A table of walnut wood, inlaid, exists at Hardwick Hall, which affords some idea of later sixteenth century magnificence. It is approximately ten feet long by four and a quarter feet wide. The top consists of three boards inlaid with decoration in three parallel, longitudinal bands. One is of musical instruments and scrolls of music. The centre band contains very intricate cartouche ornament with cherubs, stags, and the arms of Cavendish, Talbot, and Hardwick. 'Bess of Hardwick' took, as her fourth husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1568. The arms commemorate her own wedding, and the marriage of her son and daughter, Henry and Mary Cavendish, to a son and daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury. A shield on the left bears the arms of Talbot impaling Hardwick, and that on the right those of Cavendish impaling Talbot. In the centre there is a cartouche, and a mysterious couplet to this effect -

'The Redolent Smle Of Aeglentyne' We Stagges Exault To the Deveyne.'

The third band of ornament contains more musical instruments, backgammon or tric-trac boards and playing-cards. The curious spelling of the word 'Smell' is just such a mistake as an Italian workman might make in an inscription in a foreign tongue. Many English churchyards, however, can show examples of the monumental mason's carelessness with his own language, so that it is not impossible that this table was the work of English workmen, who had either been to Italy or been taught by Italian inlayers.

The legs of this table are not elegant, being of an elongated peg-top shape, with a small gadrooned member, and Tittle flattened Ionic capitals above. The peg-top shafts are inlaid with lines of coloured wood. The inside of the stretchers is also covered with ornament. This table is perhaps the most elaborate and grandiose inlaid table existing which may fairly be said to be of English workmanship. It is not in the best of condition.

There is another much smaller table at Hardwick with fluted, square, columnar legs, and an inlaid top decorated with the same playing-card inlay as that which occurs on the larger specimen. The five of each suit appears as the corner ornament of a strap-work inlaid border enclosing a square resembling a chessboard, except that in lieu of dark and light squares there are dark circles with light interspacings. This, like the other, is a totally exceptional object.

Plate CIII.

I - Table, Walnut 1750 Circa Embroidery 1700 Circa

2 - Table, Mahogany 1760 Circa

3 - Pole Screen, Mahogany 1750 Embroidery Earlier

CIII. (1) Table, walnut, 1750 circa. Embroidery 1700 circa. Lieutenant-Colonel G. B. C. Lyons.

(2) Table, mahogany, 1760 circa. Sir Charles Robinson, C.B.

Dimensions: Height 24¼, Width of top 13¾ inches.

(3) Pole-screen, mahogany, 1750. Embroidery earlier. Sir Charles Robinson, C.B.

Dimensions: Extreme height 57½, Height of screen 28½, Width 22½ inches.