stoon work over the communion table. Gibbons was an
Englishman, but appears to have spent his boyhood in Holland, where he was
christened "Grinling." He died in 1721. His pupils were Samuel Watson, a
Derbyshire man, who did much of the carved work at Chatsworth, Drevot of
Brussels, and Lawreans of Mechlin. Gibbons and his pupils founded a school
of carving in England which has been continued by tradition to the present
day.

[Illustration: Silver Furniture at Knole. (_From a Photo by Mr. Corke, of
Sevenoaks._)]

A somewhat important immigration of French workmen occurred about this
time owing to the persecutions of Protestants in France, which followed,
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, by Louis XIV., and these
refugees bringing with them their skill, their patterns and ideas,
influenced the carving of our frames and the designs of some of our
furniture. This influence is to be traced in some of the contents of
Hampton Court Palace, particularly in the carved and gilt centre tables
and the _torcheres_ of French design but of English workmanship. It is
said that no less than 50,000 families left France, some thousands of whom
belonged to the industrial classes, and settled in England and Germany,
where their descendants still remain. They introduced the manufacture of
crystal chandeliers, and founded our Spitalfields silk industry and other
trades, till then little practised in England.

The beautiful silver furniture at Knole belongs to this time, having been
made for one of the Earls of Dorset, in the reign of James II. The
illustration is from a photograph taken by Mr. Corke, of Sevenoaks.
Electrotypes of the originals are in the South Kensington Museum. From two
other suites at Knole, consisting of a looking glass, a table, and a pair
of _torcheres_, in the one case of plain walnut wood, and in the other of
ebony with silver mountings, it would appear that a toilet suite of
furniture of the time of James II. generally consisted of articles of a
similar character, more or less costly, according to circumstances. The
silver table bears the English Hall mark of the reign.

As we approach the end of the seventeenth century and examine specimens of
English furniture about 1680 to 1700, we find a marked Flemish influence.
The Stadtholder, King William III., with his Dutch friends, imported many
of their household goods[12], and our English craftsmen seem to have
copied these very closely. The chairs and set