a convenience for stretching and composing the body on, for ease, rest, or sleep, consisting generally of feathers inclosed in a ticken case. There are varieties of beds, as a standing bed, a fetter-bed, a tent-bed, a truckle-bed, &c.

It was universally the practice, in the first ages, for 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 heather, as the Welch 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 neater convenience of straw-beds. The beds of the Roman gentry at this period were generally filled with feathers, and lib. viii. those of the inns with the soft down of reeds. But for c. 49. many ages the beds of the Italians had been constantly 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 sants about Manchester lie on chaff at present: and straw-beds remain to this day general in France and Italy.—But they 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 Welch within these four or five ages, and with the more uncivilized part of the Highlanders nearly 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.

Dining-Bed, lectus tricliniarum, or disjunctiorum, that whereon the ancients lay at meals. The dining or disjunctory beds were four or five feet high. Three of these beds were ordinarily ranged by a square table (whence both the table and the room where they eat were called triclinium) in such a manner, that one of the sides of the table remained open, and accessible to the waiters. Each bed would hold three or four, rarely five persons. These beds were unknown before the second Punic war: the Romans, till then, sat down to eat on plain wooden benches, in imitation of the heroes of Homer, or, as Varro expresses it, after the manner of the Lacedemonians and Cretans. Scipio Africanus first made an innovation: he had brought from Carthage some of these little beds called punicani, or archaici; being of a wood common enough, very low, stuffed only with straw or hay, and covered with goats or sheep's skins, hædinis pelibibus striatis. In reality, there was no great difference, as to delicacy, between these new beds and the ancient benches; but the custom of frequent bathing, which began then to obtain, by softening and relaxing the body, put men on trying to rest themselves more commodiously by lying along than by sitting down. For the ladies, it did not seem at first consistent with their modesty to adopt the mode of lying; accordingly they kept to the old custom all the time of the commonwealth; but, from the first Caesars, they eat on their beds. For the youth, who had not yet put on the toga virilis, they were long kept to the ancient discipline. When they were admitted to table, they only sat on the edge of the beds of their nearest relations. Never, says Suetonius, did the young Caesars, Caius and Lucius, eat at the table of Augustus; but they were set in in loco, or, as Tacitus expresses it, ad lecti fulera. From the greatest simplicity, the Romans, by degrees, carried their dining-beds to the most surprising magnificence. Pliny assures us, it was no new thing to see them covered over with plates of silver, adorned with the softest mats, and the richest counterpanes. Lampridius, speaking of Heliogabalus, says, he had beds of solid silver, folido argento habuit lectos & tricliniares, & cubiculares. We may add, that Pompey, in his third triumph, brought in beds of gold.—The Romans had also beds whereon they died, and beds whereon the dead were carried to the funeral pile.

Ben-Moulding, in architecture, a term used for those members of a cornice which are placed below the coronet; and now usually consists of an ogive, a list, a large boulting, and another list under the coronet.

Bed of Justice, in the French customs, a throne upon which the king is seated when he goes to the parliament. The king never holds a bed of justice unless for affairs that concern the state, and then all the officers of parliament are clothed in scarlet robes.

Bed of the Carriage of a Great Gun, a thick plank, that lies under the piece; being, as it were, the body of the carriage.

masonry, a course or range of stones; and the joint of the bed is the mortar between two stones, placed over each other.

gardening, square or oblong pieces of ground, in a garden, raised a little above the level of the adjoining ground, and wherein they sow seeds or plant roots.

Hot-Bed. See Hot-Bed.

Lords of the Bed-Chamber, in the British customs, ten lords who attend in their turns, each a week; during which time they lie in the king's bed-chamber, and wait on him when he dines in private.