at a Cavalier, when hard pressed, threw his purse into a
hollow tree, intending, if he escaped, to return and rescue it. This,
for some reason, he was unable to do, and his money remained in the
tree until old age necessitated its removal. The late Sir George
Russell, Bart., caused a box to be made of the wood of the tree, and
in it he placed the coins, so that they should not be separated after
their connexion of two centuries and a half.

[Illustration: Seventeenth-century Spy-glass in Taunton Museum]

We give an illustration of a remarkable flagon of bell-metal for
holding spiced wine, found in an old manor-house in Norfolk. It is of
English make, and was manufactured about the year 1350. It is embossed
with the old Royal Arms of England crowned and repeated several times,
and has an inscription in Gothic letters:--

God is grace Be in this place.
Amen.
Stand uttir[40] from the fier
And let onjust[41] come nere.

[40] Stand away.

[41] One just.

[Illustration: Fourteenth-century Flagon. From an old Manor House in
Norfolk]

This interesting flagon was bought from the Robinson Collection in
1879 by the nation, and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Many old houses, happily, contain their stores of ancient furniture.
Elizabethan bedsteads wherein, of course, the Virgin Queen reposed
(she made so many royal progresses that it is no wonder she slept in
so many places), expanding tables, Jacobean chairs and sideboards, and
later on the beautiful productions of Chippendale, Sheraton, and
Hipplethwaite. Some of the family chests are elaborate works of art.
We give as an illustration a fine example of an Elizabethan chest. It
is made of oak, inlaid with holly, dating from the last quarter of the
sixteenth century. Its length is 5 ft. 2 in., its height 2 ft. 11 in.
It is in the possession of Sir Coleridge Grove, K.C.B., of the
manor-house, Warborough, in Oxfordshire. The staircases are often
elaborately carved, which form a striking feature of many old houses.
The old Aldermaston Court was burnt down, but fortunately the huge
figures on the staircase were saved and appear again in the new Court,
the residence of a distinguished antiquary, Mr. Charles Keyser, F.S.A.
Hartwell House, in Buckinghamshire, once the residence of the exiled
French Court of Louis XVIII during the Revolution and the period of
the ascendancy of Napoleon I, has some curiously carved oaken figures