THE practice of panelling or lining the interiors of buildings with wainscot dates from very early times, for we find it referred to in ancient documents, but there is good reason to believe that, apart from examples to be found in some ecclesiastical buildings, the oldest panelling still remaining in its place does not date earlier than the fifteenth century. Specimens of this date even are rare enough, and belong mainly to the latter end of that epoch.

Complete rooms full of panelling of the early part of the sixteenth century, although not common, are still to be found in considerable numbers all over the country. The types which we associate with the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. are the famous linen panel in all its diverse variations, the medallion portrait panel, embellished with arabesques, and, lastly, that curious form of Gothic decoration which the French denominate parchemin from its resemblance to a strip of that material. Sometimes two, or even all three of these varieties were employed for the decoration of one room, rendering the effect very rich and gorgeous. There is hardly a county in England that cannot boast of some specimens of this art. To mention only a few, reference may be made to such old-world buildings as Smithills Hall, Lancashire; Thame Park, Oxon.; the dining-halls of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Magdalen College, Oxford; Tolleshunt Darcy, Essex; Abington Abbey and Stanford Church, Northants; the Vine, Basingstoke, Hants; Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk; Agecroft Hall and Speke Hall, Lancashire.

Fred Roe. PARCHEMIN PANEL WITH ROPED CENTRE, AND CARVED WITH EMBLEMATICAL FIGURES AND VINE DECORATION, ABINGTON HALL, NORTHANTS, BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

These are places which have never lost their ancient dignity; but there are innumerable instances of buildings, once inhabited by the great and wealthy, which have fallen from their high estate. Of these, an admirable example is the Neptune Tavern, near the quay at Ipswich.

To true lovers of antiquities the spoliation of an old building must always savour of barbarism, but it must be remembered that taverns, from their very nature, are not the places best adapted for the preservation of architectural relics of a perishable character. A magnificent room full of panelling, with a superbly-carved overmantel in the style of the early Renaissance, was saved from wanton defacement some years ago by being removed from Sir Anthony Wingfield's* old mansion, now the Tankard public-house, at Ipswich. These fittings were transported in 1843 to a place of safe custody at Holywells, the seat of the Cobbold family. They include a remarkable run of panelling decorated in the ornate style of the early Renaissance, and forming an arcading, the arches of which are separated by pilasters. The tympana are filled in with shields and supporters. But the most remarkable feature of this superb room is its fireplace, which possesses an overmantel flanked and supported by pillars of a florid character, decorated with the acanthus-leaf, the centre displaying an oblong, carved panel sculptured with a much-disputed basso-relievo, which has been conjectured to represent such widely-separated subjects as the Battle of Bosworth and the Judgment of Paris.*

* Sir Anthony Wingfield was Captain of Henry VIII.'s guard and one of the executors of that monarch.

At the Old Baptist's Head Inn, near St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, rebuilt a few years since, a fine run of early linen panelling was formerly to be seen in the very picturesque tap-room. This house was once the residence of Sir Thomas Foster, a Judge in the Court of Common Pleas, who died there in 1612, and, with its beautiful carved stone mantelpiece, was, so far as its interior was concerned, one of the most picturesque of old London taverns, until the ruthless hand of the restorer improved its ancient features out of existence during the nineties. The Neptune Tavern, before mentioned, is an extremely interesting building, evidently in its palmy days the residence of a merchant prince who did not disdain to live over his counting-house near the busy riverside, as was the custom in the old days. In addition to some Tudor mantelpieces, this house still retains in its club-room at the back of the premises a magnificent run of linen panelling, topped midway up the wall with oblong panels some 4 inches in height and over 2 feet long, carved with exquisite arabesques, including masks and dolphins, skilfully and beautifully treated. Although heavily coated with paint, a more perfect specimen of this art for quality could not be found.

In an apartment at the top of the house is a feature which is rarer by far, a dresser or sideboard, adorned with linen panels and projecting heads in medallions, let into the wall and surmounted with a pierced cornice in the style of the early Renaissance. It may be mentioned that the front of the house bears the date 639, but the facade is evidently more modern than the back of the house and its courtyard, which date from the early years of the sixteenth century. The house remained as a private dwelling certainly up to the middle of the eighteenth century, for it is not mentioned in the list of Ipswich inns at that date. Immediately opposite the Neptune is a retiring little house which, till quite recently, contained another very remarkable panelled apartment, to which I shall have occasion to refer later on.

* Clarke's 'Description of Ipswich,'1830. The author of this work laments that in his time fresh depredations were daily committed upon this curious relic, and mentions his fears that it would 'soon have to be numbered with the things that were.'