ut
valuable contribution to the subject of design and manufacture of
furniture is full of interest, and points out the defects of our present
system. Amongst other regrets, one of the writers (Mr. Halsey Ricardo)
complains, that the "transient tenure that most of us have in our
dwellings, and the absorbing nature of the struggle that most of us have
to make to win the necessary provisions of life, prevent our encouraging
the manufacture of well wrought furniture. We mean to outgrow our
houses--our lease expires after so many years, and then we shall want an
entirely different class of furniture--consequently we purchase articles
that have only sufficient life in them to last the brief period of our
occupation, and are content to abide by the want of appropriateness or
beauty, in the clear intention of some day surrounding ourselves with
objects that shall be joys to us for the remainder of our life."

Many other societies, guilds, and art schools have been established with
more or less success, with the view of improving the design and
manufacture of furniture, and providing suitable models for our young wood
carvers to copy. The Ellesmere Cabinet (illustrated) was one of the
productions of the "Home Arts and Industries Association," founded by the
late Lady Marian Alford in 1883, a well known connoisseur and Art patron.
It will be seen that this is virtually a Jacobean design.

In the earlier chapters of this book, it has been observed that as
Architecture became a settled Art or Science, it was accompanied by a
corresponding development in the design of the room and its furniture,
under, as it were, one impulse of design, and this appropriate concord may
be said to have obtained in England until nearly the middle of the present
century, when, after the artificial Greek style in furniture and woodwork
which had been attempted by Wilkins, Soane, and other contemporary
architects, had fallen into disfavour, there was first a reaction, and
then an interregnum, as has been noticed in the previous chapter. The
Great Exhibition marked a fresh departure, and quickened, as we have seen,
industrial enterprise in this country; and though, upon the whole, good
results have been produced by the impetus given by these international
competitions, they have not been exempt from unfavorable accompaniments.
One of these was the eager desire for novelty, without the necessary
judgment to discriminate between good and bad. For a time, no