The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1905-03-11
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! such magnificent beds that every noble
house ooutended for the possession of one,
I If unable TO obtain more. Heliogabalus
owned bsSis oi solid silver, and Pumpey. 10
his ,hird triumph, Is said by Sampridus to
have brought back with him bedsteads Of
-olii gold The luxurious Asiaiics denied
that the artistic Greeks knew how tn make
an enjoyable bc,l. although Coriuth and
Miletus competed with Carthage in the
manufacture Of cuStly and elegant bed
coyers. Strange to say, the material used
tar stuthug cushions and mattresses in
Egypt, centuries ago, and thence trans
feEred to Rome, Is known te Us botanieally
as Gossypium Herbaoeum, and was known
to the Egyptians as the vegetable lamb, =
or plant wool, with the general name OF
''kupas. in short, nothing more or less
than ooltoui So many an unpFeiending
matroa of the twen,ieth century reposes
upon a mattress stuffed with the same una
,erizl which comforted aud refreshed the
weary limbs Of that most self-indulgent Of
al queens, Cleopatra
During the middle ages as civilization
became general and property more secure
aud homes firmly established, the couch
grew into the bed stock or beistead.
which, crude enough At irSt, wss finally
built into the wall Of the rOom, not unlike
the modern steamship berth. Then a
whole section Of room was set apart and
bull, in for sleeping accommodations
virtually room within a room. Curtains
were added As screen, and then followed
oruamentAtion Of posts, headboards and
f,otboards. and in the twelfth century the
first known double bed appeared with
canopy top, separate and movable, with
embroidered curtains, which in the next
century had grown into elegant, costly and
elaborafely wrought things Of beauty. The
bed. then, began 10 dominate every other
article Of furniture in the house, and was
cherished on account Of its artistic value.
The social position or aspiration Of par
tieular family not unfrequently became
ccniered upon the costliness and StatelineSs
Of their beds, and many ancient inventories
and wills, now in existence, reveal what
value and consequence were attached TO the
family bed. Yet the bed, built into the
wall was decidedly tenacious Of its posi-
tion. as can be proven by many chateau
in Normandy and castle in England, and
visitors to Monticello will doabtless recall
these beds, or rather berths, which Jeffer-
son ordered built into the walls Of his house,
after the manner Of some Of the most
famous chaieaux in France,
The win Of Richard Lee, Of Virginia,
dated 1868, shows the value set upon beds
at that period He divides his household
stuff at his home-Stratford--into three
parts, two OF which he gives to his son
John, whom be commands to bestOw upon
every one Of his brothers bed, and TO his
eldest son, John, be bequeaths the great
bed brought over from England in the yes
sci called the Duke Of York, Also, Mary
Washington bequeaths TO her son, Gen.
George Washington, her best Virginia
bed, with the embroidered cloth curtains
and a quilted blue and white coverlid, and
TO her granddaughter, Polly Carter, the
bedstead draped with purple curtains and
covered with a white counterpane. The
bed bequeathed TO General Washington
can be still seen in Mount Vernon. Thos.
Deacon, of York county, Va. in l647
had house with only two rooms, in each
Of which stood bed worth fully 81 ,00e,
the equivalent of $50 pounds of tobacco.
In feudal times every manor house or castle
had three kinds of bed, component parts
of one whole, called Trinity the bed
Of state used BY the lord and lady; a lower
bed upon which attendants slept, and a
third, drawing from underneath the second,
like a trundle bed, for the servants-and,
in the centuries which followed, both beds
and draperies in England and Europe gen
orally were esteemed most precious posses
sions, and were entailed or carefully itemized
in the last will and testament. King Ed
ward III. in 1876 leaves to his son, Ed
ward the Black Prince, IAN entire bed,
with all the hangings marked with the
arms of France and England, now in our
Palace of Westminster. Indeed, whole
volume of these ancient instances of the
of beds might be gathered
from England alone.