DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52829#0180
106
chairs and other movables, were too absurd to enter their imaginations:
and the obvious inconvenience of crockets and points at every angle, as
well as the risk of destruction to female habiliments, then costly and
gorgeous,* would at once have struck these sagacious workmen.
The balance in point of number and commodiousness is certainly in
favour of modern furniture; but the splendour of our beds, hangings,
and plate, is much inferior to that of earlier periods. Carved and
inlaid bedsteads, with hangings of cloth of gold, paled with white
damask and black velvet, and embroidered with heraldic badges; blue
velvet powdered with silver lions; black satin, with gold roses and
escutcheons of arms; tapestry of cloths of gold and silver for hanging
on the walls; gold plate enamelled with precious stones; and cloths of
gold for covering tables, — must have exceeded in magnificence any idea
we can form of their effect: yet such was the furniture of the nobility
and others of those times.
On the other hand, the comfort of a carpet under the feet was
seldom felt, and the luxury of a fork wholly unknown, in Elizabeth’s
reign : rushes commonly supplied the place of the former, and the fingers
were the invariable substitutes for the latter.
The circumstances under which furniture, plate, utensils, jewels, and
apparel, devolved upon generation after generation, is in some degree
proof of such articles being confined to persons of the higher ranks;
and that, even among those, they were not numerous. But there was
another and more powerful reason for the disposal of “ movables ” by
bequest. “ The influence of the clergy in point of property was pro-
digious. When their own interest or the superstition of mankind failed
of producing this effect,” (says the historian, treating of their various
See Illustrations, Section VI.
chairs and other movables, were too absurd to enter their imaginations:
and the obvious inconvenience of crockets and points at every angle, as
well as the risk of destruction to female habiliments, then costly and
gorgeous,* would at once have struck these sagacious workmen.
The balance in point of number and commodiousness is certainly in
favour of modern furniture; but the splendour of our beds, hangings,
and plate, is much inferior to that of earlier periods. Carved and
inlaid bedsteads, with hangings of cloth of gold, paled with white
damask and black velvet, and embroidered with heraldic badges; blue
velvet powdered with silver lions; black satin, with gold roses and
escutcheons of arms; tapestry of cloths of gold and silver for hanging
on the walls; gold plate enamelled with precious stones; and cloths of
gold for covering tables, — must have exceeded in magnificence any idea
we can form of their effect: yet such was the furniture of the nobility
and others of those times.
On the other hand, the comfort of a carpet under the feet was
seldom felt, and the luxury of a fork wholly unknown, in Elizabeth’s
reign : rushes commonly supplied the place of the former, and the fingers
were the invariable substitutes for the latter.
The circumstances under which furniture, plate, utensils, jewels, and
apparel, devolved upon generation after generation, is in some degree
proof of such articles being confined to persons of the higher ranks;
and that, even among those, they were not numerous. But there was
another and more powerful reason for the disposal of “ movables ” by
bequest. “ The influence of the clergy in point of property was pro-
digious. When their own interest or the superstition of mankind failed
of producing this effect,” (says the historian, treating of their various
See Illustrations, Section VI.