3. “A flower-vase filled with all sorts of curious flowers, and green branches of trees, such as the season affords, curiously ranged according to the rules of art, it being as much an art in this country to arrange a flower-vase as it is in Europe to carve, or to lay a table.[2] Sometimes there is, instead, a perfuming-pan, of excellent good workmanship, cast in brass or copper, resembling a crane, lion, dragon, or other strange animal. I took notice once that there was an earthen pot of Cologne, such as is used to keep Spauwater in, with all the cracks and fissures carefully mended, used in lieu of a flower-vase, it being esteemed a very great rarity, because of the distant place it came from, the clay it was made of, and its uncommon shape. 4. “Some strange, uncommon pieces of wood, wherein the colors and grain either naturally run after a curious and unusual manner, or have been brought by art to represent something. 5. “Some neat and beautiful network, adorning either the balcony and windows towards the garden, or the tops of the doors, screens, and partitions of the chief apartments. 6. “A bunch of a tree, or a piece of a rotten root, or of an old stump, remarkable for their monstrous deformed shape. “After this manner the chief and back apartments are furnished in great inns, and houses of substantial people. The other rooms gradually decrease in cleanliness, neatness, and delicacy of furniture; the screens, windows, mats, and other ornaments and household goods, after they have for some time adorned the chief apartments, and begin to be spotted and to grow old, being removed into the other rooms successively, there to be quite worn out. The chief of the other rooms is that where they keep their plate, china ware, and other household goods, ranged upon the floor in curious order, according to their size, shape, and use. Most of these are made of wood, thin, but strongly varnished, the greatest part upon a dark red ground. They are washed with warm water every time they have been used, and wiped clean with a cloth; by which means they will, though constantly used, keep clean and neat, and in their full lustre for several years. [Illustration: A SCENE IN A TEA GARDEN]