Of rugs and carpets

A letter from a German visiting England at the end of the century gives yet another proof that the industry was largely unknown as he speaks somewhat scathingly of the Queen's Presence Chamber at Greenwich Palace being strewn with hay, and it is un­believable that the fashion-conscious Queen would not have acquired carpets if such were being regularly produced and used in her country—or even being imported in appreciable numbers.

Mr Tattersall says that "on looking back it will be seen that there are only known ten complete English carpets that were made before the end of the seventeenth century", but during the seventeenth century itself the Turkey knot was used for numerous small articles of the "canvas work" variety such as cushions.