ignity of style, of this great master. It has been said in
speaking of the staircase, plaster ornament, and woodwork of this
interior, "upon the whole is set the seal of the time of Charles I." As
the work was probably finished during that King's reign, the impression
intended to be conveyed was that after wood carving had rather run riot
towards the end of the sixteenth century, we had now in the interior
designed by Inigo Jones, or influenced by his school, a more quiet and
sober style.

[Illustration: The King's Chamber, Ford Castle.]

The above woodcut shews a portion of the King's room in Ford Castle, which
still contains souvenirs of Flodden Field--according to an article in the
_Magazine of Art_. The room is in the northernmost tower, which still
preserves externally the stern, grim character of the border fortress; and
the room looks towards the famous battle-field. The chair shews a date
1638, and there is another of Dutch design of about fifty or sixty years
later; but the carved oak bedstead, with tapestry hangings, and the oak
press, which the writer of the article mentions as forming part of the old
furniture of the room, scarcely appear in the illustration.

Mr. Hungerford Pollen tells us that the majority of so-called Tudor houses
were actually built during the reign of James I., and this may probably be
accepted as an explanation of the otherwise curious fact of there being
much in the architecture and woodwork of this time which would seem to
have belonged to the earlier period.

The illustrations of wooden chimney-pieces will show this change. There
are in the South Kensington Museum some three or four chimney-pieces of
stone, having the upper portions of carved oak, the dates of which have
been ascertained to be about 1620; these were removed from an old house in
Lime Street, City, and give us an idea of the interior decoration of a
residence of a London merchant. The one illustrated is somewhat richer
than the others, the columns supporting the cornice of the others being
almost plain pillars with Ionic or Doric capitals, and the carving of the
panels of all of them is in less relief, and simpler in character, than
those which occur in the latter part of Elizabeth's time.

[Illustration: Carved Oak Centre Table. _In the Hall of the Carpenters'
Company._]

The earliest dated piece of Jacobean furniture which has come under the
writer's observation is the octagonal table belonging to the Carpenter