sed means of gratifying
taste, enabled the sixteenth century virtuoso to adorn his home.

[Illustration: The "Queen's Room," Penshurst Place. (_Reproduced from
"Historic Houses of the United Kingdom" by permission of Messrs. Cassell &
Co., Limited._)]

[Illustration: Carved Oak Chimney Piece in Speke Hall, Near Liverpool.
Period: Elizabethan.]

Chapter IV.

Jacobean furniture.

English Home Life in the Reign of James I.--Sir Henry Wootton
quoted--Inigo Jones and his work--Ford Castle--Chimney Pieces in South
Kensington Museum--Table in the Carpenters' Hall---Hall of the Barbers'
Company--The Charterhouse--Time of Charles I.--Furniture at
Knole--Eagle House, Wimbledon, Mr. Charles Eastlake--Monuments at
Canterbury and Westminster--Settles, Couches, and Chairs of the Stuart
period--Sir Paul Pindar's House--Cromwellian Furniture--The
Restoration--Indo-Portuguese Furniture--Hampton Court Palace--Evelyn's
description--The Great Fire of London--Hall of the Brewers'
Company--Oak Panelling of the time--Grinling Gibbons and his work--The
Edict of Nantes--Silver Furniture at Knole--William III. and Dutch
influence--Queen Anne--Sideboards, Bureaus, and Grandfather's
Clocks--Furniture at Hampton Court.

[Illustration]

In the chapter on "Renaissance" the great Art revival in England has been
noticed; in the Elizabethan oak work of chimney pieces, panelling, and
furniture, are to be found varying forms of the free classic style which
the Renaissance had brought about. These fluctuating changes in fashion
continued in England from the time of Elizabeth until the middle of the
eighteenth century, when, as will be shewn presently, a distinct
alteration in the design of furniture took place.

The domestic habits of Englishmen were getting more established. We have
seen how religious persecution during preceding reigns, at the time of the
Reformation, had encouraged private domestic life of families, in the
smaller rooms and apart from the gossiping retainer, who might at any time
bring destruction upon the household by giving information about items of
conversation he had overheard. There is a passage in one of Sir Henry
Wootton's letters, written in 1600, which shews that this home life was
now becoming a settled characteristic of his countrymen.

"Every man's proper mansion house and home, being the theatre of his
hospitality, the seate of his selfe fruition, the comfortabl