Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/419

Rh CHAPTER XIX,

THE CHAMBER AND ITS FURNITURE AND USES. BEDS. HUTCHES AND COFFERS. THE TOILETTE ; MIRRORS.

HE chambers were now, except in fmaller houfes, moftly above the ground-floor; and, as I have already oblerved, the privacy of the chamber was much greater than formerly. In the poem of " Lady Befly," quoted in a former chapter (the whole poem is given in Mr. Halliwell's privately printed "Palatine Anthology"), when the earl of Derby was plotting with the lady BefTy for calling in the earl of Richmond, he propofed to repair fecretly to her in her chamber, in order to prepare the letters : —

The earl, on his part. — He