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The ceiling quaintly carved and groin'd,
With pendent pediments reversed!
A bygone age recalls to mind,

Whose glories song hath oft rehearsed.
These tell a plain unvarnish'd tale,

Of wealth's decline, and pride's decay;
Nor less unto the mind unveil

Those things which cannot pass away."

Rushes for covering the floors were gradually discontinued; the lower classes used sand, the middle and upper ranks had their floors polished, and sometimes inlaid with different coloured woods. Carpets, or pieces of tapestry, were frequently laid down in different parts of the room, not closely fitted to the whole floor, as now. The orders of John Haryngton's household, in 1566, direct that "the hall be made clean every day, by eight in the winter, and seven in the summer;" all stairs in the house, and rooms that need shall require, were to be made clean on Fridays, after dinner. When any stranger departed, his chamber was "to be drest up again within four hours after,' -a great improve. ment upon the slovenly habits of earlier days.

Till the reign of Elizabeth, the hall was the principal apartment; some of the halls, in houses built in the early part of the sixteenth century, have beautifully carved ceilings, and other ornaments: the master took his meals there, surrounded by his dependents, who sat at different tables, according to their rank; the gates of the building being locked during the repast. The halls of the latter part of the century were less elaborately finished. As the feudal customs declined, the halls were used more as entrance rooms; the dining parlours, or banqueting rooms, and the withdrawing rooms and gallery, were the customary resorts of the family; upon these apartments most care was bestowed.

The staircases were constructed with most care, and planned with attention to their effect as prominent objects in mansions. The balusters were carved, and the walls adorned.

The lady's closet, or the boudoir, and the nurseries,

became apartments of importance. Some careful dames caused their closets to be placed so that when at their devotions, or otherwise engaged in those rooms, they could see into the servants' hall. The females of that day, even ladies of rank, were expected to give considerable attention to household matters.

As the habitations were more regularly built, so the stories were more clearly defined than in older buildings: it was not uncommon to speak of each story as a separate house, though they were often confused by the varying heights of different rooms, as we see in old buildings. The description of an ancient house, in one of Pope's letters, gives a lively idea of the confused plan of the interiors of houses built or altered at this period.

Oxnead Hall, Norfolk, represented in the engraving on the next page, with a later addition, was a splendid building of this period. The form of the letter E will be observed.

FURNITURE.

The advancing wealth and improved habits of the English people, led to the increase of articles of furniture. Hollingshed, writing in the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, says, that old men could remember great improvements in their time; as the exchanging of wooden platters for pewter, and wooden spoons to those of silver or tin. Formerly, not four pieces of pewter would be found in a farmer's house, but now there were many articles of pewter, and several of silver.

Many specimens of the furniture of the sixteenth century remain, in bedsteads, chairs, tables, cabinets, and other articles. They are generally massive in form, and richly ornamented, though often coarsely finished. The testers and headpieces of the bedsteads were frequently of wood, covered with various devices. The travelling bedstead of Richard III. was of this description: it was left at the Blue Boar inn, at Leicester,

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where he slept the night before the battle of Bosworth: about a century afterwards, a large amount of gold coin was discovered in the frame-work.

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The curtains and canopies of beds, and the hangings of chambers, were often richly worked. In 1495, Henry VII. paid the large sum of 1587. 6s. 8d. for browdrying of two chambers with a bedd," at the palace of Shene. The ladies in particular excelled in needlework, both for furniture and articles of dress, during the whole of this period. They also wrought richly adorned covers for books.

A complete inventory of the furniture of Mr. Richard Fenner, early in the reign of Henry VIII., is given by Strutt. He was a person of property, having a large park, with all sorts of deer. The great hall was furnished with pieces of tapestry, three tables with trestles and forms, and a hawk's perch. The parlour was wainscoted; it had a fair table, forms, two turned chairs, three chairs for women, a cupboard, four footstools, six cushions of tapestry work, a carpet of striped Turkey say, two little carpets, awndirons for burning wood, and a fire fork. It had a set of hangings, a picture of Lucretia, and one of Mary Magdalene, and a backgammon board. There were other sitting rooms, with similar furniture. "The great chamber over the parlour" had three large pieces of tapestry of imagery, a trussing bed of wenskotte, with cellar and tester, grained with black velvet and yellow baudkin, with curtains of black and changeable persnet. A coverlet of tapestry of imagery, lined with canvas, a bed of down with a mattress; under the same bed a pair of fustians, two blankets, two pillows, and two bolsters. A cupboard of wenskotte, one turned chair, with a cushion of verder, three curtains of blue buckerom for three windows, which "be cieled with wenskotte.'

The master's chamber was more plainly furnished, but with similar articles; there were also three chests, containing clothes, etc. Even the inferior servants had mattresses, sheets, and coverlets, instead of lying

upon straw, as had been customary not many years before.

The kitchen had platters, dishes, chargers, porringers, and saucers; brass pots, pans, and chafing dishes; mortars, racks, spits, fryingpans, pails, etc., and " a cestorne of lede with a coke."

The service of silver plate was a basin and cover, parcel (or half) gilt, two salts with cover gilt, five ale pots with covers gilt, four goblets without covers gilt, sixteen spoons, two flat bowls, one with a cover, a pepper box gilt, and a chalice, parcel gilt. There was a large service of pewter for common use.

This inventory shows a great advance from the furniture of former times; but it would appear very scanty if compared with the inventory of a gentleman of 1,500l. or 2,000l. a year, at the present day.

The inventory of a knight's mansion of the same period presents a more complete list, but chiefly so in plate, of which he possessed a large service.

Harrison speaks of the plate of noblemen in Elizabeth's reign, as often exceeding 2,000l. in value, and that of a merchant, or gentleman, amounting to 500l. or 6001.

Lord North, in 1577, added to his plate fortyseven dishes and platters, a charger and eight saucers, weighing one thousand and twenty-three ounces, at about 4s. 10d. the ounce, for the cost was 2497. 8s. 6d., and about three-pence the ounce for making the same, 127. 16s. 3d. The work could not have been very elaborate or beautiful. In 1586, we read that the higher ranks, loathing these metals, because they were become common, generally chose rather the Venice glasses for drinking wine or beer.

Even artificers and farmers "learned to garnish their cupboards with plate, their beds with tapestry and silk hangings, and their tables with fine napery. This showed increased prosperity; and the manufacturing such articles brought increased remuneration to the various classes of artificers, thus giving in

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