BEDS OF THE PEOPLE

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20254, 24 July 1937, Page 27 (Supplement)

BEDS OF THE PEOPLE

THROUGH THE AGES. EARLY USE FOR OARPETB. In the early ages skins were generally used both for bed and pillow. In travelling, the wayfarer was content to take a stone for a pillow, and having spread his upper garment on it, to sleep without any further preparation, says the Daily Mall. Carpets were sufficient for this purpose with mo-st of the people In later times, and had the advantage of being easily transported from one place to another. In order to take up his bed and walk, a man had nothing to do but roll it up and place It under his arms. This seems to have been the only purpose for which carpets were used In ancient times. The old practioe' In England was to strew the floor with rushes, so that visitors who oould not find any other seat might, without muoh inoonvenienoe, deposit themselves upon the floor. But even a* regard* the interests of neatness, it would have been quite as well to have left it bare, for Erasmus, In describing respectable English houses, gives u-s to understand that under the rushes with which the floor was spread lay a collection of fragments, bones, beer and other dirt. He says that no doubt the frequent plagues In England were owing to this unsavoury practice; and there has been no example of that disorder slnoe the great Are In London, in the time of Charles 11., purified the olty. Hebrews and Roman*. In the times of the Hebrew kingdom the bed resembled a divan, consisting of a low elevation running round three sides of a small room. This was oovered with stuffed oushlons of the same width, and bolsters were put on the back against the wall. They also had beds resembling our sofas; but these were luxuries—a carpet was enough for the greater portion of the people. The Romans, luxurious as they were, do not appear to have made use of feather beds much before the time of Pliny. In the early republican times they slept on leaves; afterwards they used hay and straw. Till the olose of the thirteenth oentury straw was common even In palaces. The kings of England used to sleep, father and son, In the same chamber. The present kind of bed Is the result of gradual Improvements. First, a ooverlet was thrown over the person In his straw couch; then followed the practice of entirely undressing, and an additional supply of bedclothes was used; next, linen sheets* came Into use In the place of blankets; and at one time hangings or curtains were hung over the bed to secure both privacy and comfort. To the English belong the merit of having carired improvements In beds, as In many other domestlo arrangements, to the highest perfection.