Hunt, Thomas Frederick; Moyes, James [Bearb.]: Exemplars of Tudor Architecture, Adapted To Modern Habitations: With Illustrative Details, Selected From Ancient Edifices; And Observations on the Furniture of the Tudor Period (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, And Green, 1830)

SECTION V.

dTinnittirc, (tc.
---“ My house
Is richly furnished with plate and gold;
Basons and ewers:
My hangings all of Tyrian tapestry :
In ivory coffers I have stuffed my crowns;
In cypress chests my arras, counterpoints,
Costly apparel, tents, and canopies,
Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss’d with pearl,
Valence of Venice gold in needlework,
Pewter and brass, and all things that belong
To houses or housekeeping.”—Taming the Shrew, Act II. Scene 1.
Anterior to the Tudors, household furniture was in general of a rude,
substantial character, — the tables formed of boards on trestles, the seats
of massy oak benches* or stools, and the floors strewed with straw.f
* “ &n balle for an bpgb kgng, an bousebolb to bolben,
SBftb brob borbes abouten, pbenebeb fuel dene.”—Plowman's Crede.
t “ SSJban a ebambre a fire fs, or an ball,
0®el more nebe fs, ft sobainlg restofoe,
®ban to bfsputen anb ask among us all
l^obi the canble tn tbe strafue is fall.”
Chaucer’s Troilus and Cressida.
Fitz-Stephens, the historian and secretary of Thomas a Becket, mentions, among other
particulars, that his apartments were every day in winter covered with clean straw or hay, and