a “bewreau” and a card-table in addition. The larger ones had two tables, half a dozen chairs, stools, a nest of drawers, a bookcase, and a number of pictures. It is noteworthy how seldom mention is made of a basin or even of a dressing-table with a glass. This confirms what has already been indicated--that our ancestors of those days spent but little time upon their toilet. Very few rooms had a carpet but nearly every one had a hand-bell, some had as many as four. [Illustration: FIG. 301.--Chimney-Piece in the George Inn, Winchester.] [Illustration: FIG. 302.--Chimney-Piece in the Deanery, Wells.] [Illustration: FIG. 303.--Design for a Chimney-Piece, by Flaxman. From the Ionides Collection in the V. and A. M.] [Illustration: FIG. 304.--Marble Chimney-Piece, 60 Carey Street, London.] But to return to the question of fireplaces, and more particularly to the chimney-pieces which surrounded them. The method adopted in William III.’s time of having merely a bold moulding round the opening, tended to establish the practice of having chimney-pieces of one stage in height instead of two. In Jacobean time most of the large chimney-pieces reached from the floor to the ceiling; so they did in the mid-seventeenth century under Inigo Jones and John Webb, although a few of their designs show one stage only. When the “Designs of Inigo Jones” were published by Kent in 1727, they gave an impetus again to the two-stage type, such as that shown in Fig. 170; but smaller and less pretentious patterns were frequently adopted, of which a typical example is shown in Fig. 301; here a marble slab surrounds the opening, and is in its turn surrounded by a small wood moulding and surmounted by a flat frieze and a cornice which forms the mantel shelf. This type held the field all through the eighteenth century, sometimes plain, sometimes enriched, as in the example from the Deanery at Wells (Fig. 302). A variation, all in marble, is shown in Fig. 304, from a house in Carey Street. [Illustration: FIG. 305.--Design for a Chimney-Piece at Shardiloes House, 1761, by Robert Adam. In the Soane Museum.] [Illustration: FIG. 306.--CEILING AT THE LAW COURTS, NORTHAMPTON.] [Illustration: FIG. 307.--Ceiling at No. 16 Bishopsgate Street Without, London. Now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.] Under the influence of the brothers Adam, detail of exquisite delicacy was introduced, including panels of well-modelled figures. This ornament was sometimes carved in marble or wood, but still more frequently worked in composition and applied to the woodwork. An example by Robert Adam is shown in Fig. 305, and a design by Flaxman in Fig. 303.