and
furnished and decorated Windsor Castle. At the King's death their account
was disputed, and L30,000 was struck off, a loss which necessitated an
arrangement with their creditors. Shortly after this, however, they took
the barracks of the London Light Horse Volunteers in the Gray's Inn Road
(now the Hospital), and carried on there for a time a very extensive
business. Seddon's work ranked with Gillow's, and they shared with that
house the best orders for furniture.

Thomas Seddon, painter of Oriental subjects, who died in 1856, and P.
Seddon, a well-known architect, were grandsons of the original founder of
the firm. On the death of the elder brother, Thomas, the younger one then
transferred his connection to the firm of Johnstone and Jeanes, in Bond
Street, another old house which still carries on business as "Johnstone
and Norman," and who some few years ago executed a very extravagant order
for an American millionaire. This was a reproduction of Byzantine designs
in furniture of cedar, ebony, ivory, and pearl, made from drawings by Mr.
Alma Tadema, R.A.

[Illustration: Design of a Room, in the Classic Style, by Thomas Hope,
Architect, In 1807.]

Snell, of Albemarle Street, had been established early in the century, and
obtained an excellent reputation; his specialite was well-made birch
bedroom suites, but he also made furniture of a general description. The
predecessor of the present firm of Howard and Son, who commenced
business in Whitechapel as early as 1800, and the first Morant, may all be
mentioned as manufacturers of the first quarter of the century.

Somewhat later, Trollopes, of Parliament Street; Holland, who had
succeeded Dowbiggin (Gillow's apprentice), first in Great Pulteney Street,
and subsequently at the firm's present address; Wilkinson, of Ludgate
Hill, founder of the present firm of upholsterers in Bond Street;
Aspinwall, of Grosvenor Street; the second Morant, of whom the great Duke
of Wellington made a personal friend; and Grace, a prominent decorator of
great taste, who carried out many of Pugin's Gothic designs, were all men
of good reputation. Miles and Edwards, of Oxford Street, whom Hindleys
succeeded, were also well known for good middle-class furniture. These are
some of the best known manufacturers of the first half of the present
century, and though until after the great Exhibition there was, as a rule,
little in the designs to render their productions remarkable, the work of
th