it is supported on a stand, is the following in- | are only improved by the superior carving and scription, which, however, is comparatively modern: "King Knowde geve Wyllyam Pewse This horne to hold by thy lond." (See "ARCHEOLOGIA.") elaborate ornament, and a set of chessmen of the twelfth century are preserved in the British Museum, and may be seen there by those who are curious to know in what rudely-shaped seats our forefathers rested. They were found in the isle of Lewis in 1831, and the kings and bishops Glass vessels were rarities in the early pe- are seated in richly-carved chairs, but the exact riods, but became more common towards the shape of a box, with the lid open for a back. Roman Conquest. A disciple of Bede inquired The hangings of embroidery were partially suof Lullus, in France, if there were any man in perseded by the fashion of painting on the walls his parish who could make glass-vessels well; or wainscot the same historical fabulous suband desired, in such case, that he might be per-jects that had been pourtrayed in threads of suaded to go to England, as its people were ig-gold and silk; for, in the reign of Henry the norant and helpless in the art. Bede, however, Third, the Sheriff of Hampshire is commanded mentions glass-vessels and lamps. to see that the wainscoted chamber of the king in Winchester Castle be painted. The comfort of the best-furnished dwellings would have been very incompatible without fuel, which was obtained from a portion of each estate set apart for the growth of wood. Turf also appears to have been used, and probably coals. Candles made of wax were used in the palace of Alfred, and to him is inscribed the invention of lanterns. They seem to have come soon afterwards into common use, and, from the representations, to have been often highly ornamented, and made of horn. Silver candelabra and candlesticks of various descriptions are to be found. The early substitute for our glass-mirrors, in which beauty loves to see her charms reflected, those of silver, are mentioned by Dugdale, and hand-bells were in use to summon the domestics. In one of the manuscripts we have a representation of an Anglo-Saxon bed: it has a roof like that of a house, and is furnished with curtains, pillow, &c. Skins of animals, especially goat-skins, were used as coverlids. In the poem of " Beswulf," we are told that, when the evening came on, the tables were taken away, and the place spread with beds and bolsters, by which it would appear that the warriors slept in the same halls in which they had feasted: "the servants," continues the bard, The boards of bright wood: There, high over the Etheling on his bench, His glorious sword of strength!" Thus were the arms of the warrior ever at hand to be grasped at the first alarm. The Norman conquest does not seem to have introduced many improvements or increased refinement into the English mode of furnishing. The fowls and roast meat are still handed to the guests on the spit; but in the reign of King John we find a mention of saltcellars an article which afterwards became so important in the division of ranks at table; the knights and ladies sitting above the salt, the retainers below it. We find twenty-nine and sixpence was paid for a silver one, gilt within and without, for the king's use. The chairs of state At Goodrich Castle a pair of candlesticks of the twelfth century are preserved, made of copper, engraved and gilt, and ornamented with enamel of seven colours, let into the metal, displaying figures of men, women, and animals. They have spikes at the top, on which the candle was fixed, the socket being an innovation of much later date. The mention of enamel brings us to that beautiful art for which Limoges, in France, became so celebrated. It appears to have originated as early as 1187, and was brought there by the Greeks, from Byzantium. Boxes, cups, and dishes, ornamented with beautiful paintings, are still occasionally met with belonging to this period; but it did not reach its acmé until the reign of Francis the First, when a series of artists (Laudin, Noel, Leonard, and Courtois) made it still more celebrated, and the pieces are now valued all over Europe at inconceivable prices. Wayllier, the last master of the art, died in 1765, and the art died with him. Previously to the year 1200, we find the town of Ypres, in Flanders, equally famous for its manufactures of fine linen, and from hence the name diaper (D'Ypres-i.e. of Ypres) which has been since applied to that particular cloth wherever manufactured; and we may presume that the napkins and cloths of the AngloNormans were scarcely inferior to those of the present day. That great refinement, linensheets, came into vogue at this period. There is an order to the Sheriff of Southampton to deliver to Norman Esturing (the king's valet), amongst other gifts, because he had become a knight, a couch or bed, and a pair of linensheets. 'Yet the improvements were only comparative, and the style of living sordid and poor, when compared to the present standard. The stately palaces and castles of those days had no better carpets than a litter of straw or rushes, and no better beds than a rug laid upon a wooden bench, or spread upon the floor. The kingly or noble banquet, although it blazed with a profusion of gold and silver plate, could not even furnish the necessary accommodation of a fork. The fingers of the eaters were thrust into the rich dishes, or employed in tearing the flesh into morsels: and the luxuries that were collected at the greatest expense.were laid upon a huge table of plain oak; while the princes and lords sat upon clumsy benches, and partook of the good cheer. Several English estates were held upon the condition of supplying fresh straw for the royal beds, and litter for the apartments of the palaces. And Fitz-Stephen, describing the splendid hospitalities of Beckett while Chancellor, adds, as a special proof of his munificence, that he caused his servants to cover the floor of his dining-room with clean straw or hayers of divers colours, and two pairs of sheets of every morning in winter, and green branches of trees in summer; that those guests who could not find room at table might sit on the ground without spoiling their fine clothes. It is a curious fact, that the official situation of rushstrewer remained to a very late period on the list of the royal household." whom the edifice is dedicated. A very ancient piece may be seen at Berkeley Castle. In 1447 John Holland, Duke of Exeter, gives to his son, Sir Henry, all the stuff of his wardrobe and of his arras by will. The newly-introduced work soon formed a part of every bedchamber. In 1434 we have a detailed account of bedfurniture in the will of Joan, Lady Bergavenny: "A bed of gold swans, with tappeter of green tapestry, with branches and flowRaynes (Rennes); a pair of fustians, six pairs of other sheets, six pairs of blankets, six mattresses, six pillows, and with cushions and pillows that longen to the bed aforesaid: a bed of cloth of gold with lebardes, with those cushions and tapettes of my best red worsted that belong to the same bed, and bancoures and formes that belong to the same bed; a bed of velvet, white and black, paled with cushions, tapettes, and formez that belong to it..... My bed of silk, black and red, embroidered with woodbined flowers of silver, and all the costers and apparel that belongeth thereto; twelve pairs of sheets of the best cloth I have, save Raynes, six pairs of blankets, and a pane of minever." This pane of fur was succeeded by the counterpane, i.e., one that was contrepointe, or having knotted threads stitched through. Sir S. Meyrick derives the word pane from the Latin pannus ; but we read of paned shoes and paned hose, and Some inquiry seems to have been made in the the former are described by Chaucer as appearreign of Henry the Third (1245) about sea-ing to have Paul's windows carved on themcoals, which are mentioned as being brought to London from Berwick, and much used in the suburbs of London by brewers and dyers. "The nobility and gentry resorting thither complained thereof to the king as a public nuisance, whereby they said the air was infested with a noisome smell and a thick cloud, to the great endangering of the health of the inhabitants, wherefore a proclamation was issued forbidding its use." What would these sensitive alarmists say now, when London has constantly ten or twelve tons of coal dust suspended over it? The Normans were an active out-of-door people, and therefore cared nothing for domestic comfort. They liked large retinues, splendid castles, rich armour, and horses. In the register of the Priory of St. Andrew's, Scotland, it is recorded that Alexander the First presented to the Prior an Arabian horse, with his bridle, saddle, shield, and silver lance; a magnificent pall or horse-cloth, and other Turkish arms of various descriptions. He had the horse, thus splendidly arrayed, led up to the high altar, and the arms were preserved there, and shewn to all the country-people. As we approach the fifteenth century, the ever-changing goddess Fashion had driven out the custom of painting the walls of sitting-rooms, and there was a return to the warmer and more comfortable style of decoration by drapery, which being fabricated chiefly at Arras, generally went by the name of that town; but is still better known by that of tapestry, a manufacture invented by the Flemings. Its peculiarity consists in the warp being vertical, and the workman stands behind the canvas, with his picture or copy at his back, weaving in the threads of various shades and colours, so as to form a work of art little inferior to an oil-painting. The only remaining manufactory of this kind is that of the Gobelins, Paris; a single piece requiring from two to six years to finish, and the cost of which amounts sometimes to seven or eight hundred pounds. The earliest specimen of arras is preserved in the church of St. Sebold, at Nuremburg, being of the time of our Henry the Fourth, and pourtraying the life of the saint to by which we must understand lattice-work; so that the word would rather seem to be from the French panneau, a square of glass. The wellknown diamond pattern is in favour of this etymology. There are many curious illuminations of bedrooms, where the lady and her baby are lying in state, and fire is blazing on the hearthstone with large andirons (as the stands for the wood were called) on each side, such as may still be seen at Haddon Hall: a long settle is before the fire, on which sits the nurse, with the poor little baby, tightly strapped up in swaddling-clothes, and looking like a mummy: a buffet is at one side, with a caudle-cup, and vessels similar to our modern coffee-pots upon it. The floor is in squares of tesselated pavement, the chimneypiece adorned with a clock and vases, and attendants stand round the bed, offering cups and basins to their mistress. We have the bedroom of Henry the Seventh's queen, described as hanged and sceyled with rich clothe of Arras of blew, with flour-de-lisis of gold, without any other clothe of Arras of ymagerye, and in that chamber was a rich bedde and palliet, the which palliet had a marvellous rich canopie of clothe of gold, with velvet paly of divers colours garneshyd with rede roses, embrodered with two rich pannes of crymson couvered with raynes of lande; also ther was a riche auter (altar), well furnyshed with reliques, and a riche cupborde, well and richly garnyshed." The "awndirons" were usually curved, with a large knob at the top, and often extremely grand, enriched with carved work and gilding; so that they formed part of the furniture not only in the houses of the nobles, but in the palaces of kings. One pair, still in existence, is of copper, highly gilt, with beautiful flowers enamelled in various colours, arranged with much art and elegance. In the inventories of the time we find very few seats mentioned; seldom more than one chair in the bedrooms, and in the "perler" (or best sitting-room) "one Flemishe chaire, four joyned stooles, a joyned forme, two joyned foote-stooles," such as at this time would only be found in the houses of the poor; but we must remember that they were made costly by the exquisite carving in oak, specimens of which still remain. We find no mention made of looking-glasses before the time of Henry the Eighth; they were always made of steel, and kept in cases, that they might be carried in the ladies' pockets, or locked-up with other trinkets for fear of damage. Large mirrors were never used for ornament and hung up in the rooms uncovered, as at the present time; but confined to dressing-closets and bedrooms. In an inventory of the "secret stuff" at Westminster, we find, "a faire greate lookinge steel glass, sett in crymson velvette richly embrawdered with damaske pirles, with knots of blew; and a curtain to the same of blewe tafata, embrawdered with Venice gold and cordiauntes of the same gold." The period when clocks were first introduced into England is doubtful. Alfred had candles made, and divided into twenty-four parts, each burning exactly an hour; but in the reign of Henry the Second, we are told that Fair Rosamond had a coffer wherein were represented various figures moving like life, as giants, beasts, and birds flying to and fro; which seems as if clockwork were understood. In 1328, Richard de Wallingford, Abbot of St. Albans, gave a clock to the church, greatly exceeding any in the kingdom; and in the following century the vast number of clocks in the inventories becomes remarkable. At Westminster was one "shewing the course of the planets, also the dayes of the year; this was very elegant, being gilt and enamelled, and richly ornamented with the King's coat of arms, having a chime:" and in the manuscripts we see them with strings and weights like the Dutch clocks hung against the wall. The frequenters of Hampton Court will remember the one which is still to be seen there, bearing the date of 1540; which is said to go tolerably after so long a period of ease. Horace Walpole, among his curiosities at Strawberry Hill, possessed one which was a present from Henry the Eighth to Anne Boleyn, and had been given to him by Lady Elizabeth Germaine. It was silver gilt, richly chased, engraved and ornamented with fleurs de lys, little heads, &c. At Goodrich Court is a curious table-clock, of German manufacture; the engravings of costume upon it mark it to be of the period of Queen Elizabeth. It is about fourteen inches in height, of metal partly gilt and partly silvered; | it has two bells and a double set of hours-that is, from one to twenty-four-illustrating Shakspeare's lines: "He'll watch the horologe a double set, If drink rock not his cradle."-Othello. Having noticed the furniture in use at this period among the higher classes only, we will give a few lines from an old song of Warner's describing the poor man's house. It speaks of an earl who had lost his way. He "Did house him in a peakish graunge within a forest great, Where knowen and welcomed (as the place and persons might afforde), Browne bread, whig*, bacon, curds and milk were set him on the borde; A cushion made of lists, a stoole half-backed with a hoope, Were brought him, and he sitteth down beside a sorry coupet. The poor old couple wished their breade were wheat, their whig were perry, Their bacon cheese, their milk and curds were creame, to make him merry." When we reach the Elizabethan age we find a considerable improvement in the forms of the tables and chairs. The former are changed from the long square, with straight legs, to round, mounted on a pillar and claws. One with a folding top of Henry the Eighth's time is engraved in Shaw's splendid work on furniture, and the original of another, very handsomely carved, is preserved at Leeds Castle, bearing the date of 1600. Chairs belonging to this period are still to be met with, in noble houses. Among the most splendid are those at Penshurst Place, Kent, the residence of the noble and gallant Sir Philip Sidney. The one in which Queen Mary was crowned and married is preserved in Winchester Cathedral: His Holiness the Pope had sent it to her as a present; but we must feel that his benediction was of little value in procuring happiness for her, in either event of her life. Straight, high-backed, armchairs, with the centre and bottom stuffed, and covered with velvet, belong to this century. Mary, Queen of Scots, is represented as leaning on one, in a missal. The richly-carved buffets also make a grand appearance, showing the last style of Gothic architecture, and when loaded with gold and silver plate, of which every nobleman had an immense quantity, they must have been a more elegant ornament than our modern substitutes of sideboard and cheffonier. Mary, Queen of Scots, made her favourite Rousard a present of a buffet of silver. The great bed of Ware is a fine specimen of this century; and the one in which Lord Darnley, Mary's ill-fated husband, was born, is still to be seen at the old mansion of Temple Newsam, *Butter milk. Hen coop, or pen for poultry. H a place interesting in itself as being the scene | objects of vertu worthy of their companionship. where Sir Walter Scott draws the Templar's home, in "Ivanhoe." We now begin to hear of "carpets of English work, with arms in the centre; a square board carpet cloth for the table, with arms in the midst of it; one large carpet for a coop-bord; carpets fringed with crewell." Turkey carpets are mentioned in Edward the Sixth's time, and frequently alluded to in the reign of of Elizabeth; but they were used more for covering tables than floors. The latter, in rooms of state, were generally matted, and other apartments strewed with rushes. A rich carpet or green cloth was spread before the throne, from which circumstance knights dubbed upon it at coronations, &c., were called carpet knights, in distinction to those that were made in the field and for military service. Knives were first made in England in 1563. One of Queen Elizabeth's is mentioned in Nicholas's "Progresses," having a handle of white bone and a conceyte in it." In the same work we read of "a dozen of horn spoons in a bunch, as the instruments meetest to eat fur menty potage withal;" also a folding spoon of gold, and a pair of small snuffers silver gilt. We find among the Queen's presents a standish of ebony garnished with silver, with two boxes for ink and dust, with a looking-glass in the inside of the cover; also a desk to write on, with divers devices, a pair of tables, and chess-board with silver compters." But the furniture of our palaces and mansions received an immense impetus in splendour and taste during the seventeenth century, scarcely surpassed by our present style. The luxury of the French court during the reign of Louis the Fourteenth greatly influenced that of England, owing to the frequent intermarriages; and as many of the houses of our nobility, especially in the country, still contain rooms which have remained untouched from the days of the Jameses and the Charleses, we can be our selves eye-witnesses of their elegance; whilst the elaborate paintings of the Dutch and Flemish artists, who revelled in interiors, pourtray the dwellings of the humbler classes. Paper and leather hangings were invented early in this century: the latter were chiefly manufactured in Flanders, and consist of yellow leather stamped in a pattern: they are more curious and durable than pretty, and are not common in England. At the Hotel de Ville, Paris, there is a room hung with them. The walls of the wealthier classes were now enriched with the magnificent paintings of Rubens, Vandyke, Teniers, Rembrandt, added to the earlier ones of Holbein and Jansen and the ceilings with allegorical or historical subjects; for England has long been remarkable for the generous manner in which art is patronized by private collectors, whilst in other countries it is left to the reward of Government. Neither was Italian art neglected; but the chef-d'œuvres were displayed in gorgeous frames and amidst Curious china-ware came by way of Italy from the East, in the time of Queen Elizabeth; but in 1631 it was a regular article of importation by the East India Company's ships, and the collection of which has ever since been a weakness with the fairer part of creation, as unaccountable as that of buying old, musty books, with the lords of creation. In a warrant to the great wardrobe, issued by King James in 1613, on the occasion of the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth with the Elector Palatine, we have a copious list of furniture. "Item, to our embroiderer, William Brothericke, for embroidering a suit of hangings upon crimson velvet, richly garnished with cloth of gold and cloth of silver, laces of gold, partly with plates, and chain lace of gold without plates, Venice twists, and gold and silver and | Naples silk. For embroidering a sparvar bed of crimson velvet, double-valance and curtains of velvet and satin, carpet and screen cloth, chair, stools, and cushions, all very richlygarnished with cloth of gold, cloth of silver, and coloured satin, &c." There is a curious letter addressed to Lord Compton, afterwards Earl of Northampton, by his wife, unfolding the domestic economy of the period, which we present to our readers, somewhat abridged: "MY SWEET LIFE,-Now I have declared to you my mind for the settling of your state, it were best for me to bethink what allowance were meetest for me. I pray and beseech you to grant me the sum of £2,600 quarterly to be paid; also £600 quarterly for the performance of charitable works and those things that I would not, neither will be, accountable for. Also I will have three horses for mine own saddle, that none shall dare to lend or borrow none lend but I, none borrow but you. Also I would have two gentlewomen, lest one be sick or have some other let; for it is an undecent thing for a gentlewoman to stand mumping alone, when God hath blessed their lord and lady with a great estate. Also I will have six or eight gentlemen, and my two coaches, one lined with velvet to myself, with four very fair horses; and a coach for my women, lined with cloth and laced with gold, otherwise with scarlet and laced with silver, and four good horses. Also at any time when I travel, caroches and horses for me and my women; orderly, not pestering my things with my women's, nor theirs with either chambermaid's, nor theirs with washmaid's: and the laundresses shall go before, to see all safe; and the chambermaids, that the chamber be ready, sweet, and clean. And I must have a gentleman-usher, and two footmen : and my desire is that you defray all the charges for them. And for myself, beside my yearly allowance, I would have twenty gowns of apparel, six of them excellent good ones, eight for the country, and six others of them very excellent. Also I would have to put in my purse £2,000, and £200, and so you to pay my debts. Also I would have £6,000 to buy me jewels, and £4,000 to buy me a pearl chain. Also I will have all my houses furnished, and my lodging chambers to be suited with all such furniture as is fit: as beds, stools, chairs, suitable cushions, carpets, silver warming pans, cupboards of plate, fair hangings, and such like. So for my drawing chamber in all houses: I will have them delicately furnished, both with hangings, couch, canopy, glass, carpet, chairs, cushions, and all things thereunto belonging. Also my desire is that you would pay your debts, build up Ashley House, and purchase lands, and lend no money, as you love God, to my Lord Chamberlain, who would have all, perhaps your life from you. So now that I have declared to you what I would have, and what it is that I would not have, I pray you when you be an earl to allow me £2,000 more than I now desire, and double attendance." Very modest demands truly! and we may hope that her lord granted them all.* That useful invention for floors-oilcloth was known and made in England in this century, and destined to supersede the rushes and matting which covered our ancestor's halls. In the "Mercurius Politicus," for February 2nd, 1660, is the following advertisement: "Upon Ludgate Hill, at the Sun and Rainbow, dwelleth one Richard Bailey, who maketh oilcloth the German way, and is also very skilful in the art of oiling of linen, cloth, taffeta, woollen, &c., so as to make it impenetrable, that no wet or weather can enter." The form of chairs remained much the same, but the backs rather higher, and the seats are sometimes made of cane. Not the least valued piece of furniture at the splendid seat of the Earl of Derby, Knowsley Park, is a chair of this period, in which the gallant Earl was beheaded, in the town of Bolton, when flying from the Parliamentary army after the battle of Worcester; which Cromwell was accustomed to call ticularly illustrated by the engraving of a room fitted up à la Chinoise, with numbers of small brackets following the outlines of the panels, mantel-piece, &c.; on each of which stands a cup, jar, or other china ornament. The plays of this date have continual allusions to the purchase of jars, inonsters, and mandarins, by ladies of rank. Japanned folding-screens and cabinets were also much in vogue. The principal novelty was, however, the introduction of mahogany; a block of it was sent to Dr. Gibbons, a physician in London, and its beauty when wrought up attracted universal attention, which increasing rather than diminishing with use and age, caused it rapidly to supersede other woods for the general purposes of cabinet-making and embellishment of churches and other edifices, as the carved pulpits, galleries, bannisters, doors, &c., sufficiently testify. In addition to the Chinese porcelain, the manufactures of Holland, Germany, and France, enlightened by the revelations of a Jesuit named D'Entrecolles in 1712, contributed their productions, and a multiplicity of articles for the toilet and writing table were added to the dinner, tea, and coffee services, composed in this novel material. With the close of this century the making of flint glass rendered us independent of foreigners for the supply of the common articles, such as decanters, drinking glasses, &c.; but for plate glass we were still indebted to Venice. The art of making what are called Brussels carpets was introduced at Kidderminster in 1745 from Tournay, and by the end of George the Second's reign the floors of all respectable houses were carpeted as at present. SONNET his "crowning mercy." It is of black oak, (Composed during service in Westminster Abbey). plain and strong, with a very low back, and arms, having a silver plate inserted in the back, with an inscription. The commencement of the eighteenth century may be said to have completed the furnishing of English mansions, and supplied them with every luxury and convenience they at present possess. Tables, cabinets, clock-cases, began to exhibit that beautiful workmanship known by the name of "marqueterie," from the inventor M. Marquet, and the magnificent carved and gilt furniture à la Louis Quatorze and à la Louis Quinze, became the rage. In 1703 one of the earliest works on furniture was published by the Sieur Marot, architect to William the Third, and contains most exquisite designs for fauteuils, canapés, mirrors, girandoles, beds, tables, &c. The passion for porcelain is par Our author should have told us that this letter is supposed to have been a satire. BY BASIL KERR. Through the long aisles, and airy vaults above, And in a blissful trance ascends the skies, His head bent downwards in the search for gold, Its gain or loss his ev'ry hope and fear. Where now the mind from whence such shrine had birth? Where the sublime devotion, which of old, Raised towards God's throne this vast embodied prayer? |