BED, a convenience for stretching and composing the body on, for ease, rest, or sleep, consisting gene-
rally of feathers enclosed in a ticken case. There are varieties of beds, as a standing-bed, a fettee-bed, a tent-bed, a truckle-bed, &c. Bed.
It was universally the practice, in the first ages, for White-mankind to sleep upon skins of beasts. It was originally the custom of the Greeks and Romans. It was particularly the custom of the ancient Britons before the Roman invasion; and these skins were spread on the floor of their apartments. Afterwards they were changed for loose rushes and heath, as the Welsh a few years ago lay on the former, and the Highlanders of Scotland sleep on the latter to this present moment. In process of time, the Romans suggested to the interior Britons the use, and the introduction of agriculture supplied them with the means, of the greater convenience of straw beds. The beds of the Roman gentry * Pliny, at this period were generally filled with feathers, and lib. viii. those of the inns with the soft down of reeds. But for c. 48. and many ages the beds of the Italians had been constantly xvi. c. 36. composed of straw; it still formed those of the soldiers and officers at the conquest of Lancashire; and from both, our countrymen learnt their use. But it appears to have been taken up only by the gentlemen, as the common Welsh had their beds thinly stuffed with rushes as late as the conclusion of the 12th century; and with the gentlemen it continued many ages afterwards. Straw was used even in the royal chambers of England as late as the close of the 13th. Most of the peasants about Manchester lie on chaff at present, as do likewise the common people all over Scotland: In the Highlands heath also is very generally used as bedding, even by the gentry; and the repose on a heath bed has been celebrated by travellers as a peculiar luxury, superior to that yielded by down: In France and Italy, straw beds remain general to this day. But after the above period, beds were no longer suffered to rest upon the ground. The better mode, that had anciently prevailed in the east, and long before been introduced into Italy, was adopted in Britain; and they were now mounted on pedestals†. This, however, was equally confined to the gentlemen. The bed still continued on the floor among the common people. And the gross custom, that had prevailed from the beginning was retained by the lower Britons to the last; and these ground-beds were laid along the walls of their houses, and formed one common dormitory for all the members of the family. The fashion continued universally among the inferior ranks of the Welsh within these four or five ages, and with the more uncivilized part of the Highlanders down to our own times. And even at no great distance from Manchester, in the neighbouring Buxton, and within these 60 or 70 years, the persons that repaired to the bath are all said to have slept in one long chamber together; the upper part being allotted to the ladies, and the lower to the gentlemen, and only partitioned from each other by a curtain.