cent of the shading, especially the faces of the charming +figures, was surely done by hand, and all is the production of a +superior artist. There are several sections, each perhaps three feet +square, of such fine design, grouping, finish and execution of light and +shade, as to make them easily samples of such exquisite nicety and +comprehensive artistic work as to warrant their being framed. + +"The facial expression of each of the many figures is so true that it +indicates the feelings and almost the thoughts of the person +represented; there is remarkable individuality and surprising animation. +I was forcibly struck with the inimitable perspective of the buildings +and the entire landscape with which they are associated. Practically +speaking, the buildings are of very perfect Roman architecture; there +is, however, a pleasing venture manifested, where the artist has +presented a little of the Greek work with here and there a trace of +Egyptian, and perhaps of the Byzantine. These make a pleasing +anachronism, such as Shakespeare at times introduced into his plays: a +venture defended by Dr. Samuel Johnson, as well as other distinguished +critics. The trees are done with an almost photographic truth and +exactness. After a somewhat extended and critical examination of things +of this kind in various parts of Europe, I do not hesitate to say that I +have seen nothing of the kind that excels the work you have. What is +quite remarkable about it, and more than all exhibits its truth to +nature, it seems to challenge decision whether it shows to best +advantage in strong daylight or twilight, by artificial light or that of +the sun; an effect always present in nature, but not often well produced +on paper or canvas. The successful venture to use so light a groundwork +was much like that of Rubens, where he used a white sheet in his great +painting, 'The Descent from the Cross.'" + +Since the above description was written, this incomparable paper has +passed into the hands of Mrs. Franklin R. Webber, 2nd, of Boston, who +will either frame it, or in some other way preserve it as perfectly as +possible. + +The remarkable paper shown in Plate XLI and the three following plates +were sent me by Miss Janet A. Lathrop of Stockport-on-Hudson, New York. +It is certainly one of the finest of the scenic papers still in +existence. The scene is oriental, the costumes seeming both Turkish and +Chinese. Temples and pagodas, a procession, a barge on the river and a +gathering in a tea-house follow in succession about the room. All are +printed by hand on rice paper, in gray tones. The paper is browned with +age, but was cleaned and restored about a year ago and is exceedingly +well preserved. + +The house in which this paper is hung was built by Captain Seth Macy, a +retired sea-captain, in 1815. The paper was put on in 1820. Captain Seth +seems to have used up all his fortune in building his house, and in a +few years he was forced to sell it. The name of "Seth's Folly" still +clings to the place. In 1853 Miss Lathrop's father bought the house, and +it has ever since been occupied by his family. By a singular +coincidence, Mrs. Lathrop recognized the paper as the same as some on +the old house at Albany in which she was born. Repeated inquiries have +failed to locate any other example in America, and photographs have been +submitted without avail to both domestic and foreign experts for +identification. In the early seventies Miss Lathrop chanced to visit a +hunting-lodge belonging to the King of Saxony at Moritzburg, near +Dresden, and in the "Chinese room" she found a tapestry or paper exactly +similar, from which the paper on her own walls may have been copied. + +The two papers just described would seem to be the finest examples of +continuous scenic papers still extant. I learn as this book goes to +press that Mrs. Jack Gardner, of Boston, has a remarkable old +geographical paper, in which the three old-world continents are +represented. I have been fortunate enough to secure, through the +courtesy of Mrs. Russell Jarvis, a picture of the paper in her parlor at +Claremont, New Hampshire. The Jarvis family have occupied the house +since 1797. This is not a landscape, but consists of small pastoral +scenes, placed at intervals and repeated regularly. The design is brown +on a cream ground. It has a dado and a frieze in dark blue. It is hand +made and all printed by hand, in squares of about eighteen inches, +matched carefully. Mrs. Jarvis writes: "I had no idea that the +photographer would take in so much each side of the corner, or I should +have arranged the furniture differently. The picture I did not suppose +was to appear is one of great interest and value. It is supposed to be a +Rubens, and has hung there for over a hundred years. It was bought in +1791 in Boston, of a French gentleman from San Domingo, who, on the +night of the insurrection there, escaped, saving but little else of his +vast possessions. It had evidently been hastily cut from the frame. It +represents the presentation of the head of the younger Cyrus to Tomyris, +Queen of the Scythians. The coloring is fine, the figures very +beautiful, and the satin and ermine of the Queen's dress extremely rich. +If you look closely, you will see a sword lying on the piano. This is +the one Sir William Pepperell was knighted with by King George the +Second, in 1745, because of the Battle of Louisburg, and was given my +husband's father by Sir William's grand-daughter, I believe." + +You see how one photograph brings to you many valuable bits of +information apart from the paper sought. + +This letter, for example, with its accompanying photograph (see Plate +XXII) leads one to the study of history, art, and literature. The +subject of the picture, aside from its supposed origin, is of interest. + +The Scythians were Aryans much mixed with Mongol blood; they disappear +from history about 100 B. C. Cyrus the younger, after subduing the +eastern parts of Asia, was defeated by Tomyris, Queen of the Massagetae +in Scythia. Tomyris cut off his head and threw it into a vessel filled +with human blood, saying, as she did so, "There, drink thy fill." + +Dante refers to this incident in his _Purgatory_, xii; and Sackville, in +his _Mirrour for Magistrates_, 1587, says: + + Consyder Cyrus-- + He whose huge power no man might overthrowe, + Tomyris Queen, with great despite hath slowe, + His head dismembered from his mangled corpse + Herself she cast into a vessel fraught + With clotted blood of them that felt her force, + And with these words a just reward she taught: + "Drynke now thy fyll of thy desired draught." + +Here seems to be the place to speak more fully of the small scenes +placed regularly at intervals. There is a great variety of pretty +medallion pictures of this sort, as, alternating figures of a +shepherdess with her crook reclining on a bank near a flock of sheep, +and a boy studying at a desk, with a teacher standing near by. + +Mr. Frank B. Sanborn writes: "The oldest paper I ever saw was in the +parlor of President Weare, of Hampton Falls--a simple hunting scene, +with three compartments; a deer above, a dog below, and a hunter with +his horn below that. It was put on in 1737, when the house was built, +and, I think, is there still. Colonel Whiting's house had a more +elaborate and extensive scene--what the French called 'Montagnes +Russe'--artificial hills in a park, for sliding down, toboggan fashion, +and a score of people enjoying them or looking on." + +A good authority asserts that rolls of paper did not appear in this +country until 1790, so that all these now mentioned must have been +imported in square sheets. Notice the step forward--from white walls, +through a clay wash, to hand painting, stencilling, small imported +sheets, and, at last, to rolls of paper. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE VI._ + + Fragment of the famous old racing paper from the Timothy Dexter + house. This is too broken and stained to admit of the reproduction + of its original colors--blue sky, gray clouds, green turf, brown + horses and black, and jockeys in various colors. The scene here + given fills the width of the paper, about eighteen inches. + +[Illustration] + + + + +IV + +WALL PAPERS IN HISTORIC HOMES [Illustration] + + + + +IV + +WALL PAPERS IN HISTORIC HOMES + + +Esther Singleton, in her valuable and charming book on _French and +English Furniture_, tells us that in the early Georgian period, from +1714 to 1754, the art of the Regency was on the decline, and "the +fashionable taste of the day was for Gothic, Chinese and French +decorations; and the expensive French wall-painting and silken hangings +were imitated in wall-paper and the taste even spread to America." In +1737, the famous Hancock House was being built and, until it was +demolished a few years ago (1863), it was the last of the great mansions +standing that could show what the stately homes of old Boston were like. +This house was built by Thomas Hancock, son of the Rev. John Hancock, +the kitchen of whose house is now owned by the Lexington Historical +Society. + +On January 23, 1737-8, we find him writing from Boston to Mr. John +Rowe, Stationer, London, as follows: "Sir, Inclosed you have the +Dimensions of a Room for a Shaded Hanging to be done after the Same +Pattern I have sent per Captain Tanner, who will deliver it to you. It's +for my own House and Intreat the favour of you to Get it Done for me to +Come Early in the Spring, or as Soon as the nature of the Thing will +admitt. + +"The pattern is all was Left of a Room Lately Come over here, and it +takes much in ye Town and will be the only paper-hanging for Sale here +wh. am of opinion may Answer well. Therefore desire you by all means to +get mine well Done and as Cheap as Possible and if they can make it more +beautifull by adding more Birds flying here and there, with Some +Landskips at the Bottom, Should like it well. Let the Ground be the Same +Colour of the Pattern. At the Top and Bottom was a narrow Border of +about 2 Inches wide wh. would have to mine. About three or four years +ago my friend Francis Wilks, Esq., had a hanging Done in the Same manner +but much handsomer Sent over here from Mr. Sam Waldon of this place, +made by one Dunbar in Aldermanbury, where no doubt he, or some of his +successors may be found. In the other part of these Hangings are Great +Variety of Different Sorts of Birds, Peacocks, Macoys, Squirril, Monkys, +Fruit and Flowers etc. + +"But a greater Variety in the above mentioned of Mr. Waldon's and Should +be fond of having mine done by the Same hand if to be mett with. I +design if this pleases me to have two Rooms more done for myself. I +Think they are handsomer and Better than Painted hangings Done in Oyle, +so I Beg your particular Care in procuring this for me and that the +patterns may be Taken Care of and Return'd with my goods." + +John Adams writes in his Diary (1772): "Spent this evening with Mr. +Samuel Adams at his house. Adams was more cool, genteel, and agreeable +than common; concealed and retained his passions, etc. He affects to +despise riches, and not to dread poverty; but no man is more ambitious +of entertaining his friends handsomely, or of making a decent, an +elegant appearance than he. + +"He has newly covered and glazed his house, and painted it very neatly, +and has new papered, painted and furnished his rooms; so that you visit +at a very genteel house and are very politely received and entertained." + +Paper is the only material with which a man of but little means can +surround himself with a decorative motive and can enjoy good copies of +the expensive tapestries and various hangings which, until recently, +have been within the reach of the wealthy only. The paper-hanger was not +so much a necessity in the old days as now. The family often joined in +the task of making the paste, cutting the paper and placing it on the +walls. This was not beneath the dignity of George Washington, who, with +the assistance of Lafayette, hung on the walls at Mount Vernon paper +which he had purchased abroad. + +The story goes that the good Martha lamented in the presence of +Lafayette that she should be unable to get the new paper hung in the +banquet room in time for the morrow's ball in honor of the young +Marquis. There were no men to be found for such work. Lafayette at once +pointed out to Mistress Washington that she had three able-bodied men at +her service--General Washington, Lafayette himself and his aide-de-camp. +Whereupon the company fell merrily to work, and the paper was hung in +time for the ball. Not only did the Father of our Country fight our +battles for us, but there is evidence that he gracefully descended to a +more peaceful level and gave us hints as to that valuable combination +known to the world as flour paste. + +There is in existence a memorandum in Washington's hand, which reads as +follows: + +"Upholsterer's directions: + +"If the walls have been whitewashed over with glew water. If not--Simple +and common paste is sufficient without any other mixture but, in either +case, the Paste must be made of the finest and best flour, and free from +lumps. The Paste is to be made thick and may be thinned by putting water +to it. + +"The Paste is to be put upon the paper and suffered to remain about five +minutes to soak in before it is put up, then with a cloth press it +against the wall, until all parts stick. If there be rinkles anywhere, +put a large piece of paper thereon and then rub them out with cloth as +before mentioned." + +During the period when Mount Vernon was in private hands, the papers of +Washington's day were removed. There is now on the upper hall a +medallion paper which is reproduced from that which hung there at the +time of the Revolution. + +Benjamin Franklin was another of our great men who interested +themselves in domestic details. In 1765 he was in London, when he +received from his wife a letter describing the way in which she had +re-decorated and furnished their home. Furniture, carpets and pictures +were mentioned, and wall coverings as well. "The little south room I +have papered, as the walls were much soiled. In this room is a carpet I +bought cheap for its goodness, and nearly new.... The Blue room has the +harmonica and the harpsichord, the gilt sconce, a card table, a set of +tea china, the worked chairs and screen--a very handsome stand for the +tea kettle to stand on, and the ornamental china. The paper of the room +has lost much of its bloom by pasting up." This blue room must have been +the subject of further correspondence. Nearly two years later Franklin +wrote to his wife: + +"I suppose the room is too blue, the wood being of the same colour with +the paper, and so looks too dark. I would have you finish it as soon as +you can, thus: paint the wainscot a dead white; paper the walls blue, +and tack the gilt border round the cornice. If the paper is not equally +coloured when pasted on, let it be brushed over again with the same +colour, and let the _papier maché_ musical figures be tacked to the +middle of the ceiling. When this is done, I think it will look very +well." + +There are many old houses in New England and the Middle States which are +of historic interest, and in some of these the original paper is still +on the walls and in good preservation, as in the Dorothy Quincy house at +Quincy, Massachusetts. The Dorothy Quincy house is now owned by the +Colonial Dames of Massachusetts, who have filled it with beautiful +colonial furniture and other relics of Dorothy Q's day. The papers on +all the walls are old, but none so early as that on the large north +parlor (Plate XXIX), which was imported from Paris to adorn the room in +which Dorothy Quincy and John Hancock were to have been married in 1775. +Figures of Venus and Cupid made the paper appropriate to the occasion. + +"But the fortunes of war," says Katharine M. Abbott in her _Old Paths +and Legends of New England_, "upset the best of plans, and her wedding +came about very quietly at the Thaddeus Burr house in Fairfield. Owing +to the prescription on Hancock's head, they were forced to spend their +honeymoon in hiding, as the red-coats had marked for capture this +elegant, cocked-hat 'rebel' diplomatist of the blue and bluff. Dorothy +Quincy Hancock, the niece of Holmes's 'Dorothy Q.,' is a fascinating +figure in history. Lafayette paid her a visit of ceremony and pleasure +at the Hancock house on his triumphal tour, and no doubt the once +youthful chevalier and reigning belle flung many a quip and sally over +the teacups of their eventful past." + +The Hancock-Clarke house, in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a treasure +house of important relics, besides files of pamphlets, manuscripts and +printed documents, portraits, photographs, furniture, lanterns, +canteens, pine-tree paper currency, autographs, fancy-work--in fact +almost everything that could be dug up. There is also a piece of the +original paper on the room occupied by Hancock and Adams on April 18, +1775. But the bit of paper and the reproduction are copyrighted, and +there is no more left of it. It is a design of pomegranate leaves, buds, +flowers and fruits--nothing remarkable or attractive about it. I have a +small photograph of it, which must be studied through a glass. + +In the sitting-room the paper is a series of arches, evidently Roman, a +foot wide and three feet high. The pillars supporting the arches are +decorated with trophies--shields, with javelins, battle-axes and +trumpets massed behind. The design is a mechanical arrangement of urn +and pedestal; there are two figures leaning against the marble, and two +reclining on the slab above the urn. One of these holds a trumpet, and +all the persons are wearing togas. The groundwork of color in each panel +is Roman red; all the rest is a study in black and white lines. Garlands +droop at regular intervals across the panels. + +The paper in the Lafayette room at the Wayside Inn, South Sudbury, +Massachusetts, is precious only from association. The inn was built +about 1683, and was first opened by David Howe, who kept it until 1746. +It was then kept by his three sons in succession, one son, Lyman Howe, +being the landlord when Longfellow visited there and told the tale of +Paul Revere's ride. It was renovated under the management of Colonel +Ezekiel Howe, 1746-1796, and during that time the paper was put on the +Lafayette room. + +Several important personages are known to have occupied this room, among +them General Lafayette, Judge Sewall, Luigi Monti, Doctor Parsons, +General Artemus Ward. The house was first known as Howe's in Sudbury, or +Horse Tavern, then as the Red Horse Tavern; and in 1860 was immortalized +by Longfellow as The Wayside Inn. + +"The landlord of Longfellow's famous Tales was the dignified Squire +Lyman Howe, a justice of the peace and school committee-man, who lived a +bachelor, and died at the inn in 1860--the last of his line to keep the +famous hostelry. Besides Squire Howe, the only other real characters in +the Tales who were ever actually at the inn were Thomas W. Parsons, the +poet; Luigi Monti, the Sicilian, and Professor Daniel Treadwell, of +Harvard, the theologian, all three of whom were in the habit of spending +the summer months there. Of the other characters, the musician was Ole +Bull, the student was Henry Ware Wales, and the Spanish Jew was Israel +Edrehi. Near the room in which Longfellow stayed is the ball-room with +the dais at one end for the fiddlers. But the polished floor no longer +feels the pressure of dainty feet in high-heeled slippers gliding over +it to the strains of contra-dance, cotillion, or minuet, although the +merry voices of summer visitors and jingling bells of winter sleighing +parties at times still break the quiet of the ancient inn." + +Judge Sewall, in his famous diary, notes that he spent the night at +Howe's in Sudbury--there being also a Howe's Tavern in Marlboro. +Lafayette, in 1824, spent the night there and, as Washington passed over +this road when he took command of the army at Cambridge, it is more than +likely that he also stopped there, as Colonel Howe's importance in this +neighborhood would almost demand it. Washington passed over this road +again when on his tour of New England, and then Colonel Howe was the +landlord and squire, as well as colonel of a regiment. + +Burgoyne stopped there, a captive, on his way from Ticonderoga to +Boston; and, as this was the most popular stage route to New York city, +Springfield and Albany, those famous men of New England--Otis, Adams, +Hancock, and many others--were frequent guests. A company of horse +patrolled the road, and tripped into the old bar for their rum and +home-brewed ale. It is worth recording that Agassiz, in his visits to +the house, examined the ancient oaks near the inn, and pronounced one of +them over a thousand years old. Edna Dean Proctor refers to them in her +poem: + + Oaks that the Indian's bow and wigwam knew, + And by whose branches still the sky is barred. + +I have a photograph of the famous King's Tavern, where Lafayette was +entertained, and a small piece of the paper of the dining-room. This +tavern was at Vernon, Connecticut, (now known as Rockville,) on the +great Mail Stage route from New York to Boston. It was noted for its +waffles, served night and morning, and the travellers sometimes called +it "Waffle Tavern." It was erected by Lemuel King, in 1820. Now it is +used as the Rockville town farm. The noted French wall-paper on the +dining-room, where Lafayette was entertained, represented mythological +scenes. There was Atlas, King of the remote West and master of the trees +that bore the golden apples; and Prometheus, chained to the rock, with +the water about him. The paper was imported in small squares, which had +to be most carefully pasted together. + +This treasured paper, with its rather solemn colors of grey and black, +and its amazing number of mythological characters, was stripped from the +walls and consumed in a bonfire by an unappreciative and ignorant person +who had control of the place. A lady rescued a few pieces and pasted +them on a board. She has generously sent me a photograph of one of the +panels. She writes me pathetically of the woodsy scenes, water views, +mountains, cascades, and castles, with classic figures artistically +arranged among them. There seems to have been a greater variety than is +usual, from a spirited horse, standing on his hind legs on a cliff, to a +charming nymph seated on a rock and playing on a lyre. Below all these +scenes there was a dado of black and grey, with scrolls and names of the +beings depicted--such names as Atlas, Atlantis, Ariadne, Arethusa, +Adonis, Apollo, Andromache, Bacchus, Cassandra, Cadmus, Diana, Endymion, +Juno, Jupiter, Iris, Laocoön, Medusa, Minerva, Neptune, Pandora, +Penelope, Romulus, Sirius, Thalia, Theseus, Venus, Vulcan, and many +others were "among those present." Below these names came a dado of +grassy green, with marine views at intervals. + +Whether Lafayette noticed and appreciated all this, history telleth not. +After his sumptuous repast a new coach was provided to convey him from +King's Tavern to Hartford, and it was drawn by four white horses. + +On a boulder in Lafayette Park, near by, is this inscription: + +"In grateful memory of General Lafayette, whose love of liberty brought +him to our shores, to dedicate his life and fortune to the cause of the +Colonies. + +"The Sabra Trumbull Chapter, D. A. R., erected this monument near the +Old King's Tavern, where he was entertained in 1824." + +The General Knox mansion, called "Montpelier," at Thomaston, Maine, is +full of interest to all who care for old-time luxury as seen in the +homes of the wealthy. General Knox was Washington's first Secretary of +War. Samples of paper have been sent me from there. One had a background +of sky-blue, on which were wreaths, with torches, censers with flames +above, and two loving birds, one on the nest and the mate proudly +guarding her--all in light brown and gray, with some sparkling mineral +or tiniest particles of glass apparently sprinkled over, which produced +a fascinating glitter, and a raised, applique effect I have never +observed before. This was on the dining-room of the mansion. In the +"gold room" was a yellow paper--as yellow as buttercups. + +Still another, more unusual, was a representation of a sea-port town, +Gallipoli, of European Turkey; armed men are marching; you see the water +and picturesque harbor, and Turkish soldiers in boats. The red of the +uniforms brightens the pictures; the background is gray, and the views +are enclosed in harmonious browns, suggesting trees and rocks. This +paper came in small pieces, before rolls were made. Think of the labor +of matching all those figures! "Gallipoli" is printed at the bottom. + +I am assured by a truthful woman from Maine that the halls of this house +were adorned with yellow paper with hunting scenes "life-size," and I +don't dare doubt or even discuss this, for what a woman from that state +_knows_ is not to be questioned. It can't be childish imagination. +Moreover, I have corroborative evidence from another veracious woman in +the South, who, in her childhood, saw human figures of "life size" on a +paper long since removed. + +I freely confess that I had never heard of this distinguished General +Knox and his palatial residence; but a composition from a little girl +was shown me, which gives a good idea of the house: + + +THE KNOX MANSION. + +"In the year 1793, General Knox sent a party of workmen from Boston to +build a summer residence on the bank of the Georges River. The mansion +was much like a French chateau, and was often so called by visitors. + +"The front entrance faced the river. The first story was of brick, and +contained the servants' hall, etc. The second floor had nine rooms, the +principal of which was the oval room, into which the main entrance +opened. There were two large windows on either side of the door, and on +opposite sides were two immense fire-places. This room was used as a +picture gallery, and contained many ancient portraits. It had also a +remarkable clock. It was high, and the case was of solid mahogany. The +top rose in three points and each point had a brass ball on the top. The +face, instead of the usual Roman numbers, had the Arabic 1, 2, 3, etc. +There were two small dials. On each side of the case were little +windows, showing the machinery. Between the two windows on one side of +the room was a magnificent mahogany book-case, elaborately trimmed with +solid silver, which had belonged to Louis XIV. and was twelve feet long. + +"The mansion measured ninety feet across, and had on either side of the +oval room two large drawing-rooms, each thirty feet long. There were +twenty-eight fire-places in the house. Back of the western drawing-room +was a library. This was furnished with beautiful books of every +description, a large number being French. On the other side was a large +china closet. One set of china was presented to General Knox by the +Cincinnati Society. The ceiling was so high that it was necessary to use +a step-ladder to reach the china from the higher shelves. Back of the +oval room was a passage with a flight of stairs on each side, which met +at the top. Above, the oval room was divided into two dressing-rooms. +The bedsteads were all solid mahogany, with silk and damask hangings. +One room was called the 'gold room,' and everything in it, even the +counterpane, was of gold color. The doors were mahogany, and had large +brass knobs and brass pieces extending nearly to the centre. The carpets +were all woven whole. + +"The house outside was painted white, with green blinds, though every +room was furnished with shutters inside. A little in the rear of the +mansion extended a number of out-buildings, in the form of a crescent, +beginning with the stable on one side, and ending with the cook house on +the other. General Knox kept twenty saddle horses and a number of pairs +of carriage horses. Once there was a gateway, surmounted by the American +Eagle, leading into what is now Knox Street. 'Montpelier,' as it was +called, had many distinguished visitors every summer." + +I noticed in a recent paper the report of an old-time game supper, +participated in by ninety prominent sportsmen at Thomaston, Maine, +following the custom inaugurated by General Knox for the entertainment +of French guests. + +It was through hearing of the Knox house that I learned of a "death +room." There was one over the eastern dining-room. These depressing +rooms had but one window, and the paper was dark and gloomy--white, with +black figures, and a deep mourning frieze. Benches were ranged stiffly +around the sides, and there were drawers filled with the necessities for +preparing a body for burial. Linen and a bottle of "camphire" were never +forgotten. There the dead lay till the funeral. I can shiver over the +intense gruesomeness of it. How Poe or Hawthorne could have let his +inspired imagination work up the possibilities of such a room! A +skeleton at the feast is a slight deterrent from undue gaiety, compared +with this ever-ready, sunless apartment. + +This reminds me that I read the other day of a "deadly-lively" old +lady, who, having taken a flat in the suburban depths of Hammersmith, +England, stipulated before signing her lease that the landlord should +put black wall-paper on the walls of every room except the kitchen. +Possibly she had a secret sorrow which she wished to express in this +melodramatic fashion. But why except the culinary department? We have +been hearing a good deal lately about the effect of color on the nerves +and temperament generally. A grim, undertaker-like tone of this kind +would no doubt induce a desired melancholy, and if extended to the +region of the kitchen range, might have furthered the general effect by +ruining the digestion. + +A writer in a recent number of the _Decorator's and Painter's Magazine_, +London, says: "An interview has just taken place with a 'a well-known +wall-paper manufacturer,' who, in the course of his remarks, informed +the representative of the _Morning Comet_ that black wall-papers were +now all the rage. 'You would be surprised,' he said, 'how little these +papers really detract from the lightness of a room, the glossiness of +their surface compensating almost for the darkness of their shade;' and +upon this score there would seem to be no reason why a good pitch paper +should not serve as an artistic decorative covering for the walls of a +drawing-room or a 'dainty' boudoir. + +"It has been generally accepted that highly-glazed surfaces render +wall-papers objectionable to the eye, and that they are therefore only +fit for hanging in sculleries, bath-rooms and the like, where sanitary +reasons outweigh decorative advantages. Very probably the gentleman who +recommends black papers for walls would also recommend their use for +ceilings, so that all might be _en suite_, and the effect would +undoubtedly be added to, were the paintwork also of a deep, lustrous +black, whilst--it may be stretching a point, but there is nothing like +being consistent and thorough--the windows might at the same time be +'hung' in harmony with walls and ceilings. Coffin trestles with elm +boards would make an excellent table, and what better cabinets for +bric-a-brac (miniature skeletons, petrified death's-head moths, model +tombstones and railed vaults, and so on) than shelved coffins set on +end? Plumes might adorn the mantel-shelf, and weeds and weepers +festooned around skulls and crossbones would sufficiently ornament the +walls without the aid of pictures, whilst the fragments from some +dis-used charnel-house might be deposited in heaps in the corners of the +apartment." + +The old governors often indulged in expensive and unusual wall-papers. +The Governor Gore house at Waltham, Massachusetts, had three, all of +which I had photographed. The Gore house, until recently the home of +Miss Walker, is one of the most beautiful in Massachusetts, and was an +inheritance from her uncle, who came into possession of the property in +1856. Before Miss Walker's death, she suggested that the estate be given +to the Episcopal Church in Waltham for a cathedral or a residence for +the bishop. + +The place is known as the Governor Gore estate, and is named for +Christopher Gore, who was governor of Massachusetts in 1799. It covers +nearly one hundred and fifty acres of gardens, woodlands and fields. The +present mansion was erected in 1802 and replaces the one destroyed by +fire. + +The mansion is a distinct pattern of the English country house, such as +was built by Sir Christopher Wren, the great eighteenth century +architect. It is of brick construction. In the interior many of the +original features have been retained, such as the remarkable "Bird of +Paradise" paper in the drawing-room. All the apartments are very high +ceiled, spacious and richly furnished. Some of Governor Gore's old +pieces of furniture, silver and china are still in use. + +The Badger homestead, in Old Gilmanton, was the home of Colonel William +Badger, Governor of New Hampshire in 1834 and 1835, and descended from a +long line of soldierly, patriotic and popular men. Fred Myron Colby +sketched the home of the Badgers in the _Granite Monthly_ for December, +1882: + +"Gov. Badger was a tall, stately man, strong, six feet in height, and +at some periods of his life weighed nearly three hundred pounds. He was +active and stirring his whole life. Though a man of few words, he was +remarkably genial. He had a strong will, but his large good sense +prevented him from being obstinate. He was generous and hospitable, a +friend to the poor, a kind neighbor, and a high-souled, honorable +Christian gentleman. The grand old mansion that he built and lived in +has been a goodly residence in its day. Despite its somewhat faded +majesty, there is an air of dignity about the ancestral abode that is +not without its influence upon the visitor. It is a house that accords +well with the style of its former lords; you see that it is worthy of +the Badgers. The grounds about its solitary stateliness are like those +of the 'old English gentlemen.' The mansion stands well in from the +road; an avenue fourteen rods long and excellently shaded leads to the +entrance gate. There is an extensive lawn in front of the house, and a +row of ancient elms rise to guard, as it were, the tall building with +its hospitable portal in the middle, its large windows, and old, +moss-covered roof. The house faces the southwest, is two and a half +stories high, and forty-four by thirty-six feet on the ground. + +"As the door swings open we enter the hall, which is ten by sixteen +feet. On the left is the governor's sitting-room, which occupied the +southeast corner of the house, showing that Gov. Badger did not, like +Hamlet, dread to be too much 'i' the sun.' It is not a large room, only +twenty by sixteen feet, yet it looks stately. In this room the governor +passed many hours reading and entertaining his guests. In it is the +antique rocking-chair that was used by the governor on all occasions. A +large fire-place, with brass andirons and fender, is on one side, big +enough to take in half a cord of wood at a time. Near by it stood a +frame on which were heaped sticks of wood, awaiting, I suppose, the +first chilly evening. It must be a splendid sight to see those logs +blazing, and the firelight dancing on the old pictures and the mirror +and the weapons on the walls. + +"The most noticeable thing in the room is the paper upon the walls. It +was bought by the governor purposely for this room, and cost one hundred +dollars in gold. It is very thick, almost like strawboard, and is +fancifully illustrated with all sorts of pictures--landscapes, marine +views, court scenes, and other pageants. It will afford one infinite +amusement to study the various figures. On one side is a nautical scene. +An old-fashioned galleon, such a one as Kidd the pirate would have liked +to run afoul of, is being unloaded by a group of negroes. Swarthy +mariners, clad in the Spanish costume of the seventeenth century,--long, +sausage-shaped hose, with breeches pinned up like pudding bags and +fringed at the bottom, boots with wide, voluminous tops, buff coats with +sleeves slashed in front, and broad-brimmed Flemish beaver hats, with +rich hat-bands and plumes of feathers--are watching the unlading, and an +old Turk stands near by, complaisant and serene, smoking his pipe. On +the opposite wall there is a grand old castle, with towers and spires +and battlements. In the foreground is a fountain, and a group of +gallants and ladies are promenading the lawn. One lady, lovely and +coquettish, leans on the arm of a cavalier, and is seemingly engrossed +by his conversation, and yet she slyly holds forth behind her a folded +letter in her fair white hand which is being eagerly grasped by another +gallant--like a scene from the _Decameron_. In the corner a comely +maiden in a trim bodice, succinct petticoat and plaided hose, stands +below a tall tree, and a young lad among the branches is letting fall a +nest of young birds into her extended apron. The expression on the boy's +face in the tree and the spirited protest of the mother bird are very +graphically portrayed. + +"The loveliest scene of all is that of a bay sweeping far into the land; +boats and ships are upon the tide; on the shore, rising from the very +water's edge, is a fairy-like, palatial structure, with machicolated +battlements, that reminds one of the enchanted castle of Armida. Under +the castle walls is assembled a gay company. A cavalier, after the +Vandyke style, is playing with might and main upon a guitar, and a +graceful, full-bosomed, lithe-limbed Dulcinea is dancing to the music in +company with a gaily dressed gallant. It is the Spanish fandango. +Another scene is a charming land and water view with no prominent +figures in it. + +"Upon the mantel are several curiosities, notably a fragment of the +rock on which Rev. Samuel Hidden was ordained at Tamworth, September 12, +1792, several silhouettes of the various members of the Badger family, +and the silver candlesticks, tray and snuffers used by Mrs. Governor +Badger. Suspended above, upon the wall, are a pair of horse pistols, a +dress sword and a pair of spurs. These were the Governor's, which were +used by him in the war of 1812, and also when he was sheriff of the +county. The sword has quite a romantic history. It was formerly General +Joseph Badger's, who obtained it in the following manner: When a +lieutenant in the army, near Crown Point and Lake Champlain, just after +the retreat from Canada, in 1777, Badger undertook, at the desire of +General Gates, to obtain a British prisoner. With three picked men he +started for the British camp at St. John's. Arriving in the +neighborhood, he found a large number of the officers enjoying +themselves at a ball given by the villagers. One of the Britons, in full +ball dress, they were fortunate enough to secure, and took him to their +boat. Badger then changed clothes with the officer, returned to the +ball, danced with the ladies, hobnobbed with the officers, and gained +much valuable information as to the movements of the British army. +Before morning light he returned in safety with his prisoner to Crown +Point, where he received the commendations of the commanding general for +his bravery. The officer's sword he always kept, and is the same weapon +that now hangs on the wall." + +Mrs. Joseph Badger, whose husband was the oldest son of Governor +William Badger (both, alas! now dead), wrote most kindly to me about the +wall-paper, and sent me a picture of it. And she said: "The homestead +was built in 1825 by Ex-Gov. William Badger, and the paper you inquire +about was hung that year. He was at Portsmouth, N. H., attending court, +and seeing this paper in a store, liked it very much, and ordered enough +to paper the sitting-room, costing fifty dollars. He did not have enough +money with him to pay for it, but they allowed him to take it home, and +he sent the money back by the stage driver, who laid it down on the seat +where he drove, and the wind blew it away, never to be found, so he had +to pay fifty dollars more; at least, so says tradition. The paper is +quite a dark brown, and is in a good state of preservation and looks as +though it might last one hundred years longer." + +In a valuable book, entitled _Some Colonial Mansions and Those Who Lived +in Them_, edited by Thomas Allen Glennand, and published in 1898, is a +picture of the wall-paper at the Manor House, on page 157 of Volume I, +in the chapter which relates to the Patroonship of the Van Rensselaers +and the magnificent mansion. This was built in 1765, commenced and +finished (except the modern wings) by Stephen Van Rensselaer, whose wife +was the daughter of Philip Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of +Independence. + +"Seldom has a house a more splendid history, or romantic origin, than +this relic of feudal splendor and colonial hospitality. The house is +approached from the lodge-gate through an avenue shaded by rows of +ancient trees. The entrance hall is thirty-three feet wide, and is +decorated with the identical paper brought from Holland at the time the +house was built, having the appearance of old fresco-painting." + +The picture which follows this description is too small to be +satisfactorily studied without a magnifying glass, but the paper must be +impressive as a whole. Imposing pillars on the left, perhaps all that +remains of a grand castle; in front of them large blocks of stone with +sculptured men and horses; at the right of these a pensive, elegant +creature of the sterner sex gazing at a mammoth lion couchant on a +square pedestal. Beyond the lion, a picturesque pagoda on a high rock, +and five more human figures, evidently put in to add to the interest of +the foreground. This square is surrounded with a pretty wreath, bedecked +with flowers, birds and shells. + +On either side of the hall were apartments some thirty feet wide; the +great drawing-rooms, the state bed-room and the spacious library, in +which the bookcases of highly polished wood occupied at least seventy +feet of wall-space. All of the ceilings are lofty, and fine old wood +carvings abounded on every side. Mr. William Bayard Van Rensselaer of +Albany still possesses the handsome paper taken from one of these rooms, +with four large scenes representing the seasons. The house was +demolished only a few years ago. + +I notice that almost all these mansions had walls of wood, either plain +or paneled in broad or narrow panels, and simply painted with oil-paint +of pure white or a cream yellow; and a Southern gentleman, whose +ancestors lived in one of these historic homes, tells me that the +Southern matrons were great housekeepers, and these white wood walls +were thoroughly scrubbed at least three times yearly, from top to +bottom. + +In Part II of the history of the Carters of Virginia, we read that the +duties of Robert Carter as councillor brought him to Williamsburg for a +part of the year, and in 1761 he moved, with his family, from "Nomini +Hall" to the little Virginia capital, where he lived for eleven years. +We know, from the invoices sent to London, how the Councillor's home in +the city was furnished. The first parlor was bright with crimson-colored +paper; the second had hangings ornamented by large green leaves on a +white ground; and the third, the best parlor, was decorated with a finer +grade of paper, the ground blue, with large yellow flowers. A mirror was +to be four feet by six and a half, "the glass to be in many pieces, +agreeable to the present fashion," and there were marble hearth-slabs, +wrought-brass sconces and glass globes for candles, Wilton carpets and +other luxuries. The mantels and wainscoting were especially fine. + +The paper on the hall of Martin Van Buren's home at Kinderhook, New +York, is said to have been interesting; but the present owners have +destroyed it, being much annoyed by sightseers. + +In the reception room of the Manor House of Charles Carroll, of +Carrollton, Maryland, and in the state chamber, where Washington slept +(a frequent and welcome guest at Doughoregan Manor) were papers, both +with small floral patterns. + +In New York and Albany paper-hanging was an important business by 1750 +and the walls of the better houses were papered before the middle of the +century. But in the average house the walls were not papered in 1748. A +Swedish visitor says of the New York houses at that time, "The walls +were whitewashed within, and I did not anywhere see hangings, with which +the people in this country seem in general to be little acquainted. The +walls were quite covered with all sorts of drawings and pictures in +small frames." + + + + +V + +NOTES FROM HERE AND THERE + +[Illustration] + + + + +V + +NOTES FROM HERE AND THERE + + +The wall-papers of a century ago did have distinct ideas and earnest +meaning; a decided theme, perhaps taken from mythology, as the story of +Cupid and Psyche, on one of the most artistic of the early panelled +papers, to print which we read that fifteen hundred blocks were used. +There were twelve panels, each one showing a scene from the experiences +of the "Soul Maiden." + +You remember that Venus, in a fit of jealousy, ordered Cupid to inspire +Psyche with a love for the most contemptible of all men, but Cupid was +so stricken with her beauty that he himself fell in love with her. He +accordingly conveyed her to a charming spot and gave her a beautiful +palace where, unseen and unknown, he visited her every night, leaving +her as soon as the day began to dawn. Curiosity destroyed her happiness, +for her envious sisters made her believe that in the darkness of night +she was embracing some hideous monster. So once, when Cupid was asleep, +she drew near to him with a lamp and, to her amazement, beheld the most +handsome of the gods. In her excitement of joy and fear, a drop of hot +oil fell from her lamp upon his shoulder. This awoke Cupid, who censured +her for her distrust and escaped. Then came long tribulations and abuse +from Venus, until at last she became immortal, and was united to her +lover forever. As you know, Psyche represents the human soul, purified +by passions and misfortunes and thus prepared for the enjoyment of true +and pure happiness. + +From this accident, Ella Fuller Maitland has drawn for us-- + +A SPECIAL PLEADER + + "How I hate lamps," Bethia frowning cried, + (Our poverty electric light denied.) + And when to ask her reason I went on, + Promptly she answered thus my question: + "By lamplight was it that poor Psyche gazed + Upon her lover, and with joy amazed + Dropped from the horrid thing a little oil-- + Costing herself, so, years of pain and toil: + Had she electric light within her room, + She might have seen Love, yet escaped her doom." + +Another mythologic story is grandly depicted in a paper in the +residence of Dr. John Lovett Morse, at Taunton, Mass. (Plates LXV to +LXX.) This paper was described to me as illustrating the fifth book of +Virgil's _Æneid_. When the handsome photographs came, we tried to verify +them. But a reading of the entire _Æneid_ failed to identify any of +them, except that the one shown in Plate LXIX might be intended to +represent the Trojan women burning the ships of Æneas. Who were the two +personages leaping from the cliff? Virgil did not mention them. + +A paper in _Country Life in America_ for April, 1905, describing the +"Hermitage," Andrew Jackson's home near Nashville, Tennessee, spoke of +the "unique" paper on the lower hall, depicting the adventures of +Ulysses on the Island of Calypso. The illustration showed the same +scenes that we had been hunting for in Virgil. The caption stated that +it "was imported from Paris by Jackson. It pictures the story of Ulysses +at the Island of Calypso. There are four scenes, and in the last +Calypso's maidens burn the boat of Ulysses." + +So we turned to the _Odyssey_. There again we were disappointed. Nobody +jumps off cliffs in the _Odyssey_, Ulysses' boat is not burned, neither +does Cupid, who appeared in every photograph, figure in the scenes +between Ulysses and Calypso. + +Next we took to the mythologies; and in one we found a reference to +Fenelon's _Adventures of Telemachus_, which sends Telemachus and Mentor +to Calypso's island in search of Ulysses, and describes their escape +from the goddess's isles and wiles by leaping into the sea and swimming +to a vessel anchored near. Here at last were our two cliff jumpers! And +in long-forgotten _Telemachus_ was found every scene depicted on the +walls. + +It is a strange commentary on the intellectual indolence of the average +human mind, that these two remarkable sets of paper should so completely +have lost their identity, and that the misnomers given them by some +forgetful inhabitant should in each case have been accepted without +question by those who came after him. Other owners of this paper have +known what the scenes really were; for I have had "Telemachus paper" +reported, from Kennebunk, Maine, and from the home of Mr. Henry DeWitt +Freeland at Sutton, Massachusetts. The paper is evidently of French +origin, and is mentioned as a Parisian novelty by one of Balzac's +characters in _The Celibates_, the scene of which was laid about 1820. + +In the Freeland house at Sutton, there are also some scenes from +Napoleon's campaign in Egypt. An inscription reads, "Le 20 mars, 1800, +100,000 Francais commandu par le brave Kleber ont vancu 200,000 Turcs, +dans le plaines de l'Heliopili." + +Among the historical papers, we have "Mourning at the Tomb of +Washington," and Lord Cornwallis presenting his sword to Washington. The +former was a melancholy repetition of columns and arches, each framing a +monument labelled "Sacred to Washington," surmounted by an urn and +disconsolate eagle, and supported on either side by Liberty and Justice +mourning. Crossed arms and flags in the foreground, and a circular iron +fence about the monument completed the picture, which was repeated in +straight rows, making with its somber gray and black the most funereal +hall and stairway imaginable. + +Papers representing places with truthful details were numerous and +popular, as "The Bay of Naples," "The Alhambra," "Gallipoli," "On the +Bosporus." A striking paper represents the River Seine at Paris. This +paper has a brilliant coloring and the scenes are carried entirely round +the room; nearly all the principal buildings in Paris are seen. On one +side of the room you will notice the Column Vendôme, which shows that +the paper was made after 1806. The horses in the arch of the Carousel +are still in place. As these were sent back to Venice in 1814, the paper +must have been made between these dates. + +On the walls of a house in Federal Street, which was once occupied by H. +K. Oliver, who wrote the hymn called "Federal Street," is the River +Seine paper with important public buildings of Paris along its bank; +several other houses have this same paper, and half a dozen duplicates +have been sent me from various parts of New England. + +I have heard of a paper at Sag Harbor, Long Island, in which old New +York scenes were pictured, but of this I have not been fortunate enough +to secure photographs. + +Certain towns and their neighborhoods are particularly rich in +interesting old papers, and Salem, Massachusetts, certainly deserves +honorable mention at the head of the list. That place can show more than +a score of very old papers in perfect condition to-day, and several +houses have modern paper on the walls that was copied from the original +paper. + +One old house there was formerly owned by a retired merchant, and he had +the entire ceiling of the large cupola painted to show his wharves and +his ships that sailed from this port for foreign lands. + +Another fine house has a water color painting on the walls, done to look +like paper; this is one hundred and seventy-five years old. + +A curious paper is supposed to be an attempt to honor the first +railroad. This is in bright colors, with lower panels in common gray +tints. The friend who obtained this for me suggests that the artist did +not know how to draw a train of cars, and so filled up the space +ingeniously with a big bowlder. This is on the walls of a modest little +house, and one wonders that an expensive landscape paper should be on +the room. But the owner of the house was an expressman and was long +employed by Salemites to carry valuable bundles back and forth from +Boston. A wealthy man who resided in Chestnut Street was having his +house papered during the rage for landscape papers, and this person +carried the papers down from Boston so carefully that the gentleman +presented him with a landscape paper of his own, as a reward for his +interest. Now the mansion has long since parted with its foreign +landscapes, but such care was taken of the humble parlor that its paper +is still intact and handsome; it is more than seventy-five years old. + +A fine French paper shows a fruit garden, probably the Tuileries, in +grays and blues. The frieze at the top is of white flowers in arches +with blue sky between the arches. This room was papered for Mrs. Story, +the mother of Judge Story, in 1818. + +In the Osgood house in Essex Street there is a most beautiful paper, +imported from Antwerp in the early part of the nineteenth century, +depicting a hunting scene. The hunt is centered about the hall and the +game is run down and slain in the last sheet. A balustrade is at the +foot of the picture. The color is brown sepia shades. + +One neat little house, in an out-of-the-way corner in Marblehead, has a +French paper in gray, white and black, which was brought from France by +a Marblehead man who was captured by a French privateer and lived in +France many years. When he returned, he brought this with him. It shows +scenes in the life of the French soldiers. They are drinking at inns, +flirting with pretty girls, but never fighting. Another paper has +tropical plants, elephants, natives adorned with little else but +feathers and beads. The careful mother will not allow any of the +children to go alone into this room for fear they may injure it. + +In a Chinese paper, one piece represents a funeral, and the horse with +its trappings is being led along without a rider; women and children are +gazing at the procession from pagodas. + +On the walls of the Johnson house in North Andover is a Marie Antoinette +paper, imported from England. I have heard of only this one example of +this subject. A number of homes had painted walls, with pictures that +imitated the imported landscapes. + +At the Art Museum, Boston, one may see many specimens of old paper +brought to this country before 1820, and up to 1860. A spirited scene is +deer stalking in the Scotch Highlands; the deer is seen in the distance, +one sportsman on his knees taking aim, another holding back an excited +dog. In another hunting paper, the riders are leaping fences. A pretty +Italian paper has peasants dancing and gathering grapes; vines are +trained over a pergola, and a border of purple grapes and green leaves +surrounds each section of the paper. A curious one is "Little Inns," +with signs over the doors, as "Good Ale sold here," or "Traveler's +Rest"; all are dancing or drinking, the colors are gay. There are also +specimens of fireboards, for which special patterns were made, usually +quite ornate and striking. + +When a daughter of Sir William Pepperell married Nathaniel Sparhawk, he +had a paper specially made, with the fair lady and her happy lover as +the principal figures, and a hawk sitting on a spar. This paper is still +to be seen in the Sparhawk house at Kittery Point, Maine. + +Portsmouth is rich in treasures, but a member of one of the best +families there tells me it is very hard to get access to these mansions. +Curiosity seekers have committed so many atrocities, in the way of +stealing souvenirs, that visitors are looked upon with suspicion. + +A house built in 1812 at Sackett's Harbor, New York, has a contemporary +paper with scenes which are Chinese in character, but the buildings have +tall flag staffs which seem to be East Indian. + +Near Hoosic Falls, New York, there used to be a house whose paper showed +Captain Cook's adventures. The scenes were in oval medallions, +surrounded and connected by foliage. Different events of the Captain's +life were pictured, including the cannibals' feast, of which he was the +involuntary central figure. This paper has been destroyed, and I have +sought in vain for photographs of it. But I have seen some chintz of the +same pattern, in the possession of Miss Edith Morgan of Aurora, New +York, which was saved from her grandfather's house at Albany when it was +burned in 1790. So the paper is undoubtedly of the eighteenth century. +Think of a nervous invalid being obliged to gaze, day after day, upon +the savages gnawing human joints and gluttonizing over a fat sirloin! + +The adventures of Robinson Crusoe were depicted on several houses, and +even Mother Goose was immortalized in the same way. + +The managers of a "Retreat" for the harmlessly insane were obliged +first to veil with lace a figure paper, and finally to remove it from +the walls, it was so exciting and annoying to the occupants of the room. +This recalls the weird and distressing story by Elia W. Peattie, _The +Yellow Wall-Paper_. Its fantastic designs drove a poor wife to suicide. +Ugh! I can see her now, crawling around the room which was her prison. + +I advise any one, who is blessed or cursed with a lively imagination, to +study a paper closely several times before purchasing, lest some demon +with a malignant grin, or a black cat, or some equally exasperating face +or design escape notice until too late. I once had a new paper removed +because the innocent looking pattern, in time of sleepless anxiety, +developed a savage's face with staring eyes, a flat nose, the grossest +lips half open, the tongue protruding, and large round ear-rings in ears +that looked like horns! This, repeated all round my sick room, was +unendurable. + +But the old time papers are almost uniformly inspiring or amusing. What +I most enjoy are my two papers which used to cover the huge band-boxes +of two ancient dames, in which they kept their Leghorn pokes, calashes, +and quilted "Pumpkin" hoods. One has a ground of Colonial yellow, on +which is a stage-coach drawn by prancing steeds, driver on the top, whip +in hand, and two passengers seen at the windows. A tavern with a rude +swinging sign is in the background. The cover has a tropical scene--two +Arabs with a giraffe. The other band-box has a fire engine and members +of the "hose company," or whatever they called themselves, fighting a +fire. + +Papers with Biblical themes were quite common. In the fascinating +biography of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, I find a detailed account of +one. She says: + +"When we reached Schenectady, the first city we children had ever seen, +we stopped to dine at the old 'Given's Hotel,' where we broke loose from +all the moorings of propriety on beholding the paper on the dining-room +wall illustrating, in brilliant colors, some of the great events in +sacred history. There were the patriarchs with flowing beards and in +gorgeous attire; Abraham, offering up Isaac; Joseph, with his coat of +many colors, thrown into a pit by his brethren; Noah's Ark on an ocean +of waters; Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea; Rebecca at the well; and +Moses in the bulrushes. + +"All these distinguished personages were familiar to us, and to see them +here for the first time in living colors made silence and eating +impossible. We dashed around the room, calling to each other: 'O, Kate, +look here!' 'O, Madge, look there!' 'See little Moses!' 'See the angels +on Jacob's ladder!' + +"Our exclamations could not be kept within bounds. The guests were +amused beyond description, while my mother and elder sisters were +equally mortified; but Mr. Bayard, who appreciated our childish surprise +and delight, smiled and said: 'I'll take them around and show them the +pictures, and then they will be able to dine,' which we finally did." + +Inns often indulge in striking papers. A famous series of hunting +scenes, called "The Eldorado," is now seen in several large hotels; it +has recently been put on in the Parker House, Boston. It was the joint +work of two Alsatian artists, Ehrmann and Zipelius, and was printed from +about two thousand blocks. The Zuber family in Alsace has manufactured +this spirited panel paper for over fifty years; it has proved as +profitable as a gold mine and is constantly called for; I was shown a +photograph of the descendants of the owner and a large crowd of workmen +gathered to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the firm, which was +established in 1797. + +An old inn at Groton, Massachusetts, was mentioned as having curious +papers, but they proved to be modern. The walls, I hear, were originally +painted with landscapes. This was an earlier style than scenic +papers--akin to frescoing. A friend writes me: + +"The odd papers now on the walls of Groton Inn have the appearance of +being ancient, although the oldest is but thirty years old. Two of them +are not even reproductions, as the one in the hall depicts the Paris +Exposition of 1876, and that in the office gives scenes from the life of +Buffalo Bill. + +"The Exposition has the principal buildings in the background, with a +fountain, and a long flight of steps in front leading to a street that +curves round until it meets the same scene again. Persons of many +nations, in characteristic dress, promenade the street. Pagodas and +other unique buildings are dotted here and there. The entire scene is +surrounded with a kind of frame of grasses and leaves, in somewhat of a +Louis Quinze shape. Each one of these scenes has 'Paris Exposition, +1876,' printed on it, like a quack advertisement on a rock. + +"The Wild West scenes include the log cabin, the stage coach held up, +the wild riding, and the throwing of the lasso. + +"The paper on the dining-room may be a reproduction. It looks like +Holland, although there are no windmills. But the canal is there with +boats and horses, other horses drinking, and men fishing; also a Dutchy +house with a bench outside the door. This paper looks as if it had been +put on the walls a hundred years ago, but in reality it is the most +recent of the three. The date of the beginning of the Inn itself is lost +in the dim past, but we know it is more than two hundred years old. +Tradition has it that there were originally but two rooms which were +occupied by the minister." + +When some one writes on our early inns, as has been done so charmingly +for those of England, I prophecy that the queer papers of the long ago +will receive enthusiastic attention. + +Towns near a port, or an island like Nantucket, are sure to have fine +old papers to show. A Nantucket woman, visiting the Art Museum in Boston +some dozen years since, noticed an old paper there which was highly +valued. Remembering that she had a roll of the very same style in her +attic, she went home delighted, and proudly exhibited her specimen, +which was, I believe, the motive power which started the Nantucket +Historical Society. I was presented with a piece of the paper--a +hand-painted design with two alternating pictures; an imposing castle +embowered in greenery, its towers and spires stretching far into the +sky, and below, an ornate bridge, with a score of steps at the left, and +below that the pale blue water. Engrossed lovers and flirtatious couples +are not absent. + +"A Peep at the Moon" comes from Nantucket. It reveals fully as much as +our life-long students of that dead planet have been able to show us, +and the inhabitants are as probable as any described as existing on +Mars. At Duxbury, Massachusetts, there are still two much-talked-of +papers, in what is called the "Weston House"--now occupied by the Powder +Point School. Mrs. Ezra Weston was a Bradford, and the story is that +this paper was brought from Paris by her brother, Captain Gershom +Bradford. There is a continuous scene around the room, apparently from +the environs of Paris. Upstairs, a small room is papered with the +remains of the "Pizarro" paper, which was formerly in the sitting-room +opposite the parlor. This has tropical settings and shows the same +characters in more or less distinct scenes about the wall. The paper was +so strong that it was taken off the sitting-room in complete strips and +is now on a small upper chamber. + +A stranger, who had heard of my collection, sent a beautiful photograph +with this glowing description: + +"This wall-paper looks Oriental; it is gilt. Arabs are leading camels, +while horses are prancing proudly with their masters in the saddle as +the crescent moon is fast sinking to rest in a cloudless sky. Fountains +are playing outside of the portal entrance to a building of Saracenic +architecture, a quiet, restful scene, decidedly rich and impressive." + +Thomas Bailey Aldrich, in his _Story of a Bad Boy_, describes his +grandfather's old home--the Nutter House at Rivermouth, he calls it, but +he doubtless has in mind some house at Portsmouth, his birthplace. + +"On each side of the hall are doors (whose knobs, it must be confessed, +do not turn very easily), opening into large rooms wainscoted and rich +in wood-carvings about the mantel-pieces and cornices. The walls are +covered with pictured paper, representing landscapes and sea-views. In +the parlor, for example, this enlivening group is repeated all over the +room:--A group of English peasants, wearing Italian hats, are dancing on +a lawn that abruptly resolves itself into a sea-beach, upon which stands +a flabby fisherman (nationality unknown), quietly hauling in what +appears to be a small whale, and totally regardless of the dreadful +naval combat going on just beyond the end of his fishing-rod. On the +other side of the ships is the main-land again, with the same peasants +dancing. Our ancestors were very worthy people, but their wall-papers +were abominable." + +With the paper on the little hall chamber which was the Bad Boy's own, +he was quite satisfied, as any healthy-minded boy should have been: + +"I had never had a chamber all to myself before, and this one, about +twice the size of our state-room on board the Typhoon, was a marvel of +neatness and comfort. Pretty chintz curtains hung at the window, and a +patch quilt of more colors than were in Joseph's coat covered the little +truckle-bed. The pattern of the wall-paper left nothing to be desired in +that line. On a gray background were small bunches of leaves, unlike any +that ever grew in this world; and on every other bunch perched a +yellow-bird, pitted with crimson spots, as if it had just recovered from +a severe attack of the small-pox. That no such bird ever existed did not +detract from my admiration of each one. There were two hundred and +sixty-eight of these birds in all, not counting those split in two where +the paper was badly joined. I counted them once when I was laid up with +a fine black eye, and falling asleep immediately dreamed that the whole +flock suddenly took wing and flew out of the window. From that time I +was never able to regard them as merely inanimate objects." + +One of the most spirited papers I have seen is a series of horse-racing +scenes which once adorned the walls of the eccentric Timothy Dexter. +Fragments of this paper are still preserved, framed, by Mr. T. E. +Proctor of Topsfield, Mass. The drawing makes up in spirit what it lacks +in accuracy, and the coloring leaves nothing to the imagination. The +grass and sky are as green and blue as grass and sky can be, and the +jockeys' colors could be distinguished from the most distant +grand-stand. + +This paper is a memento of the remarkable house of a remarkable +man--Timothy Dexter, an eighteenth century leather merchant of +Massachusetts, whose earnings, invested through advice conveyed to him +in dreams, brought him a fortune. With this he was able to gratify his +unique tastes in material luxuries. His house at Newburyport was filled +with preposterous French furniture and second-rate paintings. On the +roof were minarets decorated with a profusion of gold balls. In front of +the house he placed rows of columns, some fifteen feet in height, +surmounted by heroic wooden figures of famous men. As his taste in great +men changed he would have the attire and features of some statue +modified, so that General Morgan might one day find himself posing as +Bonaparte. On a Roman circle before the entrance stood his permanent +hero, Washington, supported on the left by Jefferson, on the right by +Adams, who was obliged to stand uncovered in all weathers, to suit +Timothy's ideas of the respect due to General Washington. Four roaring +wooden lions guarded this Pantheon, and the figures were still standing +when the great gale of 1815 visited Newburyport. Then the majority fell. +The rest were sold for a song, and were scattered, serving as weather +vanes and tavern signs. + +Timothy Dexter wrote one book, which is now deservedly rare. This was _A +Pickle for the Knowing Ones_, of which he published at least two +editions. In this book he spoke his mind on all subjects; his +biographer, Samuel L. Knapp, calls it "a Galamathus of all the saws, +shreds, and patches that ever entered the head of a motley fool, with +items of his own history and family difficulties." His vanity, literary +style and orthography may be seen in his assertion: "Ime the first Lord +in the Younited States of Amercary, now of Newburyport. It is the voice +of the peopel and I cant Help it." To the second edition of his _Pickle_ +he appended this paragraph: "Mister Printer the knowing ones complane of +my book the first edition had no stops I put in A Nuf here and they may +peper and solt it as they plese." A collection of quotation marks, or +"stops" followed. + +"Lord Dexter," as he called himself and was called by one Jonathan +Plummer, a parasitic versifier who chanted doggerel in his praise, was a +picturesque character enough, and we are glad to have his memory kept +green by these few remaining bits of paper from his walls. + +[Illustration] + + + + +VI + +REVIVAL AND RESTORATION OF OLD PAPERS + +[Illustration] + + + + +VI + +REVIVAL AND RESTORATION OF OLD PAPERS + + +It was in 1880 that Clarence Cook said: "One can hardly estimate the +courage it would take to own that one liked an old-fashioned paper." How +strange that sounds now, in 1905, when all the best manufacturers and +sellers of wall-papers are reproducing the very old designs, for which +they find a ready sale among the most fastidious searchers for the +beautiful. One noted importer writes me: + +"Yes, old time wall-papers are being revived, and no concern is taking +more interest in the matter than ourselves. Many old designs, which had +not been printed for thirty or forty years, have been taken up by us and +done in colors to suit the taste of the period, and we find that few of +the new drawings excel or even approach the old ones in interest. + +"The glazed chintzes of the present day are all done over old blocks +which had remained unused for half a century, and those very interesting +fabrics are in the original colorings, it having been found that any new +schemes of color do not seem to work so well." + +Sending recently to a leading Boston paper store for samples for my +dining-room, and expressing no desire for old patterns, I received a +reproduction of the paper on the hall of the old Longfellow house at +Portland, Maine, and a design of small medallions of the real antique +kind,--a shepherdess with her sheep and, at a little distance, a stiff +looking cottage, presumably her abode, set on a shiny white ground +marked with tiny tiles. + +In fact, there is a general revival of these old designs, the original +blocks often being used for re-printing. Go to any large store in any +city to-day, where wall-papers are sold, and chintzes and cretonnes for +the finest effects in upholstery. You will be shown, first, +old-fashioned landscape papers; botanically impossible, but cheerful +baskets of fruits and flowers; or panels, with a pretty rococo effect of +fairy-like garlands of roses swung back and forth across the openwork of +the frame at each side, and suspended in garlands at top and bottom +after French modes of the Louis XIV., XV. or XVI. periods. They are even +reproducing the hand woven tapestries of Gobelin of Paris, during the +latter part of the reign of Louis XIV., when French art was at its +height. + +In London _Tit-Bits_, I recently found something apropos: "'Here,' said +a wall-paper manufacturer, 'are examples of what we call tapestry +papers. They are copied exactly from the finest Smyrna and Turkish rugs, +the colors and designs being reproduced with startling fidelity. We have +men ransacking all Europe, copying paintings and mural decorations of +past centuries. Here is the pattern of a very beautiful design of the +time of Louis XVI., which we obtained in rather a curious way. One of +our customers happened to be in Paris last summer, and being fond of +inspecting old mansions, he one day entered a tumble-down chateau, which +once belonged to a now dead and long forgotten Marquise. The rooms were +absolutely in a decaying condition, but in the salon the wall-paper +still hung, though in ribbons. The pattern was so exquisite in design, +and the coloring, vivid still in many places, so harmonious, that he +collected as many portions as he could and sent them to us to reproduce +as perfectly as possible. + +"We succeeded beyond his best hopes, and the actual paper is now hanging +on the walls of a West End mansion. We only manufactured sufficient to +cover the ball-room, and it cost him two pounds a yard, but he never +grumbled, and it was not dear, considering the difficulty we had." + +An article in the _Artist_ of London, September, 1898, by Lindsay P. +Butterfield, describes a wonderful find of old paper and its +restoration: + +"Painted decoration, whether by hand or stencil, was, no doubt, the +immediate forerunner of paper hangings. The earliest reference to paper +hangings in this country is to be found in the inventory taken at 'the +monasterye of S. Syxborough in the Ile of Shepey, in the Countie of +Kent, by Syr Thomas Cheney, Syr William Hawle, Knyghts and Antony +Slewtheger, Esquyer, the XXVII day of Marche, in XXVII the yeare of our +Soveraigne Lorde, Kyng Henrye the VIII, of the goods and catall +belongyng to sayde Monastery.' + +"In this very interesting document, a minutely descriptive list of the +ornaments, furniture and fittings of the nuns' chambers is given. We +find from this that, in place of the 'paynted clothes for the hangings +of the chamber,' mentioned in most of the entries, under the heading of +Dame Margaret Somebody's chamber is set down 'the chamber hangings of +painted papers.' + +"Wall-papers of Charles II.'s reign, and later, are still in existence; +those at Ightham Mote, Kent, are well known instances. + +"But so far as the writer is aware, the accompanying reproductions +represent the oldest wall-papers now existing in England. They were +found during the restoration of a fifteenth century timber-built house, +known as 'Borden Hall' or the 'Parsonage Farm,' in the village of +Borden, near Sittingbourne, Kent. + +"The design marked 'A' was discovered in small fragments when the +Georgian battening and wainscoats were removed in the first floor +bed-room of the east front, in the oldest part of the house. These +fragments showed that the tough paper had been originally nailed with +flat-headed nails to the dried clay 'daubing' or plaster, with which the +spaces between the timber uprights of the walls were filled in; the +timbers themselves were painted a dark blue-grey, and a border of the +same framed the strips of wall-paper. Owing to the walls having been +battened out nearly two centuries ago, these fragments of a really +striking design have been preserved to us. + +"The design of 'B' was also found on the first floor, in the rear +portion of the house. It had been pasted, in the modern manner, onto a +large plaster surface. The walls on which it was found had been +re-plastered over the original plastering and paper and thus the latter +was preserved in perfect condition. The design and quality of the paper, +and the mode of its attachment, point to a date of about 1650. 'A' is +probably of an earlier date (say 1550-1600) and is very thick and tough. +The ornament is painted in black on a rich vermilion ground, and the +flower forms are picked out in a bright turquoise blue. 'B' is much more +modern looking, both in texture and design, and in both is very inferior +to 'A.' + +"Its coloring is meagre compared with the other, the ornament being +printed in black on white paper, and the flower forms roughly dabbed +with vermilion. The character of the design in both cases seems +referable to Indian influence; possibly they were the work of an Indian +artist, and were cut as blocks for cotton printing, an impression being +taken off on paper and hung on the walls. The house is in course of +restoration under the superintendence of Mr. Philip M. Johnston, +architect, to whom I am indebted for some of the particulars above +given. To the owner of Borden Hall, Lewis Levy, Esq., I am also indebted +for permission to publish the designs which I have reproduced in +fac-simile from the original fragments. It is hoped shortly to hang the +walls in the old manner with the reproduced papers." + +I have copied from an 1859 edition of _Rambles about Portsmouth_, a +strange story of the restoration of frescoes in the old Warner house at +Portsmouth, New Hampshire: + +"At the head of the stairs, on the broad space each side of the hall +windows, there are pictures of two Indians, life size, highly decorated +and executed by a skillful artist. These pictures have always been on +view there, and are supposed to represent some Indian with whom the +original owner traded in furs, in which business he was engaged. In the +lower hall of the house are still displayed the enormous antlers of an +elk, a gift from these red men. + +"Not long since, the spacious front entry underwent repairs; there had +accumulated four coatings of paper. In one place, on removing the under +coating, the picture of a horse was discovered by a little girl. This +led to further investigation; the horse of life size was developed; a +little further work exhumed Governor Phipps on his charger. The process +of clearing the walls was now entered upon in earnest, as if delving in +the ruins of Pompeii. + +"The next discovery was that of a lady at a spinning wheel (ladies span +in those days!) who seems interrupted in her work by a hawk lighting +among the chickens. + +"Then came a Scripture scene; Abraham offering up Isaac; the angel, the +ram, and so on. There is a distant city scene, and other sketches on the +walls, covering perhaps four or five hundred square feet. The walls have +been carefully cleaned, and the whole paintings, evidently the work of +some clever artist, are now presented in their original beauty. + +"No person living had any knowledge of the hidden paintings; they were +as novel to an old lady of eighty, who had been familiar with the house +from her childhood, as to her grand-daughter who discovered the horse's +foot. The rooms are furnished with panelled walls and the old Dutch +tiles still decorate the fire-place." + +It is gratifying to note that as these old frescoes and wall-papers are +ruthlessly destroyed by those unaware of their value (which will +constantly increase), there are those who insist on their preservation +and reproduction. President Tucker of Dartmouth College, for instance, +has forbidden the removal of the Bay of Naples landscape from the walls +of what was formerly the library of Professor Sanborn at Hanover, New +Hampshire. The house is now used as a dormitory, but that paper is +treated with decided reverence. + +Reproduction of a fine paper worn, soiled and torn is an expensive +matter, but those who realize their beauty order them if the price per +roll is six or ten dollars. One of the most delightful papers of the +present season is one copied from a French paper originally on the walls +of a Salem house and known to have been there for over one hundred +years. It is charming in design, with landscapes and flowers, +twenty-eight different colors in all, and that means much when it is +understood that every color must be printed from a different block when +the paper is made. + +The paper is brilliant in effect, with many bright colored flowers, pink +hollyhocks in a warm rose shade, purple morning glories, some blue +blossoms and two different water scenes set deep into the mass of +flowers, the scenes themselves of delicate tones and wonderful +perspective. The original paper was in pieces twenty inches wide by +twenty-eight long, which shows it to be very old. This reproduction will +be seen on the walls in houses of Colonial style in Newport this summer. + +Yes, summer tourists are looking up old walls to gaze at with +admiration. Many have found a Mecca in the Cleasby Place at Waterford, +Vermont. Hardly a summer Sunday passes without a wagon load of persons +going from Littleton towards the Connecticut River on a pilgrimage to +Waterford and the Cleasby House. This house is said to be one of only +three in New England which possess a certain wonderful old paper of +strange design. The paper, a combination of brown and cream, bears +scenes that evidently found their origin in foreign countries, but there +are diverse opinions as to the nation whose characteristics are thereon +depicted so realistically. An old house at Rockville, Massachusetts, +still boasts this same paper, while the third example is on the walls of +the Badger homestead, described on page 77. Plates XLVIII to L give +scenes from these papers. + +The Cleasby house was regarded, in the olden times, as the great mansion +in this locality. There was nothing finer than the residence in any of +the surrounding towns. The structure was erected by Henry Oakes, an +old-time settler in Northern Vermont, whose relatives still reside near +by. The paper was put on at the time the house was built and cost one +hundred dollars. A paper-hanger came up from Boston to put it on +properly, and this cost the owner an extra forty dollar check. In those +days, the coming of a paper-hanger from Boston was regarded quite in the +light of an event, and a hundred dollars expended for wall-paper stamped +a man as a capitalist. + +The house is still well preserved and shows no suggestion of being a +ruin, although approaching the century mark. The present owner has been +offered a large sum for this beautiful old paper, but wisely prefers to +hold her treasure. + +Paper-hangers to-day are returning, in some cases, to the hand-printing +of fine papers, because they insist that there are some advantages in +the old method to compensate for the extra work. To go back a bit, the +earliest method of coloring paper hangings was by stencilling. A piece +of pasteboard, with the pattern cut out on it, was laid on the paper, +and water colors were freely applied with a brush to the back of the +pasteboard, so that the colors came through the openings and formed the +pattern on the paper. This process was repeated several times for the +different colors and involved a great expenditure of labor. It was +replaced by the method of calico-printing, which is now generally used +in the manufacture of wall-paper, that is, by blocks and later by +rollers. And why, you naturally ask, this return to the slow and +laborious way? + +Mr. Rottman, of the London firm of Alexander Rottman & Co., a high +authority on this theme, in an able lecture given at his studio in +London, explains the reasons in a way so clear that any one can +understand. He says: + +"In an age where needles are threaded by machinery at the rate of nearly +one per second; where embroideries are produced by a machine process +which reverses the old method in moving the cloth up to fixed needles; +where Sunlight Soap is shaped, cut, boxed, packed into cases, nailed up, +labelled, and even sent to the lighters by machinery, so that hand +labour is almost entirely superseded; it seems odd and, in fact, quite +out of date and uncommercial to print wall-papers entirely by hand +process. + +"The up-to-date wall-paper machine turns out most wonderful +productions. It is able to imitate almost any fabric; tapestries, +Gobelins, laces, and even tries to copy artistic stencilling in gradated +tints. It manages to deceive the inartistic buyer to a large extent, in +fact, there is hardly any fabric that the modern demand for 'sham' does +not expect the wall-paper machine to imitate. + +"However, in spite of all these so-called achievements, the modest +hand-printing table that existed at the time of wigs and snuff-boxes is +still surviving more or less in its old-fashioned simple construction. +And why is this so?" He then explains why a hand-printed paper is always +preferred to a machine paper by the person of taste, whose purse is not +too slender. Seven reasons are given for their artistic superiority. + +"1. Machine papers can be printed in thin colours only, which means a +thin, loose colour effect. + +"2. In machine papers the whole of the various colours are printed at +one operation, one on the top of another. In hand-printed papers, no +colours touch each other until dry, and so each colour remains pure. + +"3. Large surfaces, such as big leaves, large flat flowers, broad +stripes that have to be printed in one colour, are never successful in +machines, wanting solidity of colour. Hand-printed papers run no such +risk. + +"4. The machine limits the variety of papers to the flat kind; to flat +surfaces supplied by the paper mills in reels. + +"5. Flaws, irregularities, and so on, when occurring in machine goods, +run through many yards, owing to the necessary rapidity of printing, and +the difficulty of stopping the machine; whilst every block repeat of +pattern in the hand-printed goods is at once visible to the printer, who +rectifies any defect before printing another impression, and so controls +every yard. + +"6. The hand-printed papers, being printed from wood blocks (only dots +and thin lines subject to injury being inserted in brass) show more +softness in the printing than papers printed from machine rollers that +have to be made in brass. + +"7. The preparation of getting the machine colours in position, and +setting the machine ready for printing, necessitates the turning out of +at least a ream, or a half ream (five hundred or two hundred and fifty +rolls) at once; whilst the equivalent in hand-printing is fifty to sixty +rolls. It often happens that the design of a machine paper is approved +of, whilst the colourings it is printed in are unsuited to the scheme. +By the hand process, room quantities of even ten to fifteen pieces can +be printed specially at from 15 per cent. to 20 per cent. advance in +price, while the increase in cost for such a small quantity in machine +paper would send up the price to ridiculous proportions." + +The use of brass pins in the wood blocks is also a revival of the old +method, as you will see from this interesting paragraph from a recent +volume--Lewis F. Day's _Ornament and Its Application_: + +"Full and crowded pattern has its uses. The comparatively fussy detail, +which demeans a fine material, helps to redeem a mean one. + +"Printed wall-paper, for example, or common calico, wants detail to +give it a richness which, in itself, it has not. In printed cotton, flat +colours look dead and lifeless. The old cotton printers had what they +called a 'pruning roller,' a wooden roller (for hand-printing) into +which brass pins or wires were driven. The dots printed from this roller +relieved the flatness of the printed colours, and gave 'texture' to it. +William Morris adopted this idea of dotting in his cretonne and +wall-paper design with admirable effect. It became, in his hands, an +admirable convention, in place of natural shading. The interest of a +pattern is enhanced by the occurrence at intervals of appropriate +figures; but with every recurrence of the same figure, human or animal, +its charm is lessened until, at last, the obvious iteration becomes, in +most cases, exasperating. + +"And yet, in the face of old Byzantine, Sicilian, and other early woven +patterns with their recurring animals, and of Mr. Crane's consummately +ornamental patterns, it cannot be said that repeated animal (and even +human) forms do not make satisfactory pattern. + +"For an illustration of this, look at the wall-paper design by Crane: +'This is the House that Jack built.' It seems, at first glance, to be a +complicated ornamental design; after long searching, you at last see +plainly every one of the characters in that jingle that children so +love." + +William Morris, and his interest in wall-paper hanging, must be spoken +of, "For it was Morris who made this a truly valuable branch of domestic +ornamentation. If, in some other instances, he was rather the restorer +and infuser of fresh life into arts fallen into degeneracy, he was +nothing short of a creator in the case of wall-paper design, which, as a +serious decorative art, owes its existence to him before anyone else." + +In his lecture on _The Lesser Arts of Life_, he insisted on the +importance of paying due regard to the artistic treatment of our wall +spaces. "Whatever you have in your rooms, think first of the walls, for +they are that which makes your house and home; and, if you don't make +some sacrifice in their favor, you will find your chambers have a sort +of makeshift, lodging-house look about them, however rich and handsome +your movables may be." + +A collector is always under a spell; hypnotized, bewitched, possibly +absurdly engrossed and unduly partial to his own special hobby, and to +uninterested spectators, no doubt seems a trifle unbalanced, whether his +specialty be the fossilized skeleton of an antediluvian mammoth or a +tiny moth in a South American jungle. + +I am not laboring under the exhilarating but erroneous impression that +there is any widespread and absorbing interest in this theme. As the +distinguished jurist, Mr. Adrian H. Joline, says, "Few there are who +cling with affection to the memory of the old fashioned. Most of us +prefer to spin with the world down the ringing grooves of change, to +borrow the shadow of a phrase which has of itself become old-fashioned." +Yet, as Mr. Webster said of Dartmouth, when he was hard pressed: "It is +a little college, but there are those who love it." + +Besides, everything--Literature, Art and even fashions in dress and +decorations,--while seeming to progress really go in waves. We are now +wearing the bonnets, gowns and mantles of the 1830 style and much +earlier. Fabulous and fancy prices are gladly given for antique +furniture; high boys, low boys, hundred-legged tables, massive four-post +bedsteads, banjo clocks, and crystal chandeliers. + +Those able to do it are setting tapestries into their stately walls, +hangings of rich brocades and silk are again in vogue and the old +designs for wall-paper are being hunted up all through Europe and this +country. Some also adopt a colored wash for their bed-room walls, and +cover their halls with burlap or canvas, while the skins of wild animals +adorn city dens as well as the mountain lodge or the seaside bungalow. +So we have completed the circle. + +The unco rich of to-day give fabulous sums for crystal candelabra, or +museum specimens of drawing room furniture; and collectors, whether +experts or amateurs, and beginners just infected with the microbe are +searching for hidden treasures of china, silver and glass. + +Why should the Old Time Wall-Papers alone be left unchronicled and +forgotten? In them the educated in such matters read the progress of the +Art; some of them are more beautiful than many modern paintings; the +same patterns are being admired and brought out; the papers themselves +will soon all be removed. + +Hawthorne believed that the furniture of a room was magnetized by those +who occupied it; a modern psychologist declares that even a rag doll +dearly loved by a child becomes something more than a purely inanimate +object. We should certainly honor the wall-papers brought over the seas +from various countries at great expense to beautify the Homes of our +Ancestors. + +[Illustration] + + + + +PUBLISHER'S NOTE. + + +_The wall-papers reproduced in the following plates were in many cases +faded, water-stained and torn, when photographed. Many of the +photographs are amateur work; some are badly focused and composed, some +taken in small rooms and under unfavorable conditions of light. The +reader will bear this in mind in judging the papers themselves and the +present reproductions._ + + +_PLATE VII_ + + +_PLATE VIII_ + + +PLATE VII. + +The Bayeux Tapestry. + + + The oldest tapestry now in existence, dating from the time of + William the Conqueror, and apparently of English workmanship. The + set of pieces fits the nave of the Cathedral of Bayeux, measuring + 231 feet long and 20 inches wide. Now preserved in the Bayeux + Library. + + The subjects are drawn from English history; Plate VII represents + the burial of Edward the Confessor in the Church of St. Peter, + Westminster Abbey. + + +PLATE VIII. + +The Bayeux Tapestry. + + + King Harold listening to news of the preparations of William of + Orange for the invasion of Britain. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE IX_ + + +_PLATE X_ + + +PLATE IX. + +Borden Hall Paper. + + + The oldest wall-paper known in England; found in restoring a + fifteenth-century timber-built house known as "Borden Hall," in + Borden village, Kent, near Sittingbourne. + + Design "A" was found in the oldest part of the house, and probably + dates from the second half of the sixteenth century. The paper is + thick and tough, and was nailed to the plaster between uprights. + The walls were afterward battened over the paper, and the recovered + fragments are in perfect condition. Ground color rich vermillion, + with flowers in bright turquoise blue, the design in black. + + +PLATE X. + +Borden Hall Paper. + + + Old English paper, design "B"; found in rear part of house and + dates from about 1650. It was pasted to the plaster in the modern + manner. Printed in black on a white ground, flowers roughly colored + vermillion. Inferior to "A" in design, coloring, and quality of + paper. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XI_ + + +PLATE XI. + +Early English Pictorial Paper + + + Late eighteenth century hunting scene paper from an old Manor House + near Chester, England. Reproduced from a fragment in the collection + of Mr. Edward T. Cockcroft of New York City. The pattern is + evidently repeated at intervals. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XII_ + + +PLATE XII. + +The Cultivation of Tea. + + + Hand-painted Chinese paper, imported about 1750 and still in good + state of preservation; the property of Mr. Theodore P. Burgess of + Dedham, Mass. The subject is perhaps the oldest theme used in + wall-paper decoration in China. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XIII_ + + +_PLATE XIV_ + + +PLATE XIII. + +The Cultivation of Tea. + + + Paper on another side of room shown in Plate XII. + + +PLATE XIV. + +The Cultivation of Tea. + + + Third side of same room. The scene continues round the room without + repetition. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XV_ + + +_PLATE XVI_ + + +PLATE XV. + +Early American Fresco. + + Painted river scenes on the best chamber walls of the house of Mrs. + William Allen at Westwood, Mass. The elm and locust trees and + architectural style are plainly American, but the geographical + location is uncertain. The colors are very brilliant--red, blue, + green, etc. + + +PLATE XVI. + +Early American Fresco. + + + Another side of same room, showing conventionalized water fall and + bend in the river. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XVII_ + + +_PLATE XVIII_ + + +PLATE XVII. + +Early American Fresco. + + + Another view of the painted walls at Westwood, Mass. The object + depicted is neither a whale nor a torpedo-boat, but an island. + + +PLATE XVIII. + +Early American Fresco. + + + Painted hall and stairway in an old house in High Street, Salem, + Mass., attached to the very old bake-shop of Pease and Price. The + frescoes were executed by a Frenchman. Colors are still quite + bright, but a good photograph could not be secured in the small and + dimly-lighted hall. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XIX_ + + +_PLATE XX_ + + +PLATE XIX. + +Early Stencilled Paper. + + + Fragments of very old paper from Nantucket, R. I. + + +PLATE XX. + +A Peep at the Moon. + + + Another quaint stencilled paper found at Nantucket, R. I. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: A PEEP AT THE MOON] + + +_PLATE XXI_ + + +PLATE XXI. + +Pictured Ruins and Decorative Designs. + + + Hall of a homestead at Salem, Massachusetts, old when gas lights + were introduced in Salem. The paper was undoubtedly made to fit the + stairway and hall. The large picture in the lower hall is repeated + at the landing. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXII_ + + +PLATE XXII. + +Hand Colored Paper with Repeated Pattern. + + + Parlor in the home of Mrs. Russell Jarvis at Claremont, New + Hampshire. The paper is hand-printed on cream ground in snuff-brown + color, and is made up of pieces eighteen inches square, showing + three alternating pastoral scenes. In the frieze and dado the + prevailing color is dark blue. (p.56) + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXIII_ + + +_PLATE XXIV_ + + +PLATE XXIII. + +Scenes from Nature in Repeated Design. + + + Parlor of the Lindell house at Salem, Massachusetts. White + wainscoting and mantel surmounted by paper in squares, showing four + outdoor scenes. The fire-board concealing the unused fire-place is + covered with paper and border specially adapted to that purpose. + + +PLATE XXIV. + +The Alhambra. + + + Two scenes from the Alhambra Palace, repeated in somewhat + monotonous rows. Still in a good state of preservation on the upper + hall of a house at Leicester, Massachusetts,--one of the sea-port + towns rich in foreign novelties brought home by sea captains. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXV_ + + +_PLATE XXVI_ + + +PLATE XXV. + +Cathedral Porch and Shrine in Repeated Design. + + + Effectively colored paper still on the walls at Ware, + Massachusetts, showing a shrine in the porch of a cathedral; the + repeated design being connected with columns, winding stairs and + ruins. The blue sky seen through the marble arches contrasts finely + with the green foliage. + + +PLATE XXVI. + +Cathedral Porch and Shrine, Architectural Background. + + + Paper on a chamber in the mansion of Governor Gore of + Massachusetts, at Waltham, Massachusetts, erected and decorated in + 1802. Medallion pictures in neutral colors, of a cathedral porch, + shrine and mountain view, alternating on a stone-wall ground. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXVII_ + + +PLATE XXVII. + +Birds of Paradise and Peacocks. + + + The drawing-room of the Governor Gore Mansion at Waltham, + Massachusetts, bequeathed by its owner, Miss Walker, to the + Episcopal Church for the Bishop's residence. The paper is still in + beautiful condition, printed on brownish cream ground in the + natural colors of birds and foliage. (p. 75) + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXVIII_ + + +PLATE XXVIII. + +Sacred to Washington. + + + Memorial paper in black and gray placed on many walls soon after + the death of Washington. The example photographed was on a hall and + stairway. (p. 88) + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXIX_ + + +PLATE XXIX. + +Dorothy Quincy Wedding Paper. + + + On the Dorothy Quincy house on Hancock Street, at Quincy, Mass., + now the headquarters of the Colonial Dames of Massachusetts. It was + imported from Paris in honor of the marriage of Dorothy Quincy and + John Hancock in 1775, and still hangs on the walls of the large + north parlor. Venus and Cupid are printed in blue, the floral + decorations in red. The colors are still unfaded. (p. 65) + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXX_ + + +_PLATE XXXI_ + + +PLATE XXX. + +The Pantheon. + + + Mounted fragments rescued from the destruction of the dining-room + paper which was on the walls of the King's Tavern or "Waffle + Tavern" at Vernon (now Rockville), Connecticut, when Lafayette was + entertained there in 1825. All the characters of Roman mythology + were pictured in woodland scenes printed in gray and black, on + small squares of paper carefully matched. Below these ran a band + bearing the names of the characters represented; and below this, a + grassy green dado dotted with marine pictures. (p. 69) + + +PLATE XXXI. + +Canterbury Bells. + + + Paper from Howe's Tavern, at Sudbury, Massachusetts,--the "Wayside + Inn" of Longfellow's Tales. The fragment is in poor condition but + possesses historic interest, having decorated the room in which + Lafayette passed the night on his trip through America. (p. 67) + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXXII_ + + +_PLATE XXXIII_ + + +PLATE XXXII. + +The First Railroad Locomotive. + + + Paper on an old house in High Street, Salem, supposed to represent + the first railroad. The first trial of locomotives for any purpose + other than hauling coal from the mines, took place near Rainhill, + England, in 1829. The paper may celebrate this contest, at which of + three engines was successful. (p. 89-90) + + +PLATE XXXIII. + +High Street House Paper. + + + Scene on opposite side of same room. The subject and figures seem + English. The scenes are in colors, the dado in black and grey on + white ground. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXXIV_ + + +_PLATE XXXV_ + + +PLATE XXXIV. + +Pizarro in Peru. + + + Remains of Pizarro paper in the Ezra Weston house now used for the + famous Powder Point School for Boys, at Duxbury, Massachusetts. + Formerly on sitting-room but now preserved in a small upper room; + stained and dim. It was brought from Paris by Captain Gershom + Bradford, and is supposed to depict scenes in Pizarro's invasion of + Peru in 1531. The same figures are shown in successive scenes, more + or less distinct though running into each other. (p. 97) + + +PLATE XXXV. + +Pizarro in Peru. + + + Another corner of same room. Both the paper and photograph are + difficult to reproduce. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXXVI_ + + +_PLATE XXXVII_ + + +PLATE XXXVI. + +Tropical Scenes. + + + Paper from the Ham House at Peabody, Massachusetts, now occupied by + Dr. Worcester. These scenes are quite similar to those of the + Pizarro paper, and may have been the work of the same designer. + + +PLATE XXXVII. + +Tropical Scenes. + + + Ham house paper. Another side of room. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XXXVIII_ + + +_PLATE XXXIX_ + + +PLATE XXXVIII. + +On the Bosporus. + + + From a house at Montpelier, Vermont, in which it was hung in 1825, + in honor of Lafayette who was entertained there. The Mosque of + Santa Sophia and other buildings of Constantinople are seen in the + background. + + +PLATE XXXIX. + +On the Bosporus. + + + Opposite side of same room. Fishing from caiques on the Golden Horn + before Stamboul. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XL_ + + +PLATE XL. + +Oriental Scenes. + + + Paper still on the walls of the home of Miss Janet A. Lathrop, at + Stockport, New York. It was put on the walls in 1820 by the sea + captain who built the house, and in 1904 was cleaned and restored + by the present owner. No other example of this paper in America has + been heard of, except in an old house at Albany in which the mother + of Miss Lathrop was born. In the "Chinese room" of a hunting lodge + belonging to the King of Saxony, at Moritzburg, near Dresden, is a + similar paper or tapestry from which this may have been copied. It + is printed in grays which have become brown with age, from engraved + blocks, and finished by hand. This is a rare example of the use of + rice paper for a wall covering. (p. 55) + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XLI_ + + +PLATE XLI. + +Oriental Scenes. + + + Continuation of same paper; apparently a religious procession. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XLII_ + + +PLATE XLII. + +Oriental Scenes. + + + Another section of the Lathrop house paper. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XLIII_ + + +PLATE XLIII. + +Oriental Scenes. + + + End of room containing three preceding scenes. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XLIV_ + + +PLATE XLIV. + +Early Nineteenth Century Scenic Paper. + + + Side wall of parlor of Mrs. E. C. Cowles at Deerfield, + Massachusetts. The house was built in 1738 by Ebenezer Hinsdale, + and was re-modelled and re-decorated about the beginning of the + nineteenth century. Still in good state of preservation. The colors + are neutral. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XLV_ + + +PLATE XLV. + + Parlor of Mrs. Cowles' house, end of room. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XLVI_ + + +_PLATE XLVII_ + + +PLATE XLVI. + + Another example of the same paper as that on the Cowles house + (Plates XLIV and XLV). This paper was imported from England and + hung in 1805, in a modest house at Warner, New Hampshire,--such a + house as seldom indulged in such expensive papers. It is still on + the walls, though faded. + + +PLATE XLVII. + + At Windsor, Vermont, two more examples of this paper are still to + be seen. One is on the house now occupied by the Sabin family. This + was built about 1810 by the Honorable Edward R. Campbell, and the + paper was hung when the house was new. (p. 52) + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE XLVIII_ + + +_PLATE XLIX_ + + +PLATE XLVIII. + +Harbor Scene. + + + Paper found in three houses in New England--the home of Mr. Wilfred + Cleasby at Waterford, Vermont; the Governor Badger homestead at + Gilmanton, New Hampshire, built in 1825; and an old house in + Rockville, Massachusetts, built about ninety years ago. The scene + fits the four walls of the room without repetition. The design is + printed in browns on a cream ground, with a charming effect. The + geographical identity of the scenes has never been established. (p. + 109) + + +PLATE XLIX. + +The Spanish Fandango. + + + Continuation of same paper; another side of room. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE L_ + + +PLATE L. + +Strolling Players. + + + Same paper, third view. The set of paper on the Cleasby house is + said by descendants of the builder, Henry Oakes, to have cost $100, + and $40 for its hanging. The similar set on the Badger homestead + should have cost $50, had not the messenger lost the first payment + sent, so that that sum had to be duplicated. This is on a smaller + room than at the Cleasby house, requiring less paper. (p. 76-80) + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LI_ + + +_PLATE LII_ + + +PLATE LI. + +Rural Scene. + + + Paper on the parlor of Mr. Josiah Cloye at Ashland, Massachusetts, + and found also in several other places; colors neutral. + + +PLATE LII. + +Rural Scene. + + + From another example of the same set found at Marblehead, + Massachusetts. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LIII_ + + +_PLATE LIV_ + + +PLATE LIII. + +French Boulevard Scene. + + + Paper from the Forrester house at Salem, Massachusetts, now used as + a sanitarium for the insane. Since the photographs were taken the + paper has been removed as it unduly excited the patients. + + +PLATE LIV. + +French Boulevard Scene. + + Same as above. Found also in a house at the sea-port town of + Nantucket. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LV_ + + +PLATE LV. + +Gateway and Fountain. + + + French paper, imported before 1800, but never hung. A few rolls + still survive, in the possession of Mr. George M. Whipple of Salem, + Massachusetts. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LVI_ + + +PLATE LVI. + +Scenes from Paris. + + + A very popular paper found in Federal Street, Salem, on the parlor + of Mrs. Charles Sadler, daughter of Henry K. Oliver; in the Ezra + Weston house at Duxbury, Massachusetts, built in 1808; the Walker + house at Rockville, Massachusetts, and several other New England + towns. The principal buildings of Paris are represented as lining + the shore of the Seine. The inclusion of the Colonne Vendôme shows + it to have been designed since 1806; and as the horses on the + Carousel arch were returned to Venice in 1814, the paper probably + dates between those years. (p. 88) + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LVII_ + + +PLATE LVII. + +Scenes from Paris. + + + Another side of room shown in Plate LVI. The paper is in pieces 16 + by 21 inches. The colors are soft, with green, gray and brown + predominating, but with some black, yellow, red, etc. The drawing + is good. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LVIII_ + + +PLATE LVIII. + +Bay of Naples. + + + This seems to have been the most popular paper of the early + nineteenth century. It decorated the room in which the author was + born--the library of Professor E. D. Sanborn of Dartmouth College, + at Hanover, New Hampshire,--and is still in place. The house is now + used as a Dartmouth dormitory. The same scenes are found in the + Lawrence house, at Exeter, New Hampshire, now used as a + dormitory--Dunbay Hall--of the Phillips Exeter Academy; on the + house of Mrs. E. B. McGinley at Dudley, Massachusetts, and on + another at St. Johnsbury, Vermont, now owned by Mrs. Emma Taylor. + (p. 49, 108) + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LIX_ + + +PLATE LIX. + +Bay of Naples. + + + Continuation of same scene. This paper is in neutral colors, and + made in small pieces. It was imported about 1820. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LX_ + + +PLATE LX. + +Bay of Naples. + + + Detail. The monument has a Greek inscription which Professor + Kittredge of Harvard University translates literally: "Emperor + Cæsar, me divine Hadrian. Column of the Emperor Antoninus + Pius"--who was the son of Hadrian. The pillar of Antonine still + stands at Rome. The statue of Antoninus which formerly surmounted + it was removed by Pope Sextus, who substituted a figure of Paul. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXI_ + + +_PLATE LXII_ + + +PLATE LXI. + +Bay of Naples. + + + Another side of room. + + +PLATE LXII. + +Bay of Naples. + + + Detail: Galleon at anchor. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXIII_ + + +PLATE LXIII. + +Cupid and Psyche. + + + Panelled paper in colors, designed by Lafitte and executed by + Dufour in 1814. It consists of twenty-six breadths, each five feet + seven inches long by twenty inches wide. It is said that fifteen + hundred engraved blocks were used in printing. The design is + divided into twelve panels, depicting the marriage of Cupid and + Psyche, Psyche's lack of faith and its sad consequences. + + The scene reproduced shows the visit of the newly-wedded Psyche's + jealous sisters to her palace, where they persuade her that her + unseen husband is no god, but a monster whom she must kill. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXIV_ + + +PLATE LXIV. + +Cupid and Psyche. + + + While Cupid lies sleeping in the darkness, Psyche takes her dagger, + lights her lamp, and bends over the unconscious god: + + * * * There before her lay + The very Love brighter than dawn of day; + + * * * * * + + O then, indeed, her faint heart swelled for love, + And she began to sob, and tears fell fast + Upon the bed.--But as she turned at last + To quench the lamp, there happed a little thing, + That quenched her new delight, for flickering + The treacherous flame cast on his shoulder fair + A burning drop; he woke, and seeing her there, + The meaning of that sad sight knew too well, + Nor was there need the piteous tale to tell. + + WILLIAM MORRIS: _The Earthly Paradise._ + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXV_ + + +PLATE LXV. + +The Adventures of Telemachus. + + + Paper from the home of Dr. John Lovett Morse at Taunton, + Massachusetts, illustrating the sixth book of Fenelon's _Adventures + of Telemachus_. Found also in the home of Mr. Henry De Witt + Freeland at Sutton, Massachusetts; on the hall of "The Hermitage," + Andrew Jackson's home near Nashville, Tennessee; and in an ancient + house at Kennebunk, Maine. (p. 86-88) + + Telemachus, son of Ulysses, and Mentor, who is Minerva in + disguise, while searching through two worlds for the lost Ulysses, + arrive at the island of the goddess Calypso and her nymphs. + Telemachus recites the tale of their adventures, and Calypso (who + is unfortunately divided by the window into two equal parts) + becomes as deeply enamored of Telemachus as she had formerly been + of his father. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXVI_ + + +PLATE LXVI. + +The Adventures of Telemachus. + + + Venus, who is bent on detaining Telemachus on the island and + delaying his filial search for Ulysses, brings her son Cupid from + Olympus, and leaves him with Calypso, that he may inflame the young + hero's heart with love for the goddess. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXVII_ + + +PLATE LXVII. + +The Adventures of Telemachus. + + + Cupid stirs up all the inflammable hearts within his reach somewhat + indiscriminately; and Telemachus finds himself in love with the + nymph Eucharis. Calypso becomes exceedingly jealous. At a + hunting-contest in honor of Telemachus, Eucharis appears in the + costume of Diana to attract him, while the jealous Calypso rages + alone in her grotto. Venus arrives in her dove-drawn car and takes + a hand in the game of hearts. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXVIII_ + + +PLATE LXVIII. + +Adventures of Telemachus. + + + Calypso, in her rage against Eucharis and Telemachus, urges Mentor + to build a boat and take Telemachus from her island. Mentor, + himself disapproving of the youth's infatuation, builds the boat; + then finds Telemachus and persuades him to leave Eucharis and + embark with him. As they depart toward the shore, Eucharis returns + to her companions, while Telemachus looks behind him at every step + for a last glimpse of the nymph. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXIX_ + + +PLATE LXIX. + +Adventures of Telemachus. + + + Cupid meantime has dissuaded Calypso from her wrath and incited the + nymphs to burn the boat that is waiting to bear the visitors away. + Mentor, perceiving that Telemachus is secretly glad of this, and + fearing the effect of his passion for Eucharis, throws the youth + from the cliff into the water, leaps in after him, and swims with + him to a ship that lies at anchor beyond the treacherous shoals. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXX_ + + +PLATE LXX. + +Scottish Scenes. + + + The room on which the Adventures of Telemachus are pictured having + proved too large for the set of scenes, the remaining corner is + filled out with what appear to be Scottish scenes, possibly + illustrations for Scott. Harmony in coloring was apparently of more + importance than harmony in subject. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXI_ + + +_PLATE LXXII_ + + +PLATE LXXI. + +The Olympic Games. + + + This famous paper, now owned by Mrs. Franklin R. Webber 2d of + Boston, was made in France and imported in 1800 or earlier, but + never hung. Each roll is made up of squares invisibly joined, and + the thirty pieces combine to form a continuous panorama. The + coloring is brown. The paper was probably printed by hand from + engraved blocks, and the shading of faces, etc., added by hand. The + most artistic pictorial paper known. (p. 52-54) + + +PLATE LXXII. + +The Olympic Games. + + + A tribute to Homer. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXIII_ + + +_PLATE LXXIV_ + + +PLATE LXXIII. + +The Olympic Games. + + + The shrine of Vesta. + + +PLATE LXXIV. + +The Olympic Games. + + + Worshipping Athene in the Court of the Erechtheum. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXV_ + + +_PLATE LXXVI_ + + +PLATE LXXV. + +The Olympic Games. + + + Oblation to Bacchus. + + +PLATE LXXVI. + +The Olympic Games. + + + Oblation to Bacchus, and procession before the Parthenon. From the + Perry house at Keene, N. H., on whose parlor walls is preserved the + only other known example of the paper just described. (p. 50) + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXVII_ + + +PLATE LXXVII. + +The Lady of the Lake. + + + This series of scenes in neutral colors is photographed from the + parlor of the Rev. Pelham Williams, at Greenbush, Mass., whose + house is one of three on which it still hangs in good condition. + The other examples are the Hayward house at Wayland, Mass., and the + Alexander Ladd house, now owned by Mrs. Charles Wentworth, at + Portsmouth, N. H. + + CANTO I. THE CHASE. + + III. + + Yelled on the view the opening pack-- + Rock, glen, and cavern paid them back; + To many a mingled sound at once + The awakened mountain gave response. + An hundred dogs bayed deep and strong, + Clattered a hundred steeds along, + Their peal the merry horns rang out, + An hundred voices joined the shout; + With bark, and whoop, and wild halloo, + No rest Benvoirlich's echoes knew. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXVIII_ + + +PLATE LXXVIII. + +The Lady of the Lake. + + +CANTO III. THE GATHERING. + +VIII. + + 'Twas all prepared--and from the rock, + A goat, the patriarch of the flock, + Before the kindling pile was laid, + And pierced by Roderick's ready blade. + + * * * * * + + The grisly priest with murmuring prayer, + A slender crosslet framed with care. + + * * * * * + + The cross, thus formed, he held on high, + With wasted hand and haggard eye, + And strange and mingled feelings woke, + While his anathema he spoke. + + +IX. + + * * * * * + + He paused--the word the vassals took, + With forward step and fiery look, + On high their naked brands they shook, + Their clattering targets wildly strook; + And first, in murmur low, + Then, like the billow in his course, + That far to seaward finds his source, + And flings to shore his mustered force, + Burst with loud roar, their answer hoarse, + "Woe to the traitor, woe!" + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXIX_ + + +PLATE LXXIX. + +The Lady of the Lake. + + +CANTO IV. THE PROPHECY. + +XXI. + +[Blanche of Devan and Fitz-James] + + Now wound the path its dizzy ledge + Around a precipice's edge, + When lo! a wasted female form, + Blighted by wrath of sun and storm, + In tattered weeds and wild array, + Stood on a cliff beside the way, + And glancing round her restless eye + Upon the wood, the rock, the sky, + Seemed nought to mark, yet all to spy. + Her brow was wreathed with gaudy broom; + With gesture wild she waved a plume + Of feathers, which the eagles fling + To crag and cliff from dusky wing; + + * * * * * + + And loud she laughed when near they drew, + For then the lowland garb she knew: + And then her hands she wildly wrung, + And then she wept, and then she sung. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXX_ + + +PLATE LXXX. + + This scene fills the fourth side of the room on which _The Lady of + the Lake_ is pictured, but does not illustrate any scene in the + poem. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXXI_ + + +PLATE LXXXI. + +The Seasons. + + + Pastoral paper in neutral colors on the library of Prof. Ira Young + of Dartmouth, at Hanover, N. H. The four seasons are represented on + different sides of the room, blending into each other--sowing, + haying, harvesting and sleighing. Still on the walls in good state + of preservation. (p. 49) + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXXII_ + + +PLATE LXXXII. + +The Seasons. + + + Another view of Professor Young's library. The colors in this paper + are neutral. + +[Illustration] + + +_PLATE LXXXIII_ + + +PLATE LXXXIII. + +The Seasons. + + + Third view from Professor Young's library. + +[Illustration] + +-------------------------------------------------------------- + +Transcriber's note: + + P.16. 'Huis-en-ten-Bosch' corrected to 'Huis-ten-Bosch', changed. + P.17. 'asked me ot', 'ot' corrected to 'to', changed. + P.36. 'country and and', taken out the extra 'and'. + P.89. 'Carousal' is 'Carousel', changed. + The Carousel is not a drinking party. + P.92. 'treaures' typo for 'treasures', changed. + P.103. 'are in the the original', taken out the extra 'the'. + P.115. 'when she' changed 'she' to 'he'. + Plate LVI, 'Carousal' is meant 'Carousel', changed. + Plate LXVI, 'Olympos' typo for 'Olympus', changed. + + Fixed various commas and full stops. + +-------------------------------------------------------------- + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Old Time Wall Papers, by Katherine Abbott Sanborn + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41664 *** |