Yesterday evening Mr. William Morris delivered a most interesting and
fascinating lecture on Carpet and Tapestry Weaving at the Arts and Crafts
Exhibition now held at the New Gallery. Mr. Morris had small practical
models of the two looms used, the carpet loom where the weaver sits in
front of his work; the more elaborate tapestry loom where the weaver sits
behind, at the back of the stuff, has his design outlined on the upright
threads and sees in a mirror the shadow of the pattern and picture as it
grows gradually to perfection. He spoke at much length on the question
of dyes--praising madder and kermes for reds, precipitate of iron or
ochre for yellows, and for blue either indigo or woad. At the back of
the platform hung a lovely Flemish tapestry of the fourteenth century,
and a superb Persian carpet about two hundred and fifty years old. Mr.
Morris pointed out the loveliness of the carpet--its delicate suggestion
of hawthorn blossom, iris and rose, its rejection of imitation and
shading; and showed how it combined the great quality of decorative
design--being at once clear and well defined in form: each outline
exquisitely traced, each line deliberate in its intention and its beauty,
and the whole effect being one of unity, of harmony, almost of mystery,
the colours being so perfectly harmonised together and the little bright
notes of colour being so cunningly placed either for tone or brilliancy.

Tapestries, he said, were to the North of Europe what fresco was to the
South--our climate, amongst other reasons, guiding us in our choice of
material for wall-covering. England, France, and Flanders were the three
great tapestry countries--Flanders with its great wool trade being the
first in splendid colours and superb Gothic design. The keynote of
tapestry, the secret of its loveliness, was, he told the audience, the
complete filling up of every corner and square inch of surface with
lovely and fanciful and suggestive design. Hence the wonder of those