Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/394

 374 Hijhry of Do?neJiic Manjicrs with the female part of the houfehold when employed in needlework and other fedentary occupations. There is an allufion to this ufe of the window fill in the curious old poem of the "Lady Beffy," which is pro- bably fomewhat obfcured by the alterations of the modern copyift ; when the young princefs kneels before her father, he takes her up and feats her in the window : — I came before my father the ii»g, A fid kneeled doivn upon my knee ; I defired him loivly of his blejfing. And full joon he gave it unto me. And in his arms he could me thring^ And jet me in a ivindoiu jo high. The words of our inventory, " a form to fit upon, and a chair," defcribe well the fcanty furnifliing of the rooms of a houfe at this period. The caufe of this poverty in movables, which arofe more from the general infecurity of property than the inability to procure it, is curioully illufl;rated by a paffage from a letter of Margaret Pafi:on to her hulband, written early in the reign of Edward IV. " Alfo," fays the lady to her fpoufe, "■ if ye be at home this Chriftmas, it were well done ye lliould do purvey a garnifh or twain of pewter veflfel, two bafins and two ewers, and twelve candlefiiicks, for ye have too few of any of thefe to ferve this place ; I am afraid to purvey much fl:uff in this place, till we be furer thereof." As yet, a form or bench continued to be the ufual feat, which could be occupied by feveral perfons at once. One chair, as in the inventory jufl: mentioned, was confidered enough for a room, and was no doubt pre- ferved for the perfon of moft dignity, perhaps for the lady of the houfe- hold. Towards the latter end of this period, however, chairs, made in a fimpler form, and ftools, the latter very commonly three-legged, became more abundant. Yet in a will dated lb late as 1522 (printed in the "Bury Wills" of the Camden Society), an inhabitant of Bury in Suffolk, who feems to have pofleffed a large houfe and a confiderable quantity of houfehold furniture for the time, had, of tables and chairs, only " a tabyll of waynikott with to {two) joynyd trellelles, ij. joynyd fl;olys of the beft, a gret joynyd cheyre at the deyfe in the halle — the gretteft clofe cheyre, ij. fote floles — a rounde tabyll of waynikott with lok and key, the fecunde joynyd