CHAPTER VI

FURNITURE

The furniture of a mediæval house was scanty in the living-rooms, ample in the sleeping-rooms. The hall, which was the dining-room, the public room, and the room where all business matters were transacted, was provided with permanent benches running along the sides: at one end was a dais, on which, in great houses, was sometimes a table dormant, _i.e._ a permanent table, placed across the hall. Other tables were on trestles laid for each meal, and removed after the meal. At the middle of the “dormant” or the high table was the principal chair or bench with arms, and a cushion: the other guests sat on the bench with their backs to the wall or without backs at all. The lower tables were always boards laid upon trestles: in the middle of the hall was the fire, sometimes in an iron frame: the smoke ascended and went out through the lantern in the roof. Pieces of tapestry, worked to represent coats of arms, or figures of birds and beasts, or painted with pictures of some historical event, hung round the hall: arms and armour were hung more for use and to be in readiness than for show—in fact, the great hall was the armoury of the house. Rushes were thickly strewn over the floor; over the head of the master was a cupboard loaded with gold and silver plate; bankers or dorsers, _e.g._ cushions, were used to mitigate the hardness of the bench. The furniture of the “parlour” was equally simple. It consisted of a worsted hanging, a cupboard, a table on trestles, a chafing dish to heat the room, a candlestick for four candles, andirons, tongs, a bench and a chair, coffers and strong boxes, table covers, gilt and silver _broches_, it was provided with a chimney. Candle and torch holders stood against the wall; a “perche” or arrangement of hooks and pegs for hanging arms, cloaks, and other things was set up in every room. The falcons and hawks were placed on these perches. In the bedroom, where comfort was studied, the principal article of furniture was, of course, the bed; and upon this useful piece of furniture was lavished all the expense and adornment that the possessor could afford. Sometimes a canopy stretched over the whole bed: it was decorated with the family arms, or with religious emblems; at the back of the bed were also painted the family arms; the heavy curtains were not intended for ornament but for use, because in these rooms, in which the windows were always ill-fitting, it was necessary to draw the curtains in order to keep off draughts; and, besides, as a nightdress seems to have been unusual and most people slept in the costume of Eden, it was all the more necessary to guard against cold. The bedstead was always made of wood, and was sometimes beautifully carved and gilded; the bed itself was commonly a mattress of straw, on which, in the better sort of house, the feather bed was laid. Chaucer says:—

“Of downe of pure dovis white I wol yeve him a fether bed, Rayed with gold and right well cled, In firm black satin d’outre mere, And many a pilowe and every bere Of cloth of Raines to slepe on soft.”

The furniture of the bed was much the same as at present; it was provided with a great and a small pillow, also with pillow covers—“pillow beres”: with sheets, blankets, and coverlet of _Turtaine_—a common cloth like burel. Servants, however, slept on straw with a rough mat below and a coarse coverlet above. Sometimes there was a truckle bed under the great bed for the use of a maidservant or a child. At the foot of the bed was the “hutch” or strong box for the keeping of money, plate, and other valuables. There were other coffers kept in the chambers of great houses for securities, title-deeds, and documents of all kinds. We must remember that there were no banks; every man kept his own property, money, valuables, papers, everything—in his house and generally in his bedroom. There were no insurance companies, so that the fickleness of Dame Fortune was constantly illustrated in the most startling manner.

The illuminated MSS. of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries represent the rooms of castles and palaces. They show the rich bed with the embroidered coverlet, the cushioned chair, the fireplace and chimney, the bench which was probably the box or hutch, the gold and silver plate on a sideboard, the mats before the fire; in a word, a very luxurious and well-furnished chamber. As for the furniture of the hall, it is enumerated in a vocabulary of the fifteenth century quoted by Wright (_Domestic Manners_). It contained “a board, a trestle, a banker or dorser (cushion), a natte (tablecloth), a table dormant, a basin, a laver, a hearth, a torch, a yule block, andiron, tongs, a pair of bellows, wood for the fire, a long settle, a chair, a bench, a stool, a cushion and a screen.” For the parlour the furniture should consist of “a hanging of worsted, red and green, a cupboard of ash boards, a table and a pair of trestles, a branch of latten with four lights, a pair of andirons, a pair of tongs, a form to sit upon, and a chair.” In rooms of the ruder class, where there were no hangings, the wall was decorated with paintings.

As regards the furniture in houses of the middle class, Riley (_Memorials of London_) furnishes an inventory of the furniture of a house in which lived an unfortunate couple named Le Bever.

The house consisted of the lower room which was the shop, and a “solar” or upper chamber, which was approached by a stair at the back of the house: there was a back place or kitchen behind the shop. All day long Hugh le Bever stood in his stall; his goods were all ranged on a bench at the open window; above them was a pent-house to keep off the rain; in very cold weather he could cover the upper part of the window with a shutter; Alice, his wife, helped him in his serving when she was not engaged in the household work. One morning the shop was not opened as usual. Fearing that something was wrong, the neighbours sent for the Alderman, who broke open the door and found Alice lying dead on the floor and beside her, her husband Hugh. They took him to the Mayor; he was taken to prison at Newgate; refused the law of England and would not plead; so he was put back in prison to live on bread and water till he died. And his goods were sold. They were as follows:—

“One mattress, value 4s.; 6 blankets and one serge, 13s. 6d.; one green carpet, 2s.; one torn coverlet, with shields of cendale, 4s.; one coat, and one surcoat of worstede, 40d.; one robe of perset, furred, 20s.; one robe of medley, furred, one mark; one old fur, almost consumed by moths, 6d.; one robe of scarlet, furred, 16s.; one robe of perset, 7s.; one surcoat, with a hood of ray, 2s. 6d.; one coat, with a hood of perset, 18d.; one surcoat and one coat of ray, 6s. 1d.; one green hood of cendale with edging, 6d.; 7 linen sheets, 5s.; one table-cloth, 2s.; 3 table-cloths, 18d.; one camise and one savenape (apron), 4d.; one canvas, 8d.; 3 feather-beds, 8s.; 5 cushions, 6d.; one haketone, 12d.; 3 brass pots, 12s.; one brass pot, 6s.; 2 pairs of brass pots, 2s. 6d.; one brass pot, broken, 2s. 6d.; one candlestick of latone, and one plate, with one small brass plate, 2s.; 2 pieces of lead, 6d.; one grate, 3d.; 2 aundirons, 18d.; 2 basins with one washing vessel, 5s.; one iron herce, 12d.; one tripod, 2d.; one iron headpiece, 12d.; one iron spit, 3d.; one frying pan, 1d.; one tonour (a funnel), 1d.; one small canvas bag, 1d.; 7 savenapes, 5d.; one old linen sheet, 1d.; 2 pillows, 3d.; one cap, 1d.; one counter, 4s.; 2 coffers, 8d.; 2 curtains, 8d.; a remnant of cloth, 1d.; 6 chests, 10s. 10d.; one folding table, 12d.; 2 chairs, 8d.; one aumbrey, 6d.; 2 anceres (tubs), 2s.: Also firewood, sold for 3s.; one mazer cup, 6s.; 6 casks of wine, 6 marks, the value of each cask being one mark. Total £12: 18: 4.

The same John also received, of the goods of the said Hugh, from Richard de Pulham, one cup called ‘note,’ with a foot and cover of silver, value 30s.; 6 silver spoons, 6s. Also, of John de Whytsand, one surcoat, and one woman’s coat, value 8s., which were pledged to the said Hugh by Paul le Botiller, for one mark. Total 44s.” (_Memorials of London_, p. 199.)

Thus of what we call furniture there were two chairs and a folding table only, a carpet, an aumbrey or an armoire, and certain coffers and chests. Yet this couple had a plentiful supply of mattresses, feather beds, pillows, sheets, and blankets; they had apparently a large quantity of kitchen apparatus; they had fur clothes in abundance; they had six casks of wine in the house; they had silver cups and silver spoons. The list shows very clearly how a house of the middle sort was furnished. One thing will be noted: as there were but two chairs it is certain that the trader of London did not entertain his friends. Society, with the craftsman, has at all times been conducted during summer in the street, during winter in the tavern; the Church also offered to the women even larger opportunities for social intercourse than they could enjoy at the open door in the intervals of household work.

The platters and spoons were of wood—“treene.” When people grew richer they used pewter plates; when they were richer still, silver. The table linen and napkins were hempen first, and in better households, flaxen. A ball of thread was called a “bottom of thread.” Hence the name of Bottom the weaver.

In accounts and inventories of ecclesiastical, as well as domestic, furniture, we are constantly meeting with material called _latoun_. On this compound metal, Skeat has the following note: “The word _latten_ is still in use in Devon and the North of England for plate tin, but, as Halliwell remarks, that is not the sense of _latoun_ in our older writers. It was a kind of mixed metal, somewhat resembling brass both in its nature and colour, but still more like pinchbeck. It was used for helmets, lavers, spoons, sepulchral memorials, and other articles. Todd remarks that the escutcheons on the tomb of the Black Prince are of _laton_ over-gilt, in accordance with the Prince’s instructions. He adds, ‘In our old Church Inventories a _cross of laton_ frequently occurs.’” The description of the metal given in Batman upon Bartholomew is as follows: “Laton is called _Auricalcum_, and hath that name, for, though it be brasse or copper, yet it shineth as gold without, as Isidore saith: for brass is _calco_ in Greek. Also laton is hard as brasse or copper: for by medling of copper, of tinne, and of auripigment (orpiment) and with other mettal, it is brought in the fire to the colour of gold, as Isidore saith. Also it hath colour and likenesse of gold, but not the value.”

In Mediæval inventories of furniture frequent mention is made of a mazer. This, which was the common and favourite form of drinking cup, was a bowl made of maple wood chiefly of the spotted variety called bird’s eye. The part chosen for the hollowing of the cup was the bole of the tree, or the part where several branches met. Great houses and monasteries contained a great many mazers. Canterbury had 182 in the year 1328; Battle, in 1437, had 32; Durham, in 1446, had 49; Westminster, in 1540, had 40.

The characteristics of the mazer were, that round the bowl ran a band of silver or silver gilt, at the bottom of the bowl was the “Print,” a medallion of silver or gold, with figures of saints or other devices upon it; there was a “foot,” generally of silver; and there was a cover of maple wood with a rim of silver or silver gilt. Not many examples of the mazer survive considering the great number of them formerly in use.

The vocabulary of Alexander Neckham called _Liber de Utensilibus_ enumerates the various necessaries for the furniture of a kitchen. From this vocabulary and that of John de Garlande, three hundred years later, Thomas Wright has compiled a list of kitchen furniture (_Domestic Manners_), which is as follows:—

“A brandreth, or iron tripod, for supporting the caldron over the fire: a caldron, a dressing-board and dressing-knife, a bras-pot, a posnet, a frying-pan, a grid-iron or, as it is sometimes called, a roasting-iron, a spit, a gobard, a mier, a flesh-hook, a scummer, a ladle, a pot-stick, a slice for turning meat in the frying-pan, a pot-hook, a mortar and pestle, a pepper-quern, a platter, a saucer.”