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THE STRAND MAGAZINE.

characters at home, and 1s the identical one specially taken on many occasions to the theatre for her use upon the stage. It was left, with other personal property, to Miss Wilkinson, her companion and confidential friend, who lived with the distinguished actress during the last years of her life. From this lady it passed to Dr. T. Stevenson, F.S.A., who gave it to Mr. Godwin. The latter gentleman also possessed the easy chair of the elder Charles Mathews, which he purchased at the sale of the actor's effects 1878.

Longfellow's chair is a squat imitation of a Sheraton design, and probably manufactured in America, where it is still cherished by the family.

Garrick's chair is technically called a "lug" chair, by reason of the side pieces or "lugs" projecting from the back, which must effectually screen the head from transverse draughts. This cosy receptacle is well padded throughout, and covered with gay tapestry. A striking peculiarity is the movable ottoman below, which draws in and out, forming a resting-place for the famous actor's gouty extremities. A brass plate at the back is thus inscribed: "This Chair belonged to David Garrick, and was purchased by John Hare at the Countess of Essex' Sale at Christie's, on March 7th, 1883." Mr. Hare afterwards presented it to the Green Room Club.

There is a story connected with Lord Byron's handsome Louis XIV. chair, covered in crimson Utrecht velvet. In 1835, his intimate friend, Scrope Davies, an associate of the Byron coterie of elegant men, and a wit, had made his home in an apartment that was previously a hayloft, situated in one of the squares in Ostend, the approach to this unconventional dwelling being by means of a ladder. Scrope Davies had filled two rooms, fashioned in the loft, with relics from all the distinguished men he had known, and was visited by many eminent people as they passed through Ostend to pay their respects to King Leopold at Brussels. The father