The most important room of the home of a burgher of moderate means was the hall, or general living-room. This, as so many pictures show, had a great fireplace, at which meals were often cooked. The furniture consisted of tables, chairs, cabinets, and, very frequently, a bed. The chimney-piece is massive, high and often elaborately carved, and above it a landscape, fruit piece, Kermesse, flower-piece or battle-scene by a favourite painter, is hung to form part of the decoration. This chimney-piece is, moreover, filled with porcelain dishes, cups, plates, teapots and curios. Below it hangs an ornamental chimney cloth embroidered with gaily-coloured flowers, red or green silk, white muslin, or figured calico. The hearth is framed in blue and white tiles, furnished with an iron fireback and supplied with brass and irons, racks for the fire-irons, pot-hooks, spits, a crane on which a large brass kettle hangs, and small hooks from which the bellows, hearth brooms, shovel, tongs, etc., hang conveniently for use. A brass or copper warming-pan is not far away. The walls are adorned with pictures, a large looking-glass in an ebony frame, a wall-board with hooks for small cans and jugs and a plate rack or two in which some handsome plates and dishes are formally arranged. A great linen press, or _kas_, filled with tablecloths and napkins, the head of which is decorated with large Japanese beakers and smaller cups and vases, stands on one side of the room, and a glass case filled with teapots, cups and saucers, dishes, etc., and an East India cabinet on the other. A gaudily-painted Hindeloopen clock ticks on the wall. A large table stands in the centre of the room, covered with a heavy Turkish rug or “carpet,” and several little tables are conveniently disposed. The Russia leather, Turkey work and matted chairs are symmetrically arranged around the walls beneath the many pictures of landscape, interiors or still-life. The windows are curtained, the hangings of red or green striped silk or flowered calico matching those of the bedstead, which can be completely closed like a large box. On the four corners of the cornice of this bed are bunches of feathers or a painted wooden ornament. The casement windows have tiny diamond-shaped or round panes set in lead, and on the outside creepers and roses are carefully trained, forming a beautiful framework. Upon the sills stand flower-pots in which a bright tulip or other favourite flower is blooming. The first apartment entered from the front door of a merchant’s house was the “_voorhuis_,” or front room, where visitors were formally received. This was more or less handsomely furnished in accordance with the means of the owner. It was usually a sort of hall, sometimes of considerable dimensions.