a convenience for stretching and composing the body on, for ease, rest, or sleep, consisting generally 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.

It was universally the practice, in the first ages, for Whitaker's mankind to sleep upon skins of beasts. It was originally the custom of the Greeks and Romans. It was Maculifer, 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 loofe 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 neater 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 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 fluffed 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 grofs 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.

Dining-Bed, lectus triclinarius, or disjunctarius, 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 ate 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 cond 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 those little beds called punicani, or archebaici; being of a wood common enough, very low, stuffed only with straw or hay, and covered with goats or sheep's skins, hadinis pelibus strati. 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 ate 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 imo loco, or, as Tacitus expresses it, ad lebem fulcera. From the greatest simplicity, the Romans by degrees carried their dining-beds to the most surprising magnificence. Pliny affirms 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 Heliogabulus, says, he had beds of solid silver, folio argento habuit leitos et tricliniares, et cubiculares. We may add, that Pompey, in his third triumph, brought in beds of gold.—The Romans had also beds whereon they studied, and beds whereon the dead were carried to the funeral pile.

**Bed-Moulding**, in Architecture, a term used for those members of a cornice which are placed below the coronet; and now usually consist of an ogee, a lift, a large boulting, and another lift under the coronet.

**Bed of Justice**, in the old customs of France, a throne upon which the king sat when he went to the parliament. The king never held a bed of justice unless for affairs that concerned the state, and then all the officers of parliament were 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.

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

**Bed**, in 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 court, are 12 noblemen who attend in their turns, each a month; during which time they lie in the king's bed chamber, and wait on him when he dines in private. Their salary is £600 per annum.

**Beda**, commonly called Venerable Bede, one of our most ancient historians, was born in the year 672, in the neighbourhood of Weremouth, in the bishopric of Durham. He was educated by the abbot Benedict in the monastery of St Peter, near the mouth of the river Wyre. At the age of 19 he was ordained deacon, and priest in the year 702. About this time he was invited to Rome by Pope Sergius; but there is no sufficient reason to believe that he accepted the invitation. In the year 731 he published his Ecclesiastical History; a work of so much merit, notwithstanding the legendary tales it contains, that it were alone sufficient to immortalize the author. He died in the year 735 of a lingering consumption, probably occasioned by a sedentary life, and a long uninterrupted application to study and literary compositions, of which he left an incredible number. He was buried in the church of his convent at Jarrow; but his bones were afterwards removed to Durham, and there deposited in the same coffin with those of St Cuthbert. Bede was undoubtedly a singular phenomenon in an ignorant and illiterate age. His learning, for the times, was extensive, his application incredible, his piety exemplary, and his modesty excellent. He was universally admired, consulted, and esteemed, during his life; and his writings are deservedly considered as the foundation of our ecclesiastical history. His language is neither elegant nor pure, but perspicuous and easy.—All his works are in Latin. The first general collection of them appeared at Paris in 1544, in three volumes in folio. They were printed again at the same place in 1554, in eight volumes. They were also published in the same size and number of volumes at Basil in 1563, reprinted at Cologne in 1612, and at the same place in 1688. Besides this general collection, there are several of his compositions, which have been printed separately, or amongst the collections of the writings of ancient authors; and there are several manuscripts ascribed to him, which are preserved in the different libraries in Oxford and Cambridge.

**Bedall**, a town in the north riding of Yorkshire. Through this town passes a Roman caufeway to Richmond, Barnard-castle, &c. The parts adjacent are noted for hunting and road horses. W. Long. 1. 40. N. Lat. 54. 30.

**Bedarieux**, or Bec d'Arioux, a town of Languedoc in France, now the department of Herault, seated on the river Obe, in E. Long. 3. 24. N. Lat. 43. 29.

**Bede**. See Beadle.

**Bedel**, a small town in the north riding of Yorkshire, seated on a little brook, in W. Long. 1. 30. N. Lat. 54. 30.

**Bedell, Dr William**, a learned prelate, born in Essex in 1570. He went with Sir Henry Wotton the English ambassador to the republic of Venice, as his chaplain, in 1604; and continuing eight years in that city, contracted an intimate acquaintance with the famous Father Paul, of whom he learned Italian so well as to translate the English Common Prayer Book into that language: in return he drew up an English grammar for Father Paul, who declared he had learned more from him in all parts of divinity than from any one beside. He was accordingly much concerned when Bedell left Venice; and at his departure presented him with his picture, the MSS. of his History of the Council of Trent, his History of the Interdict and Inquisition,