Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/472

 452 Hijiory of T)ojneJlic Manners the middle through which the hand might be paffed to hft them, are alfo mentioned among the articles of furniture in the hall at this period. The furniture of the hall at the manor-houfe of Croxdale, in the county of Durham, in the year 157 1, confided of one cupboard, one table, two buffet ftools, and one chair ; yet Salvin of Croxdale was looked upon as one of the principal gentry of the Palatinate, In enumerating the furni- ture of the ancient hall, we mull not forget the arms which were ulually difplayed there, efpecially by fuch as had dependent upon them a certain number of men whom it was their duty or their pride to arm. The hall of a rich merchant of Newcaftle, named John Wilkinfon, contained in 157 1, the following furniture: one almery, one table of wainfcot, one counter, one little counter, one drefTer of wainfcot, one " pulk," three chairs, three forms, three bulfet ftools, fix cufliions of tapeftry, fix old cuiliions of tapeftry, fix green culliions, two long carpet cloths, two fliort carpet cloths, one fiiy carpet cloth, the "hyngars" in the hall, on the almery head one bafin and ewer, one great charger, three new " doblers," one little cheft for fugar, and one pair of wainfcot tables; and of arms, two jacks, three fallets of iron, one bow and two Iheaves of arrows, three bills, and two halberts. Some of the entries in thefe inventories are amufing; and, while fpeaking of arms, it may be flated, that a widow lady of Bury, Mary Chapman, wdio would appear to have been a warlike dame, making her will in 1649, leaves to one of her fons, among other things, "alio my mulkett, reft, bandileers, fword, and head- piece, my jacke, a fine paire of Iheets, and a hutche." In 1577, Thomas Liddell, merchant of Newcaftle, had in his hall, " three tables of waynf- coot, fex qwyflions of tapeftery, a cowborde, three wainfcoot formes, two chayrs, three green table clothes, fower footftoles, fixe quyfhons, two candlefticks, a louckinge glaffe, fexe danlke pootts of powther {pewter), two bafings, and two vewers (ewers), a laver and a bafinge, fyve buftatt ftules." It is curious thus to trace the furniture of the hall at difterent periods, and compare them together; and we cannot but remark from the frequency with which the epithet old is applied to difterent articles, towards the end of the century that the hall was beginning rapidly to fall into difufe. The caufe of this was no doubt the increafing tafte for domeftic