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 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 cocp-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 furmenty 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 objects of vertu worthy of their companionship. 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 | ticularly illustrated by the engraving of a room £4,000 to buy me a pearl chain. Also I will fitted up à la Chinoise, with numbers of small have all my houses furnished, and my lodging brackets following the outlines of the panels, chambers to be suited with all such furniture mantel-piece, &c.; on each of which stands a as is fit: as beds, stools, chairs, suitable cushions, cup, jar, or other china ornament. The plays carpets, silver warming pans, cupboards of of this date have continual allusions to the plate, fair hangings, and such like. So for my purchase of jars, inonsters, and mandarins, by drawing chamber in all houses: I will have them ladies of rank. Japanned folding-screens and delicately furnished, both with hangings, couch, cabinets were also much in vogue. 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 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, His head bent downwards in the search for gold, Where the sublime devotion, which of old, MATERIALS-2 ounces four-thread Berlin wool, of any colour that may be preferred; 1 ounce greyand-white pearl wool, ounce black, and ditto white, Ivory needles: No. 9 and No. 7. then two rows with black wool, to be followed by a single plain row with white wool; after which, cast off loosely with the same. Do another frill, of 10 shells, exactly the same, to sew on above the curtain, so as to cover it: and make end and tassels, which you run in along the back of the neck, to draw it in. They are put along the seam, below the upper frill, which is a few rows above that seam. A similar border is carried along the front, from point to point, and laid back: and the second (under) frill is put on a cape, sewed about six rows within the edge, so that it turns over easily, the upper frill border just covering this cape. It has 72 stitches cast on: and fourteen rows are knitted, with one stitch increase at the end of every row. The second border just goes the length of the head, and does not extend to the barbes. No combination of colours is prettier for this hood than mauve, with the grey, black, and white borders. AIGUILLETTE. This style of marking handkerchiefs, &c., has recently been introduced in Paris, where it has met with great favour. Leaves, flowers, shells, almost every conceivable object in Nature has furnished subjects for these tasteful designs.* We have preferred giving the form of the butterfly, as it may serve also for another pur pose-that of the upper part of a penwiper, in black velvet, worked with beads and coloured silks; the body put on separately, of velvet worked with gold coloured silk: the eyes of ruby beads, and the antennæ of short bristles. The edges should, of course, be worked in button-hole stitch, and the pieces of cloth on which the pen should be wiped must also be cut *For this, and every other pattern in which cot-nto the form of the insect. tons are used, we particularly recommend those of Messrs. Evans and Co., of Derby.-EDITOR. AIGUILLETTE. |