Page:Hutton, William Holden - Hampton Court (1897).djvu/246

166 Regent of the Netherlands, and executed between 1530 and 1541. Evelyn speaks of them as "designed by Raphael," under whom Van Orlay is supposed to have studied. The clearness and a certain simplicity in the designs may be said to show the influence of the great Umbrian. They are proved by marks to have been manufactured at Brussels. Their continuous connection with Hampton Court is traceable from the time of Henry VIII., in the inventory of whose possessions they are mentioned with the exact measurements, as "Tenne pieces of new arras of the Historie of Abraham." They are mentioned again by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar in 1613, and when the property of Charles I. was valued in 1649, were estimated at, £10 a yard—in all £8260. They were taken for Cromwell's own use, and were seen at Hampton Court by Evelyn in 1662. This was the period of the greatest value of tapestry. James I. and Charles I. were both very fond of it, and generously supported the manufacture at