A HISTORY OF EVERYDAY THINGS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 94, 30 July 1943, Page 6

A HISTORY OF EVERYDAY THINGS

MATTRESSES GROW LEGS Still, floors are very hard to slee] on, as we all know if wc; have tried! So before very long "mattresses"

came into use, which—when you come- to think of it—are really like stuffed pillows large enough to lie on. The earliest ones were just skins and sacks filled with'hay or heather; but later, ayool and leathers and down were used to make softer and softer beds. In those huts and houses of primitive times, rats and mice used to scuttle across, the floor and draughts from open doorways and ill-fitting curtains blew coldly, so men soon decided to raise thenbeds above the floor—they gave their mattresses legs by resting it on a rough framework. And here we have the first real bed. Though rough beds and. furniture were used by our forefathers even in the early Middle Ages, centuries before this in the empires of Egypt and Greece and Rome, elaborate furnisliings of all kinds were in existence. In the houses of wealthy Egyptians, beds with cushions and feather mattresses, and stool's, and carpets, and linen hangings and painted furniture were all in use. ■The Greeks and Romans used tables of wood and marble, and even gold and silver, and folding chairs' and seats and couches of all sorts and sizes.