urious are some of the notes! This book is the true
history of his reign, and would be worth to us fifty black-letter
Caxtons. Mr. Thorpe of Piccadilly can tell you all about it. [Picture:
Monastic chair and damask curtains] Oh, never mind that manuscript in its
old French binding, and those exquisitely-wrought silver clasps, and dear
old Horace Walpole's books. We must enter the dining-room. Here sit
down in this monastic chair, and look around you for five minutes. This
chair Mr. Baylis picked up in Lincoln; and the curtains beside it, they
came from Strawberry Hill, and are of genuine Spitalfields damask. There
is no such damask to be had now. Eighty years ago were these curtains
manufactured, and yet they are in most excellent condition. The greater
portion of the Gothic oak panelling around us originally formed the back
of the stalls in the beautiful chapel of Magdalen College, Oxford.
During the late repairs this panelling was removed and sold. Much of it
was purchased by the Marquess of Salisbury for Hatfield House, and the
remainder Mr. Baylis bought. More of the oak panelling in the room,
especially the elaborately-wrought specimens and the rich tracery work,
have been obtained from Canterbury Cathedral, York Minster, St. Mary's
Coventry, and other churches.

[Picture: Ornate chimney-piece]

The chimney-piece is a rich composition of ancient carving; the canopy
came from St. Michael's Church, Coventry, and in the niches are some fine
figures of the kings and queens of England. [Picture: Knight's armour]
The fire-back is an interesting relic, as it is the original one placed
in the great dining-hall of Burghley House, by Elizabeth's minister,
whose arms are upon it, with the date 1575. The sideboard, with its
canopy of oak, assimilates with the fitting of the room, and had upon its
shelves a glittering display of ancient glass and early plate. Salvers
and cups of singular forms and beautiful shapes arose proudly up, one
above the other, with dishes of Raffaelle ware beneath them. But I
cannot help seeing that the steel-clad knight, who keeps guard in a
recess by the sideboard, attracts more of your attention. [Picture:
Leathern black jack and iron jug] The effigy is an excellent suit of
fluted armour of Henry VIIth's time; and in the opposite recess, those
huge drinking-vessels are only an honest old English leathern black jack
and an iron jug; the former from St. Cross, Winc