rest in connection with the woodwork of Middle
Temple. He mentions that the screen was paid for by contributions from
each bencher of twenty shillings, each barrister of ten shillings, and
every other member of six shillings and eightpence; that the Hall was
founded in 1562, and furnished ten years later, the screen being put up in
1574: and that the memorials of some two hundred and fifty "Readers" which
decorate the otherwise plain oak panelling, date from 1597 to 1804, the
year in which Mr. Herbert's book was published. Referring to the
furniture, he says:--"The massy oak tables and benches with which this
apartment was anciently furnished, still remain, and so may do for
centuries, unless violently destroyed, being of wonderful strength." Mr.
Herbert also mentions the masks and revels held in this famous Hall in the
time of Elizabeth: he also gives a list of quantities and prices of
materials used in the decoration of Gray's Inn Hall.

[Illustration: Three Carved Oak Panels. Now in the Court Room of the Hall
of the Carpenters' Company. Removed from the former Hall. Period:
Elizabethan.]

In the Hall of the Carpenters' Company, in Throgmorton Avenue, are three
curious carved oak panels, worth noticing here, as they are of a date
bringing them well into this period. They were formerly in the old Hall,
which escaped the Great Fire, and in the account books of the Corporation
is the following record of the cost of one of these panels:--

"Paide for a planke to carve the arms of the Companie iij_s_."

"Paide to the Carver for carvinge the Arms of the Companie xxiij_s_.
iiij_d_."

The price of material (3s.) and workmanship (23s. 4d.) was certainly not
excessive. All three panels are in excellent preservation, and the design
of a harp, being a rebus of the Master's name, is a quaint relic of old
customs. Some other oak furniture, in the Hall of this ancient Company,
will be noticed in the following chapter. Mr. Jupp, a former Clerk of the
Company, has written an historical account of the Carpenters, which
contains many facts of interest. The office of King's Carpenter or
Surveyor, the powers of the Carpenters to search, examine, and impose
fines for inefficient work, and the trade disputes with the "Joyners," the
Sawyers, and the "Woodmongers," are all entertaining reading, and throw
many side-lights on the woodwork of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.

[Illustration: Part of an Elizabethan Staircase