Thus there has been much speculation about the blues and purples of the ancients, and especially about the famous Tyrian dye. Some have supposed it to have been identical with our own dark blue; others bright violet, or even scarlet! But colours in those times were not what modern chemistry has made them; we can almost match the flowers now. There is every

reason to suppose from the vague way in which colours were applied to objects pale or dark throughout the ancient world, that they were mostly dull and imperfect, and, like the modern Oriental colours, each partook greatly of some other, so that there was not much incongruity in calling a black horse 'cerulean,' or a red cheek and the sea alike 'purple,' or a cucumber either.

The Tyrian dye was, in reality, nearly allied to our own puce (flea-colour). Now, puce wavers between brown, red, and blue; but its general hue is a kind of dull red violet —in fact much the colour of clotted blood, and to most modern eyes it would probably be an unattractive one. Nevertheless, in large masses this is a very picturesque colour, and beneath the bright and glowing skies of Italy it doubtless had a magnificent effect.

This was the only purple colour known to the ancient world, and is believed to have been discovered by an inhabitant of Tyre, fifteen hundred years before Christ, and

1 See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, art. Colours.

perhaps its costliness commended it in great measure to the luxurious Romans; in Cicero's day one pound weight of wool double-dyed with this colour being valued at 1,000 denarii [35]; and when we consider the immense numbers of the little creatures (not fleas, as the French word puce would indicate) whence it was obtained, that were necessary to dye even a pound of wool, the labour of gathering them, and the slow and clumsy process of extracting the tiny drop of colour that each contributed, it was really hardly more than it was worth.

It is now generally known that the dye was provided by a few kinds of whelk, found along the shores of the Mediterranean-the Murex trunculus and the Purpura lapillus-but the trouble of procuring it is hardly realised. The colouring matter is a small drop of a yellowish hue contained in a sac or vessel at the head of the shell, and this yellow matter, when spread on a white slab in the sunshine, is acted on by the sun's rays, which send a bluish tinge into the yellow, turning it green. Presently the green is conquered by the blue, and then a red tinge makes its appearance, which gradually increases in strength and predominates in the final colour, a deep reddish purple or puce, and there is the Tyrian dye.

There is some reason for supposing that the famous dye was even less brilliant than the colour obtained from

the fish in this way, for in their clumsy process of extracting it they mixed the colouring matter with the juices of the fish (Plin. ix. 60), and thus impaired it-a mistake which is not at all unavoidable.

At Otranto, the ancient Tarentum, are found enormous heaps of these shells, showing that the place was one of the great murex fisheries of the Romans.

The 'purple and fine linen' and the scarlet and crimson dyes mentioned in the Bible were the same, of course, as the Tyrian dye. The Jews derived all their knowledge of these colours, and the art of extracting and applying them, from Phoenicia and Egypt. Solomon sent to Tyre for the pigments and purple stuffs used in the draperies and colouring of the Temple.

'True blue' was the colour adopted by the Scottish Covenanters in the seventeenth century.

Blue has also been nationalised in England-in the cavalry regiment instituted in the reign of Charles II. which takes its name (the Blue) from the colour of their coats and cloaks; and in the Royal Navy, in which case it is of a very dark indigo, with a slight warmth in it, and is universally known by the term 'navy blue'; also by the University rowers of Oxford and Cambridge, the former having chosen dark, the latter light blue, and on the annual race-day the dense crowds that throng the banks of the Thames, presenting literally a general blue

tint, from the number of favours and shawls of the popular colour, are a wonderful sight.

There are so many different kinds of blue, or rather so many names to a few kinds, that we have not space to enumerate them here, even were it necessary. Many are only known to dyers and manufacturers, and possess slight differences in the mixture of the chemicals which compose them, which, in some cases, change hardly or not at all the general tint of the colour. There are only three blues in reality-yellow blue, red blue, and black blue: pure blue is that which does not savour of one colour more than another. Turquoise might be an example of the first, ultramarine of the second, and indigo of the third.

I have before said that blue gives an impression of cold, but some blues of course are less cold than others. A blue formed of indigo and white is very cold and dull, and walls, or any large space covered with this colour, are most unpleasing-even depressing unless relieved to a very great extent by warm colours in close proximity. It is also unbecoming to the face, except when reduced by white to lavender.

Ultramarine is the least cold of blues, as there is a certain amount of red pervading it, so that in the shadows it often looks quite violet. It is too brilliant for the face; but is very beautiful in small quantities in

dress, or when sparingly introduced in mouldings, decoration of furniture, and the like.

It is worth noting that ultramarine, in a very deep shade (when it borrows the name 'Alexandra,' 'royal,' &c., according to the period), is one of the most unbecoming colours that can be placed near the face in Its brilliancy lends a yellow hue to the skin, while its deepness withholds the grey shadows cast by pale blues, which are so valuable to delicate complexions: it should be shunned alike by the florid and the fair.

masses.

Turquoise blue, which might be made with cobalt and Naples yellow, and which is seen in perfection in the enamelled porcelain of the Indians and other Orientals, is a most beautiful pale colour, less cold than indigo, yet colder than ultramarine, but in the decoration. of rooms should be used rather in small than large quantities. In dress, when not too brilliant, it is exceedingly becoming, especially to fair persons, adding grey to the shadows of the complexion, enhancing the rose of the cheek and any shade of yellow latent in the hair. It is, though not the brightest, the most penetrating of all blues.

The admixture of either red or green in blue for purposes of dress must always be managed with caution. A green blue is a most exquisite hue, but many faces are ruined by a soupçon of green, whilst others are made