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 sleeping apartments by means of no other partitions than hastily-erected curtains.

There was much ornamental work in the Elizabethan houses, inside as well as out. Ceilings in the timber houses of the meaner kind were generally omitted altogether; and also in the halls of greater houses where the finish and decoration of the timber framework overhead was intended to show for beauty. All the other rooms, however, with the single exception of the hall, were ceiled, sometimes plain, but more often with elaborate fancy work in plaster or coloured frescos. A writer in The Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archæological Society thus describes the ceilings of Paul Pindar's house in London: "The primary arrangement of the mansion is entirely destroyed, but in several of the rooms there still exists some of the most glorious ceilings which our country can furnish. They are generally mutilated, in several instances the half alone remaining, as the rooms have been divided to suit the needs of later generations. These ceilings are of plaster, and abound in the richest and finest devices. Wreaths of flowers, panels, shields, pateras, bands, roses, ribands, and other forms of ornamentation are charmingly mingled, and unite in producing the best and happiest effect." Chimney-pieces were also the object of equal