Beds—Ancient & Modern

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXVIII, Issue 3484, 30 August 1937, Page 7

Beds—Ancient & Modern

It lias been computed that man spends about a quarter of his life asleep. The ratio was probably greater In the dark ages before the era of artificial lighting and of nighttime amusements. Consequently the subject of beds must always have been one of considerable Interest.

The word bed formerly meant “a dug out place for safe resting,” in the same sense ns garden bed. The oldest account of an actual bedstead Is probably that of Ulysses, a description of which occurs in Homer. In the walls of some of the houses at Pompeii bed niches were found which were probably closed by curtains or sliding partitions. Long after the passing of the ancient Greek and Roman civilisation, however, the savage inhabitants of Northern Europe were content to repose on the floors on beds of leaves covered with skills, or in a kind of shallow chest filled with leaves and moss.

In the 13 th century a tendency towards greater luxury developed. People began to give up sleeping on the floor, and couches of various sorts were devised. In Scotland, Brittany, and Holland closed beds with sliding or folding shutters, not unlike those in use in ancient Pompeii over a thousand years earlier, became common. It was in the 17 th century that beds reached their zenith of magnificence. They were made of wood, richly carved, were huge in size, and hung with curtains of silk or other material. Louis XIV. of France, who reigned from 1643 to 1715, had an enormous number of beds, as many as 403, many of them embellished with beautiful tapestries, being described in the inventories of his palaces. In the eighteenth century, iron beds made their appearance, but In England the four-poster, with tester and curtains all round, was usual till the middle of the 19th century.

Now the tendency Is towards simplicity in style. Huge, ornate beds are no longer considered desirable. The modern bedstead is perhaps less picturesque in appearance, but, hygienicalljr, it is a vast improvement on its predecessor.