Rogers was also a writer of considerable ability on the styles of ornament: and there are several contributions from his pen to the periodicals of the day, besides designs which were published in the _Art Journal_ under the heading of "Original Designs for Manufacturers." These articles appeared occasionally, and contained many excellent suggestions for manufacturers and carvers, amongst others the drawings of H. Fitzcook, one of whose designs for a work table is here reproduced. Others more or less constant contributors of the original designs for furniture were J. Strudwick and W. Holmes, a design from the pencil of each of whom is given. [Illustration: DESIGN FOR A WORK TABLE. By H. Fitzcook. Published as one of the "Original Designs for Manufacturers," in the _Art Journal_, 1850.] But though here and there in England good designers came to the front, as a general rule the art of design in furniture and decorative woodwork was at a very low ebb about this time. In furniture, straight lines and simple curves may be plain and uninteresting, but they are by no means so objectionable as the over ornamentation of the debased rococo style, which obtained in this country about forty years ago; and if the scrolls and flowers, the shells and rockwork which ornamented mirror frames, sideboard backs, sofas, and chairs, were debased in style, even when carefully carved in wood, the effect was infinitely worse when, for the sake of economy, as was the case with the houses of the middle classes, this elaborate and laboured enrichment was executed in the fashionable stucco of the day. Large mirrors, with gilt frames of this material, held the places of honor on the marble chimney piece, and on the console, or pier table, which was also of gilt stucco, with a marble slab. The chiffonier, with its shelves having scroll supports like an elaborate S, and a mirror at the back, with a scrolled frame, was a favourite article of furniture. Carpets were badly designed, and loud and vulgar in coloring; chairs, on account of the shape and ornament in vogue, were unfitted for their purpose, on account of the wood being cut across the grain; the fire-screen, in a carved rosewood frame, contained the caricature, in needlework, of a spaniel, or a family group of the time, ugly enough to be in keeping with its surroundings. The dining room was sombre and heavy. The pedestal sideboard, with a large mirror with a scrolled frame at the back, had come in; the chairs were massive and ugly survivals of the earlier reproductions of the Greek patterns, and though solid and substantial, the effect was neither cheering nor refining.