customs--Chairs of the sixteenth century--Coverings and Cushions of the
time, extract from old Inventory--South Kensington Cabinet--Elizabethan
Mirror at Goodrich Court--Shaw's "Ancient Furniture" the Glastonbury
Chair--Introduction of Frames into England--Characteristics of Native
Woodwork--Famous Country Mansions, alteration in design of Woodwork and
Furniture--Panelled Rooms at South Kensington--The Charterhouse--Gray's
Inn Hall and Middle Temple--The Hall of the Carpenter's Company--The
Great Bed of Ware--Shakespeare's Chair--Penshurst Place.


[Illustration]

It is impossible to write about the period of the Renaissance without
grave misgivings as to the ability to render justice to a period which has
employed the pens of many cultivated writers, and to which whole volumes,
nay libraries, have been devoted. Within the limited space of a single
chapter all that can be attempted is a brief glance at the influence on
design by which furniture and woodwork were affected. Perhaps the simplest
way of understanding the changes which occurred, first in Italy, and
subsequently in other countries, is to divide the chapter on this period
into a series of short notes arranged in the order in which Italian
influence would seem to have affected the designers and craftsmen of
several European nations.

Towards the end of the fifteenth century there appears to have been an
almost universal rage for classical literature, and we believe some
attempt was made to introduce Latin as a universal language; it is certain
that Italian Art was adopted by nation after nation, and a well known
writer on architecture (Mr. Parker) has observed:--"It was not until the
middle of the nineteenth century that the national styles of the different