Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/391

 have been better furnifhed than the hall. This apartment appears to have been placed fometimes on the ground floor, and fometimes on the floor above, and large houfes had ufually two or three parlours. It had often windows in recefles, with fixed feats on each fide ; and the fireplace was fmaller and more comfortable than that of the hall. As carpets came into more general ufe, the parlour was one of the firfi: rooms to receive this luxury. In the inventory I have already quoted from the "New Retrofpeftive Review," the following articles of furniture are defcribed as being in the parlour — A hanging of nvorjied, red and green. A cupboard of ajh-boards. A table, and a fair of treftles. A branch of latten, nu'ith four lights. A pair of andirons. A pair of tongs. A form tofitpon. And a chair. This will give us a very good idea of what was the ufual furniture of the parlour in the fifteenth century. The only movable feats are a fingle bench, and one chair — perhaps a feat with a back like that fliown above. The table was even here formed by laying a board upon treftles. The cupboard was peculiar to this part of the houfe ; many of my readers will probably remember the parlour cupboards in our old country houfes, the branched candleftick of metal, fufpended from the ceiling, and the tongs and andirons for the fire. The principal articles of furniture in the parlour are all exhibited in illuminations in manufcripts of the fame period. The " hanging of worfted" was, of courfe, a piece of tapeftry for the wall, or for fome part of the wall, for the room was in many, perhaps in moft, cafes, only partially covered. Sometimes, indeed, it appears only to have been hung up on occafions, perhaps for company, when it feems to have been placed behind the chief feat.* The wall itfelf was frequently adorned with among the household furniture "the steynyd clothes hangynsf abovvte the parlour behynde the halle chemny." paintings.
 * A Bury will, of the date 1522, mentioned a little further on, enumerates