Settles and benches of the sixteenth century bearing incised dates are exceptionally scarce. Some of the earliest specimens with which I am acquainted are those in the library of Lichfield Cathedral, which bear carved bands of strapwork and the initials of Zachary Babington, A.M., Rector of Covington, in Leicestershire, who was precentor at Lichfield in 1581 and 1587. Even examples of the subsequent centuries exhibiting genuine dates are uncommon.

Sir Charles Lawes-Wittewronge, in his wonderful collection of domestic antiquities at Rothamsted, has a good settle with panels ornamented with a guilloche, the top rail bearing the legend 'W. M. G., 1686.' This settle is interesting for its mark, but a far finer specimen for its general characteristics flanks the opposite side of the great stone ingle-nook. The latter seat came originally from Warwickshire, and has a bracketed back with oblong top panels finely incised with strap ornament, the top rail being carved with a good jewel band.

ELIZABETHAN SETTLE.

In the possession of Sir Charles Lawes-Wittewronge, Bart. Height, 3 ft. 6 in.; length, 5 ft. 1 in.

The settles which have been handed down to us from former times are mostly identified with the seventeenth century; many belong to a still later time, but the number of those which can be referred to an earlier period is insignificant. All these post-Reformation settles are simple in their design and construction, possessing but little individualism except in the character of their decoration, which mostly followed the prevailing taste of the period. The main differences in shape and form lie in the height of the back and the arrangement of the part beneath the seat, which was sometimes open, but certainly, as regards seventeenth-century examples, more often closed for the purpose of being used as a box, of which the seat formed the lid. These remarks only apply to the settle proper, for there are several hybrid forms - that is to say, composite or convertible pieces - which are really more than settles, as they serve other purposes in addition to that of a seat. Such pieces seldom have any artistic value, their chief claim to notice being some ingenuity of construction. One type is that in which the back of the settle works upon a pin, and, falling down upon horizontal arms, forms itself into a table, being secured in its position by a latch.

Some seventeenth-century specimens of this kind are, or were formerly, in the fishermen's cottages, at Porlock, in Devonshire. Another bastard specimen in this category is the settle whose back forms the door of a shallow cupboard, intended for the reception of the household crockery. There is little doubt that these devices were intended to economize space, and they are invariably of rough execution.

A specimen of the cupboard settle has passed under my notice which dated from the latter part of the seventeenth century, but which actually contained some portions of Elizabethan strap-carving, inserted no doubt when the piece was constructed. It is more than questionable whether the element of comfort in such pieces was not sacrificed to convenience, and even the latter quality in the settle cupboard would not be quite self-evident to the good-man of the house when ensconced in it smoking his evening pipe should his wife wish to replace the crockery in the cupboard.

Settles were very extensively used in the Northern Counties, and Yorkshire has been raided time after time by relic-hunters with such success that box-seat settles have come to be spoken of by many as being of the 'Yorkshire' type. Brewer, in his account of Westmorland, written at a time when oak-hunting had not seriously commenced, and before local peculiarities had fallen victims to the dispersing influences of the railway, gives a homely and excellent picture of Border life in which the settle figures prominently. Among other most interesting details of the local life and appointments of the period, we learn that:

'Besides the large partition closet, the furniture of the house consisted of a long oaken table, with a bench on each side of it, where the whole family, master, children, and servants, ate together. . . . On one side of the fire was a seat about 6 feet long, called the long settle; its back was curiously carved, and its seat formed a chest with two or three divisions, in one of which the economical housewife laid up, in sorted bundles, thread, buttons, and remnants of cloth, for mending the family apparel. Along the heck side of the fire was the sconce, a sort of fixed bench, under which one night's elden was deposited early every evening. The chairs were of heavy wainscot, with high arms, and carved on the back; but, by being narrow and upright, '" They pressed against the ribs And bruised the side, and, elevated high, Taught the raised shoulders to invade the ears."

Three-footed stools were, however, the most common movable seats. The bedsteads, too, were of oak, with carved testers of the same wood; those on the loft were commonly without either tester or hangings. The dresses of the family, meal, malt, and dried meat, were kept in strong, clumsy chests, the fronts of which were laboriously ornamented with carved borders, and, like the rest of the furniture, joined together with wooden pins instead of nails.'

But a change began to come over the life of these Border Counties even in Brewer's own time, for he mentions that, by the opening up of the district by the mail-coach, the great innovator of his day, the peculiarities of Westmorland were 'verging fast into oblivion.'

In the latter part of the seventeenth century, when the raised centre panel was coming into vogue, we find that a good many of these 'long settles' are ornamented on the top rail with carving representing dragons or monsters. This appears to have been a form of decoration frequently associated with settles of the period referred to, and it is curious to note that these dragons or monsters very closely resemble those sculptured on Norman stone doorways, thus indicating a return to a rude and archaic style.

Although genuine settles of the Jacobean period are not common, plenty of a later type may be found. About the time of Queen Anne a fashion arose of giving the 'raised centre' panel an ogee-shaped top, and oak settles exhibiting this characteristic as well as the curved leg may be found by scores. The amount of hard ware which settles would naturally receive would account for the fact that they still continued to be made of oak at a period when other woods had almost superseded the use of that material. These late settles do not appeal very strongly to the connoisseur, but are naturally popular as being genuine examples of old oak in the same way as is the gate table.