The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-02
Historic Beds In # Old England
 Stately

"GoOd hOuse--nice beds, said Jingle at the Bull. at Rochestre. But there are many good houses today with beds that cannot be called nice Those are the modern little beds with wire mattresses and hard and unyielding bedclothes. The nice beds are those you read about but don't find; the soft. yielding beds, with a flavor of lavender, that invite you to sleep and almost forbid you to rise from them in the morning. says An swers. There are yet, in few old English hostelries. beds of that quail ty. and historic, too.
 For example, there is the bed at the Saracen's Head, at Southwell, in which Charles the First slept his last sleep as free man, May 5, 1646. It is a picturesque four-poster in n pie turesque room.
 The most noted of all beds, how ever, is the Great Bed of Ware;" so famous that Shakespeare mentions it in his Twelfth Night" It is huge four-poster of black oak, richly carved. and is twelve feet square; once it was three feet longer. A former land lord of the inn at Ware-another Saracen's Head-where it used to be. was responsible for cutting it down. Great Bed of Ware
 The story of the Great Bed of Ware" is NO interwoven with legend l that no one now can unravel the true facts. or find the reason for a bed of this size. It afforded sleeping accom- moda ton for twelve people. Although it has been thought that the Great Bed" was. when it was made, only a curiosity and unique, that is not the case. We have the record of an even larger bed in Norfolk, at the White Hart, Sc6le. This was a round bed, and could hold forty people. Unhap- oily, this prime curiosity was broken up in 1901.
 The history of the Great Bed of come from Ware PriOry, and may have been intended as bed for the accom- moda ton of wayfarers seeking shelter there. Although ancient. the date, "1463," painted on it, is forgery. It was removed from the Saracen's Head at Ware to the Rye House, near Hod- desdon, 1869; and there at that place of popular resort it remains, though. at the recent election. it was sug- gested that the Liberal party might ac- quire it for their leader.
 A curious he'd. purporting to have belonged to Richard, duke of GlOu- cester. afterwards Richard the Third. the Gloucester Arms. at Penrith. That ho~;e. formerly called "Dockwray Hall" was the home of Ralph Ne vile, at the time when Penrith castle was building Richard married Anne Neville, and thus came into possession. Here are. in fact, two noted beds i; one dated 1472, the other with simi- | lar portrait of Richard himself. An | tiquaries. however, are not thoroughly convinced of the authentic nature of these bedsteads.
 ByrOns COrOneted Bedstead
 Surely at no other place than Hamp- ton Court palace can there be such collections of heavy and dreary old four-post bedsteads; but much more impressive than these. in it's own way, is the dismal, though stately drdped bed at Newstead Abbey, which once was Lord ByrOn's. It belongs to that period when peers proclaimed their mo- bility in ways no gentleman would now dream of. In Byron's time it was no uncommon thing for noblemen to wear their stars and orders on their coats in the public streets. and some did the same when out on sporting expeditions. So, of course, they could not sleep in just ordinary beds. By rOn's bedstead has two barOn's cOro- nets on it.
 The great duke of Wellington de- spiSed all such extPavagant sleeping places. That old campaigners little iron trucklebed is still shown at Wal mer castle. where he long resided as warden of the CinQue Ports, and where he died.
 The state bedrooms in the "State- ly Homes of England" are remark able series of gorgeously appointed sleeping apartments, in which are beds of a monumental character. carved and giided and hung about with heavy draperies until they look like boxes at the opera.
 The chief state bed at Welbeck Ab- bey, a seat of the duke of Portland, is exactly like that, and those at Chatswo- are not less calculated to make the business of retiring for the night so much of a ceremony that it must be difficult to get to sleep. Better known to countless pilgrims almost than even the Great Bed of Ware" must be the ancient bed in one of the rooms of Anne Hatha- ways House." at Shottery. near Strat- ford d-On-A Avon. It is the finest article of furniture actually in the house, and is still spread with old handwoven linen,