Though it is outside the province of this book, I am tempted to mention a curious chair preserved in Fishmongers' Hall. As a chair it possesses claim to no great antiquity, having been constructed in 1830, but that the material of which it is made is extremely ancient the following inscription copied from the stone seat sufficiently testifies:

'I am part of the first stone that was put down for the foundation of Old London Bridge in June, 1176, by a Priest named Peter, who was Vicar of Colchurch, and I remained there undisturbed safe on the same old oak piles this chair is made from till the Rev. John Will. Joliffe, Curate of Colmer, Hamps., took me up in July, 1830, when clearing away the old bridge after new London bridge was completed.'

The rails in the back are ingeniously formed to represent the proportionate scale of the spans of the four styles of bridges that have been built upon the original foundation. The feet of the chair spread out in a manner somewhat suggestive of Lord Savile's bed at Rufford Abbey, but as a whole the design is more curious than artistic.

Amongst abnormal pieces in this line notice should be made of a curious trick-chair mentioned in the diary of Samuel Pepys, which was so cunningly contrived that it seized upon the unsuspicious guest and detained him against his will: '1660, November 1. This morning Sir W. Pen and I were mounted early, and had very merry discourse all the way, he being very good company. We come to Sir W. Batten's, where he lives like a prince, and we were made very welcome. Among other things he showed me my Lady's closet, wherein was great store of rareties; as also a chair which he called King Harry's chaire, where he that sits down is catched with two irons, that come round about him, which makes sport!' Pepys cautiously refrains from mentioning whether he was one of the victims experimented upon, and he furthermore does not state how the subject of this sorry jest was released.

Antique models of chairs may occasionally be met with, though they are very rare. They exhibit great nicety of workmanship, and are complete in every detail. The elaborateness of such pieces points to their being something more than mere playthings, and whilst it is not impossible that these tiny articles are examples of the 'prentice's proficiency, it is more probable that they were made as models for submission to the wealthy patron. The arm-chair depicted on page 96 was actually drawn from a model of this description measuring only some 14 inches in height.

FOURTEENTH-CENTURY COFFER IN THE COLLECTION OF MORGAN S. WILLIAMS, ESQ.