THE FOUR-POSTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19695, 23 January 1926, Page 22

THE FOUR-POSTER.

I have been sleeping in an old-fashioned bedstead. When, at the end of our journey, I stepped into the room which was to be mine for the night, I confess I was a little taken aback at the sight of the four-poster, with its tent-like hangings and tapestried roof, which make up the appurtenances of the Tester (writes a correspondent to the Star). Hitherto I have been an advanced modern in my ideas about beds and bedding. A single or, rather, “twin” bedstead, short-legged, and placed so as to give air, air, and yot more air. Here at our Cambridge inn I found myself thrown back, at the turn of a handle, into the days of my great-grandmothers. I regarded it witli suspicion. I had notions of being stifled, or, at the least, of awakening long before cock-crow, with a dread sense of that dark, tapestried bed-top slowly, slowly descending upon me in the manner of the Guignol. I found no humour in the suggestion that, to complete the outfit, one wanted a warmingpan, a blunderbuss, and a tassclled' nightcap. I took out my bedside book, to which I am apt to cling; I donned my pyjamas —pyjamas!—l faced the music, and so to bed. At the very moment I slid in between the spotless sheets, my philosophy of sleep was altered. The surprise was delightful. The great bed welcomed me and com forted me on the instant. It was cool without being cold; it soothed one’s bones, it was gentle to one’s flesh without being too soft; there is no sophistry in describing it as an eminently tactful bed. The mere memory of it, now at a hundred miles distance, invites dreamless sleep, or, at any rate, a sleep of blissful dreamings. Yes, I have changed my ideas. Give me the capacious bed, a bed where you can shift and roll, if yon are so inclined, and find never a comfortless inch or draughty space. A bed made by men who have a deep understanding of the meaning of sleep; a bed in which sleep becomes a sweet adventure; a bed in which one could die with dignity.