Painted or distempered and stencilled walls are not sufficiently in use in England. They are clean, and do not, or need not, cost as much as many a dear paper. In old Italian bedrooms one finds the wall invariably painted and roughly stencilled in patterns on the stucco. In old England, of course, a painted wall was the commonest, either plain, or worked into pictures and frescoes of quaint beauty - the 'storied walls' which suggested conversation, pointed a joke, and pleased and instructed rich and poor, grown-ups and children.

One simple old pattern, imitative of cloth hangings, is always effective. A precept in the twentieth year of Henry III. ordained that 'the king's great chamber at Westminster be painted a green colour like a curtain, that in the great gable or frontispiece of the said chamber a French inscription should be painted, and that the king's little wardrobe should be painted of a green colour to imitate a curtain:' whilst the queen's chamber was covered with historical paintings. Panelling was then in use, and Henry III. ordered that his queen's bedroom should be freshly wainscotted and lined, and that a list or border should be made, well painted with images of our Lord and angels, with incense-pots scattered over it,' etc. - this was on a special occasion of festivity. William the Florentine and John of St. Omer were artists brought by him to England; these are among the first names of decorators preserved in our records. Good washable paint is the cleanest and healthiest of coverings for walls.

Distemper is so cheap, while it is as satisfactory in effect as flatted paint, that people really might indulge oftener in the luxury of a clean coat for their rooms. The dirtiness of fashionable houses in London, in spite of the efforts of the best servants (though some I fancy count on the ladies doing their work for them), is really distressing to those who are particular, or used to the country. The fires, the outdoor traffic, the gas, make the duster unequal to cope with the enemy, Dirt, who clings to the walls, doors, sofa-tops and chair seats, as well as - oh, horror ! - the corners of stairs and passages, especially in dwellings where the mistress is elderly or shortsighted. And as most rooms can be re-decorated within a week if several workmen are employed, hostesses ought really to regard the cost they inflict on guests who come in clean gowns and go home with the trains soiled all round; and have their rooms swept properly every day, and re-coloured (at least the lower part) every other year.

Cleanliness is one of the most becoming of ornaments.