iefly pear tree, inlaid with coromandel and
other woods. Its height is 4 ft. 7 in. and width 3 ft. 1 in., but there is
in it an immense amount of careful detail which could only be the work of
the most skilful craftsmen of the day, and it was evidently intended for a
room of moderate dimensions where the intricacies of design could be
observed. Mr. Hungerford Pollen has described this cabinet fully, giving
the subjects of the ornament, the Latin mottoes and inscriptions, and
other details, which occupy over four closely printed pages of his museum
catalogue. It cost the nation L500, and was an exceedingly judicious
purchase.

Chairs were during the first half of the sixteenth century very scarce
articles, and as we have seen with other countries, only used for the
master or mistress of the house. The chair which is said to have belonged
to Anna Boleyn, of which an illustration is given on p. 74, is from the
collection of the late Mr. Geo. Godwin, F.S.A., formerly editor of "_The
Builder_," and was part of the contents of Hever Castle, in Kent. It is of
carved oak, inlaid with ebony and boxwood, and was probably made by an
Italian workman. Settles were largely used, and both these and such chairs
as then existed, were dependent, for richness of effect, upon the loose
cushions with which they were furnished.

If we attempt to gain a knowledge of the designs of the tables of the
sixteenth, and early part of the seventeenth centuries, from interiors
represented in paintings of this period, the visit to the picture gallery
will be almost in vain, for in nearly every case the table is covered by a
cloth. As these cloths or carpets, as they were then termed, to
distinguish them from the "tapet" or floor covering, often cost far more
than the articles they covered, a word about them may be allowed.

Most of the old inventories from 1590, after mentioning the "framed" or
"joyned" table, name the "carpett of Turky werke" which covered it, and
in many cases there was still another covering to protect the best one,
and when Frederick, Duke of Wurtemburg, visited England in 1592 he noted a
very extravagant "carpett" at Hampton Court, which was embroidered with
pearls and cost 50,000 crowns.

The cushions or "quysshens" for the chairs, of embroidered velvet, were
also very important appendages to the otherwise hard oaken and ebony
seats, and as the actual date of the will of Alderman Glasseor quoted
below is 1589, we may gather fr