During the Anglo-Saxon period in England the ordinary houses usually consisted of one room. Sometimes a shed-like structure was erected against the wall of the room to contain the bed of the mistress of the house, and as a rule the inmates slept on a large table placed in the centre of the room, or on benches on which bags of straw were placed. Seats without backs, or stools, long settles or benches with backs and carved ends or arms, were the chief articles in furniture. After the Norman Conquest domestic improvements were multiplied, more rooms were added to the houses, such as the solar or upper room, and the parloir or talking-room, and some of the rooms had fireplaces, but not chimneys. The principal room was the hall or assembly-room, which had a fireplace in the centre, the smoke escaping through the lantern light in the roof. In the Norman times the principal additions to the furniture of English manor-houses and castles were the cupboard, presses or armoires, and chests. These pieces of furniture were introduced from France. Sometimes the portable presses and the chests were painted with tempera decorations, and were bound with wrought-iron clasps and hinges, which were just beginning to come into use. [Illustration: Fig. 221.—Scandinavian Seat or Throne of the Middle Ages.] The bed-clothes and personal clothing of the nobles and rich landowners began to assume a rich character, and were often embroidered. Tapestry and painted cloth hangings were imported; also pottery of an ornamental description was not only imported, but made in England at this time. All this applies to the homes of the rich only, for the poorer classes remained for a long period in a very primitive condition as regards their style of houses and their furniture. [Illustration: Fig. 222.—Flemish; Sixteenth Century. (P.)] [Illustration: Fig. 223.—German; Fifteenth Century. (P.)] [Illustration: Fig. 224—English; Fifteenth Century. (P.)] The construction of furniture and the panelling of chests began to exhibit some workmanlike appearances of good carpentry. Panels were placed in framework that was mortised and fastened with wooden pegs, which became the universal method of panelling throughout the Gothic period. Room panelling came into use in England in the early part of the thirteenth century, when pine timber was used at first for this work, but was displaced later by the more substantial oak. This oak panelling during the Gothic periods was often carved with elaborate tracery of an architectural character (Figs. 222, 223), and a common design was a carved imitation of a carefully folded textile, known as the “linen panel” (Fig. 224). [Illustration: Fig. 225.—Dining Room; Fifteenth Century. (P.)]