Cordovan leather like some of the old Norwich leather, is a fine background, but difficult to obtain. Many old families have rolls of it rotting in their lofts and lumber-rooms in a style which makes a penniless collector's blood boil. These old leathers look well set in large or small panels. What leather can attain to in colour and design I have shown in 'a Louis XIV. Room;' let me beg the aroused possessors of old pieces to have them properly repaired, oiled out, and mounted by firms who will not tamper with them or repaint the surface. I have seen screens of old leather entirely painted over, in curiosity-shops, in colours which set one's teeth on edge, and with a delicacy and precision of hand worthy an elephant with a paint-brush tied to his hind-leg, and trained at Hengler's. This is barbarity nearly as grievous as 'restoring' the pictures of the old masters, and every artist knows what that means.

Of course with walls so rich and sombre as those covered with sixteenth-century leather, the ceiling should be rich as well, otherwise the contrast will be too strong.

It is rather depressing to know that the beautiful peacock-room painted by Mr. J. M. Whistler for Mr. Leyland was worked upon a fine collection of old Norwich leather, which, however 'ugly' in some eyes, was undoubtedly too precious to be thus destroyed.

Leather was at one time used as carpets. The inventories of the Duke of Burgundy and Isabeau de Bavaria included 'leathers for laying down in the rooms in summer time' (1416). The Cluny Museum contains some fine painted leather panels taken from an old house in Rouen, representing Rome seated and bearing Victory, and other Roman subjects. The cost was very great on account of the skill required in working. An entry from the Royal accounts of Charles VIII. is curious: '1496. To Jehan Gamier, saddler, residing at Tours, the sum of 4 livres 15 sous Tournoys, granted to him for a large white ox-skin delivered and consigned by him to a painter whom the King had sent for from Italy, whom the said lady (the Queen) had ordered to make and paint the hangings of her bed - iiij. liv. xv. S.'