Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1895-06-20
|pFDsOFTHELONGAG AGO
..s,y DAYS THE KINGS BEST
= gEo WAS OF STRAW.

J-ha he'd IN our CUuutAy SoL outJ ray
IN u some 500 years or so OF active
The learned find themselves unable
sav for certain when Anglo-Sax
= Exchanged the hard bosom of moth
aarth for the artificial but soothing
s.,i,bts of the bed. But, roughly speak
a ~ ma may place the introduction OF
.Le hsd into England at about the tenth
century
..ot he'd of long ago, a mere rough
s s-ar bench, on which the sleeper tossed
.raarily until daylight babe him rise.
THE evolutionary process, however, went
:, onickly with rs, and the bed soon
became leading feature of the English
nome affording the sleeper the necessary
comfort and coziness.
n may we'll be imagined that our
forefathers set great store upon their
costly beds. One reason for the lavish
communication of the bed was that it
was almost the only piece of furniture
IN the Englishmans house of that day
a any considerable value. The uphol-
sterer's art was thing Of slow growth,
md for centuries Englishmen of wealth
and station. put up with discomforts
which gould drive our modern Lazarus
into frantic revolt. Coarse wooden
stools settees and benches, with an
oaken chest or two and rough table,
comprised for the most part the furni-
tnre of the English home of those far
off DAYS. There was no temptation to
lavish the resources of art upon these
moor movables, and consequently every
thing went toward the decoration and
establishment of the bed.
The entry in Shakespeare's will be-
oueathing his second best bed to his
wife has amused and puzzled many peo-
ple, but the poet was only following an
old and general custom in making dis
tinct and separate bequest of one of his
most precious household possessions. 1t
had for more than two centuries been
the regular custom to ''leave" beds by
express stipulation of the testator. Thus
in 1856 we find Elizabeth, countess of
Northampton, bequeathing her daughter
an embroidered bed of red worsted.
Agnes, countess of Pembroke, i'll 1867
left her daughter a bed with the fur
niture of her fathers arms.
Edward, the Black Prince, in 1876
beoueathed to ''our SON Richard the bed
which the king our father gave us; to
Sir Roger Clarendon, silk bed; to Sir
Robert de Walsham, our eonfessor, a
large bed of red camorra, with our arms
embroidered at each corner. The Black
Prince widow was as generous as her
departed husband in making gifts Of
beds. She left Ito my dear son, the king
Orchard III, my new bed of red velvet.
embroidered with ostrich feathers Of
silver and heads of leopards of gold,
with boughs and leaves issuing out of
their mouths +"
A bed Of this rich and sumptuous
quality would be couch fit even for a
king to lie upon. But for choice COM
mend US to the beds that Lady Ber-
/ gayenny bequeathed in l43i--''a bed Of
| gold swans, with tapetter of green tap
estry, with branches and flowers of
divers colors, and two pairs of sheets of
Raynes; pair of fustians, six pairs of
other sheets; bed of cloth Of gold with
lebardes; a bed of blue bardekyn--that
Is, silk, gold and embroidery and bed
Of silk, black and red, embroidered with
woodland flowers in silver.
This bequeathing Of beds was strict
" observed custom from the thirteenth
70 the middle of the eighteenth century.
The last bequest of bed that we know
OF occurs i'll will proved as late as
1913, In I'LL Bishop Burnet gave the
bed and furniture of his best bedcham-
Der, four pairs of Holland sheets and
three pairs of common sheets, for the
use OF servants, to his son William, and
distributed his remaining beds among
his other children.
Inc beds for the most part were filed
with straw. Flocks and feathers were
used y Is true, but as rule the Eng
Ash gentry, from the thirteenth till past
tne sixteenth century, were content to
sieep on beds of straw. 1t was the out
SIDE OF their beds that they chiefly con-
eefhed themselves with. If the family
oeas We're made of velvet or bardekyn
and were sufficiently ornamental, then
al was well, Even the English kings
siept on straw. In the accounts of King
'ahles prlvy purse we find the en-
ny strawe for the kings bedd, xiii.
/ xys
We hedstead was also in receipt Of
macn thoughtful attention on the part
81 tle owner, and not few of them.
thanks to the enduring oak of which
taey are made, have come down to us in
ullmpaired strength and dignity. The
e'd tlme hedstead was a portentous af-
4a1f' with Its solemn pillars, its canopies
a4a nanglngs. The bedstead itself did
a9s Always 90 in the bequest with the
gea' ana hence we find in many old
houses tlToughout England bedsteads in
800 wave rested whole generations Of
fti the most famous Of old Eng
4-sa % .eads is the great bed of Ware.
~ an Mt couch this, and not wanting
az ~ # literary mention. Shake
..g ave it friendly notice i'll
lN Night, where Sir Toby
~ ars 70 As many lies that will
y in sheet of Manor althouoh tba