[Illustration:  In this walnut dressing-table the period of William and Mary has been adapted to modern needs.]

[Illustration:  This reproduction of a Charles II chair shows cherubs supporting crowns.]

The history of the great houses of England, and also the smaller manor-houses, is full of interest in connection with the study of furniture.  There are many manor-houses that show all the characteristics of the Gothic, Renaissance, Tudor and Jacobean periods, and from them we can learn much of the life of the times.  The early ones show absolute simplicity in the arrangement, one large hall for everything, and later a small room or two added.  The fire was on the floor and the smoke wandered around until it found its way out at the opening, or louvre, in the roof.  Then a chimney was built at the dais end of the hall, and the mantelpiece became an important part of the decoration.  The hall was divided by “screens” into smaller rooms, leaving the remainder for retainers, and causing the clergy to inveigh against the new custom of the lord of the manor “eating in secret places.”  The staircase developed from the early winding stair about a newel or post to the beautiful broad stairs of the Tudor period.  These were usually six or seven feet broad, with about six wide easy steps and then a landing, and the carving on the balusters was often very elaborate and sometimes very beautiful—­a ladder raised to the nth power.

Slowly the Gothic period died in England and slowly the Renaissance took its place.  There was never the gayety of decorative treatment that we find in France, but the English workmen, while keeping their own individuality, learned a tremendous amount from the Italians who came to the country.  Their influence is shown in the Henry VIIth Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and in the old part of Hampton Court Palace, built by Cardinal Wolsey.

The religious troubles between Henry VIII and the Pope and the change of religion helped to drive the Italians from the country, so the Renaissance did not get such a firm foothold in England as it did in France.  The mingling of Gothic and Renaissance forms what we call the Tudor period.  During the time of Elizabeth all trace of Gothic disappeared, and the influence of the Germans and Flemings who came to the country in great numbers, helped to shorten the influence of the Renaissance.  The over-elaboration of the late Tudor time corresponded with the deterioration shown in France in the time of Henry IV.  The Hall of Gray’s Inn, the Halls of Oxford, the Charterhouse and the Hall of the Middle Temple are all fine examples of the Tudor period.

We find very few names of furniture makers of those days; in fact, there are very few names known in connection with the buildings themselves.  The word architect was little used until after the Renaissance.  The owner and the “surveyor” were the people responsible, and the plans, directions and details given to the workmen were astonishingly meager.