with watery landscapes and branches, this chest is lacquered in gold and red on a dark crimson ground. It was a standard form of storage chest for linens and other textiles. The English stand c. 1730 is japanned, a technique developed by English and European craftsmen to approximate the hard, smooth and shiny surfaces of popular Asian lacquered goods. Green Closet Used for the display of miniature paintings and smaller-scale furniture, in contrast to the Long Gallery, this room is a very rare survival of a room in the style of Charles I's court. In the 1630s the Green Closet was specifically designed by William Murray to display miniatures and small paintings. The ceiling paintings are tempera on paper, and represent some of Franz Cleyn's best surviving work. Today it contains 87 items including Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) painted c. 1590 by Nicholas Hilliard, and A Man Consumed by Flames painted c. 1610 by Isaac Oliver. Library The Library dates from the 1672–74 enlargement of the house. The architectural historian Mark Girouard considers it probably "the oldest country house library" still in existence. Although some shelves were moved from what is now the Queen's Antechamber, most of the cedar fixed furniture, including the secretaire, was provided by Henry Harlow. The Duke of Lauderdale added substantially to the contents: he was an avid reader and collector (so much so that his Highgate house was said to be in danger of collapse due to the weight of his substantial book collection), and he owed huge sums to booksellers when he died. Mark Purcell, in his 2017 study The Country House Library, notes that the probate inventory undertaken on the Duke's death estimated the value of his books at half of the total worth of the house's chattels. Many volumes were sold at auctions between 1688 and 1692, in part due to the Duchess's money difficulties upon the Duke's death. Later members of the family rebuilt the collection, notably the 4th Earl who bought at the Harleian auction and elsewhere. He acquired 12 books printed by William Caxton and many other incunabula; in 1904 a visitor, William Younger Fletcher, described the library as containing books of greater value, in proportion to its size, than any other in Europe. Most of the books were sold in 1938, and the bulk of the remainder after the Second World War. A notable exception, a Book of