First and foremost, they tell us a great deal about the noble industry which supported him.

Paycocke's house is full of relics of the cloth industry.

The merchant mark of the Paycockes, an ermine tail, looking like a two-stemmed clover leaf, is to be found on the carved beams of the chimney, on the breastsummers of the fire-places, and set in the midst of the strip of carving along the front of the house.

Thomas marked his bales of cloth thus, and what other armorial bearings did he need?
The whole house is essentially middle class-the house of a man who was _nouveau riche_ in an age when to be _nouveau riche_ was not yet to be vulgar.

His prosperity has blossomed out into exquisitely ornate decoration.