Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 6).djvu/410

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SOME FAMOUS CHAIRS.
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of the lady who tells the story of Davies knew how to appreciate that remarkable man, who, in return, invited him to the loft, where he found a curious collection of objects. He was subsequently able to do Davies "a good turn," and this sympathy led to the gentleman one day carrying down the ladder this same high-backed chair with cloven feet, which Byron himself had given him. It originally came from his lordship's ancestral mansion, where he used it in his library.

The first of the chairs of three great artists is a small writing chair with crimson leather seat and back (somewhat tattered), which once belonged to George Cruikshank. The next is a much more substantial seat, formerly owned by Thomas Bewick, the restorer of the art of wood-engraving in England, but who is better known, perhaps, as the author and illustrator of Bewick's "British Birds" and "Quadrupeds." The present writer purchased this valuable relic at the Bewick Sale held at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1884, and, in order to maintain its identity, a silver plate has since been inserted recording this fact, together with the intimation that Bewick had for many years been accustomed to sit in this very chair. A mournful interest is associated with Sir Edwin Landseer's easy chair, for in it (as it stood by his bedside) the great animal painter breathed his last.

A rough oaken chair, fit for a giant to rest on, is that of Walter Savage Landor, poet and miscellaneous writer. It is of James I.'s date, and was included in the Godwin collection. So was Theodore Hook's, a very peculiar one of the Cromwell period, which may be used as a table, the circular back turning down and resting solidly on the arms. Mr. Godwin