to come, when a room had grown too foul to live in, in order to remove the stench by burning Juniper wood and other sweet-smelling herbs. Vermin flourished under such conditions, and many are the allusions that could be cited referring even to royal visits from which persons returned bitten from head to foot.
The furniture of these houses was plentiful, but, in the main, rude. The art of cabinet-making was practically unknown till Tudor times. By the reign of Elizabeth so much proficiency had been attained in this art that we occasionally find very elaborate and beautiful examples of handiwork. Much, probably most, of the cabinet work of the period was, however, of a simple character. The articles manufactured were chiefly chests, chairs, long seats, with here and there a pretentious cabinet. Stools and tables, of course, were common. Larger tables for the dining room were for the most part mere tops supported on trestles. The whole combination was taken down at the end of a meal and placed against the wall.
The cabinet work of the period was massive, and contained many straight lines. There was some carving, but usually of simple design and not overdone, as was so often the case in the carved exterior woodwork of the house frames. The fur-
