IN the chapter on ancient rarities I have already treated of some of the existing specimens of wooden chairs, as well as the so-called Saxon chair at the Leicester Hospital, in Warwick. Chairs of the Norman period do not exist, and those represented in manuscript or missal paintings are such mere abstractions that very little idea of shape or structure can be gathered from them. Coming down to the actual examples of English work that we can date with any knowledge or certainty, we find that, as with chests, the thirteenth century is the earliest period which can have any practical interest for the collector.

Perhaps the most deeply interesting chair in the kingdom, as well as one of the earliest, is the Coronation State chair, made by the order of Edward I. to contain the famous stone which he brought from Scone, in Scotland. The style of this chair is purely architectural, both form and detail showing it to belong to the end of the Early English period, the authenticity of its historical origin being thereby supported.

To the collector the chair does not appeal strongly, as it is more than probable that it has always been unique in the strict sense of that term, and it therefore exhibits a type of which it is impossible to acquire examples. Another chair of Edward I.'s time, which was actually used by that monarch, remains in the Chapter House of Lincoln Cathedral. This relic, however, has been tampered with, and is not improved by the modern additions of carved lions on its arms as well as a false back.

Several other early Gothic chairs exist in various parts of the country, most of which, though of different dates, would appear from certain signs to have once formed parts of the equipment of churches or other religious establishments. Of these, the chair remaining at Little Dunmow, in Essex, is most likely the earliest, probably dating from about the middle of the thirteenth century. This chair is notable from its association with the ancient custom of the Dunmow Flitch, the history of which is worth recording. Dunmow was formerly the seat of the powerful family of Fitzwaiter, one of whom, Robert, or Reginald, during the reign of Henry III., instituted the remarkable custom of giving away a gammon or flitch of bacon to any married couple who would, kneeling upon certain sharp flints in the churchyard, go through a sort of mock trial successfully, and take an oath that they had not, since they were 'Married man and wife, By household broils, or contentious strife, Or otherwise at bed and board, Offended each other in word or in deed,' the space of time necessary to qualify being not less than a year and a day.

The Fitzwalter who instituted this remarkable tenure is said to have secured the first flitch himself while disguised as a rustic from the Prior of the convent of Dunmow. The earliest claim on record was made in the year 1445, during the reign of Edward IV., when it was won by 'Steven Samuel and his wife.' The flitch was not won again till the twenty-third year of the reign of Henry VI., when a certain Richard Wright, of Bradbourn, in Norfolk, was successful in obtaining it. At the commencement of Henry VIII.'s reign it was again secured. After the dissolution of the monasteries the old custom was still kept up, being, in fact, a part of the manorial tenure, the ceremonies being performed at a court-baron held by the steward of the manor. Only three successful applications subsequent to the Reformation are recorded, the last being that of 'John Shakeshanks, a wool-comber, and Ann his wife, of Wethersfield,' on June 20, 1751. A contemporary painting of this last ceremony was produced by one David Ogbourne, and this, being executed in a truly Hogarthian manner, has given rise to the tradition that Hogarth was present on the occasion.

The picture was lately in the possession of a resident of Cavendish Square.

THIRTEENTH-CENTURY CHAIR IN LITTLE DUNMOW CHURCH, ESSEX, FORMERLY USED IN THE 'CEREMONY OF THE FLITCH'.

The happy couples who received the flitch were 'chaired' in the particular piece of furniture which now remains in Little Dunmow Church. The chair itself is very massive in its construction, the 'feathering ' and surface of the wood showing a most remarkable hardness. It has probably been painted at one time, but is now of a silvery gray colour, apparently not having been polished for several centuries. The back is formed of planks, which are tongued together, and has applied decoration in the shape of an arcade of the most pure Early English style. The pillars which supported the arches are now gone, but the mortices into which they fitted are apparent in the cross-bar above the seat. The outer right-hand side is decorated with roundels or wheels of simple but chaste design, and on the inner side of the arms there is some indication that a series of lightly-incised arches has at one time existed, but these have been all but obliterated by the wear of centuries. At the base of the chair, on either side, appear mortices, as though it had at one time possessed ornamental feet, and above these mortices are visible the holes through which the poles were passed when it was employed to raise aloft the happy couple.

The Essex folk who live in the collection of tumble-down Tudor cottages round about will tell you that this chair has been used for the ritual of the flitch since its inception, and a great many other people who should be wiser hold the same opinion. That this, however, cannot have been the case an examination of the chair will prove. The outer right-hand side of the chair, as I have already said, is carved with wheel-like decorations, but on the left-hand side the surface of the wood is plain, and various mortices are visible, which show that the seat is part of a larger structure, being, in fact, the end unit of a series of stalls. The truth is that the Dunmow chair, used by merrymakers at the ceremony of the flitch, is actually a waif from the conventual establishment, of which the only surviving part is a solitary aisle, now constituting the village church. It is, one is bound to admit, a remarkable coincidence that the chair and the ceremony should have had their origin in the same reign, but the fact that it is only part of some fitted furniture precludes the possibility of it having been designed for the purpose for which it was used in later years.