It is to be hoped that the collector may happen to come across some of the good things bearing the badges or decorations we have mentioned in this chapter. If he does we can sincerely wish him joy, for they are excessively rare.

The decadence of the Gothic style gave birth to two features which require special mention. These were the fluted pattern popularly known as the linen panel, and the peculiar combination of scrolls which has been termed by the French parchemin. In my volume on 'Ancient Coffers and Cupboards' I have dealt fully with the first form of decoration, and have endeavoured to trace its origin. Briefly, I may here say that this pattern originated in France, where we find indications of it as early as about 1460. The meaning of this decoration, if it ever had any, is now lost in obscurity.

The theory that it was merely used as a symbol to indicate the contents of a receptacle is now an exploded one, for some of the earliest manuscript paintings in which it is depicted represent the linen panel as appearing on the sides of pulpits and other pieces of furniture which could not possibly have been used to contain linen.

At the time of writing a linen-panelled pulpit, a most beautiful specimen of late fifteenth or early sixteenth century work, which for many years was hidden in one of the recesses of Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster, has been brought to light and reinstated in its place in the nave. It is said that Archbishop Cranmer preached from this pulpit at both the coronation and funeral of Edward VI. Probably the earliest linen panels which we possess in England are those which adorn the beautiful oak screens separating the chapels from the ambulatory on the north side of the choir of Lincoln Cathedral. These screens are locally said to have been erected during the early part of the fifteenth century, but this is no doubt an error. They can, however, hardly be of a later. date than the early part of Henry VII.'s reign, as the purity of the Perpendicular Gothic tracery in the same screens demonstrates.

PARCHEMIN PANEL, END OF FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Although the Flemish and German types of linen panelling are usually more ornate and fanciful, some of the examples of British origin are of singularly rich design. Some of the finest English panelling of this description can be seen at Abington Abbey, near Northampton; D'Arcy Hall, Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex; Crowhurst Place, Surrey; The Vyne, Basingstoke; and a few fragmentary but exceptionally beautiful specimens at Rye House, Hertfordshire. There are also some excellent examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum and Hampton Court Palace. On some of the most typically English coffers and cupboards which exhibit this decoration we find that the top and bottom of the linen fold are embellished on the centre ridge with a lightly-incised cross - evidence in itself of pre-Reformation origin. I do not pretend to say that Continental examples were not decorated in the same manner, but there is no doubt that this fashion was more in vogue in England than it was in other countries. Occasionally linen panels were further decorated by augmentations in the shape of tassels and representations of conventional fruit and flowers; but these additions may be considered as mere trimmings, in no way affecting the character of the linen fold.

LINEN PANEL, FROM CUPBOARD REPUTED TO HAVE COME FROM PLESSIS LES TOURS.

In the possession of Guy F. Laking, Esq., M.V.O.

We do not always find that cupboards, chests, and other pieces of furniture are panelled throughout with linen fold of one pattern. The end panels are frequently of a plainer character than those in front. It is, however, possible to find cabinets and cupboards of fifteenth-century work which have elaborate linen panels at the sides, while the doors or shutters in the front remain absolutely plain and unadorned. This at first sight may seem very singular and opposed to reason, but the true explanation of the matter is this: These plain doors were probably, when first made, covered with a coat of gesso, upon which was painted in tempera some religious or heraldic design. This, in the course of time, became damaged or defaced, and was at last removed, leaving the ends more ornate than the front. It is true that the linen panels themselves were occasionally painted and gilded, for specimens are known remaining in this state; but in this case the painting would be on the surface of the wood, without the intervention of gesso. Some of our church screens, such as Southwold, in Suffolk, and Harberton, Devon, afford very valuable examples of what the surface decoration of fifteenth-century furniture may have been like.

This linen-fold decoration passed through a variety of beautiful forms, and its last debased successors finally disappeared about the beginning of the seventeenth century. I have several times heard it argued by superficial observers that the linen was always placed so that the folds fell vertically, and that such pieces of furniture as have the decoration placed horizontally have been made up at a later period. I have only to refer those who hold this theory to the original drawing by Holbein of the More family in Basle Museum. In this the lobby is depicted as having linen panels placed horizontally, while the sideboard in the same room has them placed vertically. Of the parchemin panel, the theory of evolution suggests the origin. It may be, in some measure, a late outcome of such tracery as appears in the porch of Aldham Church, Essex, or it may have been brought about by the lettered scrolls held by saints and other figures employed in ecclesiastical art. The appellation obviously suggests the possibility of this.

The beautiful scroll forms which it adopts are embellished more or less with cusping and conventional floral decoration. The adjacent borders of the scrolls are occasionally made to intertwine - a detail more usually observable on Flemish and German examples, but which may be seen in its very finest form on a typically English room full of panelling, in Abington Hall, near Northampton. Thoresby College, at King's Lynn, Norfolk, still possesses its original great door - a fine, massive piece of work, decorated with parchemin panels, and it is worth mentioning that this edifice, though actually in course of construction, was not finished in 1510, as the will of Thomas Thoresby, its founder, shows.

It is curious and worthy of notice that the linen and parchemin forms of decoration, although purely Gothic, did not make their appearance until the Gothic regime was coming to an end.

LINEN PANEL, HAMPTON COURT.