The houses of the artisans and husbandmen were generally of brick, and were as well furnished as the houses of the workingmen of to-day, and perhaps better built. In humbler homes the stools and benches and cots were of primitive patterns and rude workmanship; but in the houses of the well-to-do and wealthy the tables, beds, and chairs were elaborately finished and ornamented in the highest style with foreign woods and quaint devices of workmanship. -Ridpath, 1885