[Illustration:  Seats at Knole.  Covered with Crimson Silk Velvet.  Period:  James I.]

In the same gallery also are three sofas or settees upholstered with crimson velvet, and one of these has an accommodating rack, by which either end can be lowered at will, to make a more convenient lounge.

[Illustration:  Arm Chair.  Covered with Velvet, Ringed with Fringe and studded with Copper Nails.  Early XVII.  Century. (From a Drawing of the Original at Knole, by Mr. Charles Eastlake.)]

This excellent example of Jacobean furniture has been described and sketched by Mr. Charles Eastlake in “Hints on Household Taste.”  He says:  “The joints are properly ‘tenoned’ and pinned together in such a manner as to ensure its constant stability.  The back is formed like that of a chair, with a horizontal rail only at its upper edge, but it receives additional strength from the second rail, which is introduced at the back of the seat.”  In Marcus Stone’s well-known picture of “The Stolen Keys,” this is the sofa portrayed.  The arm chair illustrated above is part of the same suite of furniture.  The furniture of another room at Knole is said to have been presented by King James to the first Earl of Middlesex, who had married into the Dorset family.  The author has been furnished with a photograph of this room; and the illustration prepared from this will give the reader a better idea than a lengthy description.

[Illustration:  The “Spangle” Bedroom At Knole.  The Furniture of this room was presented by James I. to the Earl of Middlesex. (Front a Photo by Mr. Corke, of Sevenoaks.)]

It seems from the Knole furniture, and a comparison of the designs with those of some of the tables and other woodwork produced during the same reign, bearing the impress of the more severe style of Inigo Jones, that there were then in England two styles of decorative furniture.  One of these, simple and severe, showing a reaction from the grotesque freedom of Elizabethan carving, and the other, copied from Venetian ornamental woodwork, with cupids on scrolls forming the supports of stools, having these ornamental legs connected by stretchers the design of which is, in the case of those in the King’s Bedchamber at Knole, a couple of cupids in a flying attitude holding up a crown.  This kind of furniture was generally gilt, and under the black paint of those at Knole are still to be seen traces of the gold.

Mr. Eastlake visited Knole and made careful examination and sketches of the Jacobean furniture there, and has well described and illustrated it in his book just referred to; he mentions that he found a slip of paper tucked beneath the webbing of a settle there, with an inscription in Old English characters which fixed the date of some of the furniture at 1620.  In a letter to the writer on this subject, Mr. Lionel Sackville West confirms this date by referring to the heirloom book, which also bears out the writer’s opinion that some of the more richly-carved furniture of this time was imported from Italy.