" In houses of much size the rooms were often wainscoted to the height of about three feet, or a chair board (a beveled moulding) ran about the same height from the floor. Sometimes the wainscot was carved, as well as the paneling about the deep wooden seats and the mantel-pieces. The fire-places occupied a large space, in some very old houses being placed cornerwise. Tiles, usually of Scripture scenes, adorned the fire-places. Some were of quite fine ware, entirely white, as in the Van Cortlandt Manorhouse, where one or two were spared by the soldiers when removing the rest to use as plates. The fireirons, fender and andirons were of solid brass and always as brilliant as hands could make them, forming with the fire a perfect picture, but alas for those who in biting winter days could not get close to that fire ! "

As the colony grew stronger the Dutch scattered farther in the interior and luxury invaded the towns which they and the other settlers founded along the Hudson. As they built better houses they made or imported fine furniture for them, but the earlier equipments of the living rooms were as rude in character as scant in number. The pallet on the floor -- " the Kermis bed," as the Dutch called it -- was an occasional resort, even in good houses. The Labadist travelers in 1688 sojourned in a tavern near the Hudson that put its guests to sleep on a horse bedding of