Another room at Knole, known as the “Spangled Bedroom,” on account of its ceiling, is hung with tapestry and contains a handsome bed which is represented on Plate [IX.] The stools and chairs in this room are covered with crimson silk embroidered in the same pattern as the bed-furniture.
The massive Elizabethan “four-posted” bed died hard. Although in many homes the new styles were being introduced, the “beddes of tymbre” were treasured and still formed objects of special bequests. Oliver Cromwell’s bed, which is still in existence, is similar in general style to the “Great Bed of Ware,”[[8]] which was so large that it could hold twelve persons. In 1598, Paul Hentzer, visiting Windsor, notes the beds belonging to princes of preceding reigns measured 11 feet square and were covered with quilts shining with gold and silver.
The large Tudor bed was the richest piece of furniture. Apart from the sheets of finest linen, the soft and handsome blankets, the counterpane of marvellous needlework, the quilts of silk and rugs of fur, and the curtains of tapestry, samite, silk or velvet, it was a mass of superb carving luxuriantly expressed upon headboard, canopy, tester, columns, and panels. The columns were often carved to represent the “four gospellers,” or evangelists, and angels: which explain the old rhyme:
“Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that I sleep on;
Two angels at my head,
Two angels round my bed,
Two to watch, and two to pray,
And two to carry my soul away.”
One of the popular decorations of the columns was the acorn-shaped central bulb on the posts, and the arch panel on the headboard. Even the under side of the canopy is formed of carved panels. On either side of the headboard, the terminal figures of men or women or angels were not merely decorative, but formed supports for looping back the curtains. Many of these carved oak bedsteads were imported from Flanders, especially those whose testers are carved with designs suggested by drapery or fringe. Under this great bed, which sometimes stood upon a low platform, the “trundle” or “truckle” bed was rolled.