The use of the linen panel in connection with chairs seems to have ended with the reign of Henry VIII., for though we find this form of decoration occasionally, though rarely, continued in wainscotting and chests of Elizabeth's time, there appears to be no instance of its having been employed in the ornamentation of chairs. The sides of arm-chairs of the Gothic period down to the reign of Henry VIII. were almost invariably filled in with long linen panels extending from the arms to the floor. The eccentricities of Elizabethan dress, such as the farthingale and the puffed trunk hose, however, necessitated the abandonment of these side-panels, and the space beneath the arms was thenceforward left open. It is not generally realized that the shape of chairs has been influenced at various times by contemporary fashion in dress. This may be traced through the narrow-hipped Gothic types to be seen in the Cluny and other museums; the wide Elizabethan chairs, with often round arms to accommodate the full trunk hose, and the wide seats of the Early Georgian chairs, which were especially adapted for full-skirted coats, dwindling down to narrow seats as the 'dickey-bird' and swallow-tail fashion came in.

Oak arm-chairs of a very late period may sometimes be found with the sides filled in somewhat after the old manner, but these are in nearly every case rough country productions, such as were used in farmhouses and other habitations of the humble class, and belong to the decadence of oak furniture when its finer features had departed.

It is to the deplorable state of uncleanliness of the rush-strewn floors of our forefathers that we are indebted for the cross-rails which form a foot-rest on, not only our early tables, but also our chairs. Rails were, in chairs of the Elizabethan period, extended round the framework at an equal height of some couple of inches or so from the floor. As rush-strewn floors and their attendant discomforts gave place to a more cleanly order of things, so the actual foot-rail in front of the chair became rather a nuisance than a necessity. It is probably due to this fact that chairs of the second half of the seventeenth century, while still retaining the skeleton framework of rails, exhibit that in the front raised a considerable distance from the ground. By this arrangement the rail loses the character of a rest for the feet, which are then free to be drawn beneath the chair if desired. In this new position the front rail naturally lends itself to decoration, and is generally turned, or ornamented with carving.

I may emphasize this by saying that if the front rail on an old oak chair is raised above the others, and, furthermore, is decorated with turning or carving, the chair to which it belongs can safely be assigned, 6 - 2 to a rather late period in the history of oak-that is to say, probably not earlier than the middle of the seventeenth century. I am not sure but that the elevation of the front rail may not be associated with the increase of cleanliness which came about under the Puritan regime.

Makers' marks on furniture of the Gothic period, as I have already stated, are excessively rare. These were almost invariably incised, but in the later period of which we are now treating chairs and stools may be frequently found with the makers' initials branded or burnt in with a hot-iron.

Mention has been made in Chapter IV (The Renaissance - And After) (The Renaissance - And After). of the increasing difficulty of identifying local differences in English furniture of the seventeenth century, owing to modern facilities for its removal from one county to another, and the consequent intermixture of examples which takes place. Evidences of local individuality in furniture may, however, occasionally be found in such old institutions as some of our provincial almshouses or hospitals, the equipment of which was undoubtedly carried out by craftsmen residing in the vicinity. In these places the furniture has often been preserved with scrupulous care, affording valuable testimony to the style of art peculiar to the neighbourhood at the time of its manufacture. The great height of the backs of certain oak chairs which had their origin in the Northern Counties is well known, and to these is often attached the rather general appellation of the 'Yorkshire type.' Some exaggerated examples of this style may be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, placed in the panelled room reaved from Sizergh Castle.* These chairs have two panels in their backs, the lower one recessed and ornamented with some very ordinary seventeenth-century carving, the upper panel being flush with the framing and sculptured with the arms of Thomas Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford, who was executed in 1641. The backs of these chairs from the seat to the summit measure some inches in height, the whole structure totalling the extraordinary height of 55 inches.

Painful as such disclosures must necessarily be regarding venerated objects in our important national collection, I am convinced, after carefully examining the chairs in question, that, though mainly genuine, they have nevertheless been tampered with, and that the flush panels exhibiting the Strafford arms are additions, placed in their present position at a later date. In order to confirm this statement, it may be mentioned that the stiles above the lower panel have been spliced, thus increasing the height of the back, in order to allow for the insertion of the extra panel. The said stiles have then been faced with a thin strip of carved oak to conceal the join, the whole structure being capped with the original stretcher. The facing of uprights in this manner was never carried out by the old craftsmen, and its detection on an antique is one of the strongest proofs that the piece has been tampered with. As slight additional evidence, it may be noted that the carving on the shield panels is of an entirely different character from that on the rest of the chair, while that on the thin added strips of veneer is evidently modern. An examination of the splice, which may be detected on each of these chairs, shows that previous to the addition the backs were unusually high.

The addition must therefore have been planned by someone whose knowledge of stiles was scarcely on a par with his desire for effect.

* No. 407, 1890.