ANDERSON'S HISTORY OF COMMERCE.

The ceilings of that part of Wresill Castle left standing by the
Commonwealth's soldiers still appear richly carved, and the sides of the
rooms are ornamented with a great profusion of ancient sculpture finely
executed in wood, exhibiting the ancient bearings, crests, badges and
devices of the Percy family, in a great variety of forms, set off with all
the advantages of painting, gilding and imagery. . . . NOBLEMEN in HENRY
the Eighth's time were obliged to carry all the beds, hangings and
furniture with them when they removed. The usual manner of hanging the
rooms in the old castles was only to cover the naked walls with tapestry
or arras hung upon tenter hooks, from which they were easily taken down
upon every removal. On such an occasion the number of carts employed in a
considerable family must have formed a caravan nearly as large as those
which traverse the deserts of the East. . . . At the time of the
Northumberland House-hold book, glass, though it had perhaps been long
applied to the decorating churches, was not very commonly used in
dwelling-houses or castles.

ARCHAEOLOGIA.

Rooms provided with chimnies are noticed as a luxury by the author of
Pierce Ploughman. 'Now,' says an author still more recent, 'have we many
chimnies, and yet our tenderlings complain of rheums, catarrhs and poses,
(colds in the head.) Then had we none but _rere dosses_, (plates of iron
or a coating of brick to enable the wall to resist the flame,) and our
heads did never ache. For as the smoke in those days was supposed to be a
sufficient hardening for the timber of the house, so it was reputed a far
better medicine to keep the good man and his family from the quacke,
(ague,) or pose, wherewith, as then, very few were oft acquainted.'

HARRISON'S DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND PREFIXED TO HOLINSHED.

IDYLL.

IN IMITATION OF THEOCRITUS, BY WILLIAM CHIDDON.

Thou wanderer where the wild wood ceaseless breathes
The sweetly-murmuring strain, from falling rills
Or soft autumnal gales; O! seek thou there
Some fountain gurgling from the rifted rock,
Of pure translucent wave, whose margent green
Is loved by gentlest nymphs, and all the train
Of that chaste goddess of the silver bow;
For silent, shady groves, by purling springs,
Delight the train, and through the gliding hours