. The English house, how to judge its periods and styles. ainted on it, with good and exquisitecolours. Whatever the effect may have been,Henry was in earnest. He had a feeling forhome, a wish to get rid of armour and to takehis ease leisurely in comfort. This good man was fastidious in all thingsdomestic. We read, for instance, how he gaveorders that a room on his ground floor atWindsor Castle was to be boarded like aship—a suggestive criticism. That roomhad no other flooring than the usual carpet—rushes in winter, green fodder in summer—spread over the beaten earth; and when suchbad floors w
. The English house, how to judge its periods and styles. ainted on it, with good and exquisitecolours. Whatever the effect may have been,Henry was in earnest. He had a feeling forhome, a wish to get rid of armour and to takehis ease leisurely in comfort. This good man was fastidious in all thingsdomestic. We read, for instance, how he gaveorders that a room on his ground floor atWindsor Castle was to be boarded like aship—a suggestive criticism. That roomhad no other flooring than the usual carpet—rushes in winter, green fodder in summer—spread over the beaten earth; and when suchbad floors were to be found in Windsor Castle,imagine what halls were like in ordinary housesand cottages. Earthen floors got damp andfilthy ; it was a custom to spit on the rushesand to throw into them the rinsings from glassesand all litter from the table—bones, odds andends of vegetables, &c. ; and yet rushes wereemployed in halls as late as the fifteenth century,and later than that. Even private rooms weregenerally rush-covered, but ladies scattered. HENRY III. AND THE HOME 109 flowers oyer the rushes, till at last—-betweenthe reigns of Henry V. and Henry VII.—rugs and carpets made their way very timidlyinto fashion. Mediaeval lords and ladies putlittle money on their floors and much on theirbacks. It did not occur to them that dirtyfloors bred unclean habits. Henry III. was aware of this fact, so heencouraged foreign craftsmen to set up theirhomes at his court, and among them weresome makers of decorative paving tiles. Hismind was full of experimental ideas. Hetried, for example, to repeat in woodwork aneffect which he had seen done by a tiler, givingorders that in one of his rooms the wainscot wasto have boards not only coloured, but radi-ated ; and this wish to make one materialdo the work of another was applied to woodenarches and stone piers, which were painted toimitate marble, as in Victorias reign deal doorswere grained to imitate oak. Of course, it waswrong—a mak
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