Woolsack

If the lord chancellor "be a peer, he ought regularly to be placed at the top of the dukes' bench, on the left of the throne; and if a commoner, upon the uppermost sack in the Parliament chamber, called the lord chancellor's woolsack." "For convenience, here he generally sits, though a peer, and here he puts the question, and acts as prolocutor; but this place is not considered within the House, and when he is to join in debate as a peer he stands in front of his proper seat, at the top of the dukes' bench." "There are woolsacks for the judges and other assessors, as well as for the lord chancellor. They are said to have been introduced into the House of Lords as a compliment to the staple manufacture of the realm; but I believe that in the rude simplicity of early times a sack of wool was frequently used as a sofa."