CARPETS OF LONG AGO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12712, 6 August 1919, Page 4

CARPETS OF LONG AGO.

Carpets were in use, at least in sonic kind, as early as the days of Amos, about 800 B-O. They were spread on the ground, on which persons sat who dwelt in tents; but when first used in houses, even in the East, we have no recbrd. In the twelfth century carpets were articles of luxury; and in England it is mentioned as an instance of Becket’s splendid style of living that his sumptuous apartments were every day in winter strewn with clean hay or straw, about A.IX llt>Q. The manufacture of woollen carpets was introduced into France from Persia in the reign of Henry IV., between 1589 and 1610. Some artisans who had quitted France in _ disgust, came to England and established the carpet manufacture, about 1(50. With us, as with most nations, Persian and Turkey carpets, especially the former, are most prized. T oo r famous Axminster, Wilton, and Kidderminster manufacture is the growth of the last hundred years. The weavers’, otherwise called the Hutch loom, engine was brought into use in London from Holland in or about the year 1676, since when the general principle of the loom has been infinitelyvaried by mechanical ingenuity There are about 250,000 hand-looms’in Great Britain, and 75,000 power-looms, each being equal to three hand-looms, makmg twenty-two yards each per day 1807 st<3am ‘ looni was introduced in