Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/426

 4o6 Hifiory of Domejiic Manners celers, tellers, fetherbeddes, traunfoms, coverlytes, blankettes, flietes, pelows, and all other ftutt' of huffold {lioitfchohl) ;" and afterwards be- queaths thefe articles feparately to his fon and daughter, after their mother's death : — " I will that William Coote have my befle hanged bede, celer, tellor, and curteyns longgyng to the fame, the befte fether- bede, the befte coverlyght, the befte peyer of blankettes, the befte peyer flietes 5 and Alys Coote to have the next hanged bede, celer, and teftour, wyth the ij^* fetherbede, blankettes, and the ij^^ peyer flietes." In the will of Anne Barett, of Bury, dated in 1504, we read, " Item, I bequeth to Avyfe my fervaunte x. marc, a ft'ether bed, a traunfom, a payre llietes, a payre blankettes, a coverlyght." Laftly, the will of Agar Herte, a widow of the fame town, made in 1522, contains the following items : — " Item, I bequethe to Richard Jaxfon, my fon, a ffetherbed, ij. trawnfoms, a matras, ij. pelowes, iiij. payer of fchetes, a payer of blankettes, and a coveryng of arafTe, and a fecunde coverlyght, a felour and a teftour fteynyd with fliowers, and iij. curteyns ;" . . . " Item, I bequethe to Jone Jaxfon, my dowghter, a fetherbed, a matras, a bolfter, ij. pelowes, iiij. payer of fchetes, a payer of blankettes, a coverlyght with filowre de lyce, a felour and a teftour fteynyd with Seynt Kateryn at the hed and the crufilix on the felour, ... a fecunde coverlyght, ij. pelow-beris {pi/ low-covers), the fteynyd clothes abowte the chamber where I ly ;" . . . " Item, I bequethe to Fraunces Wrethe a ftetherbed, a bolfter, a payer of blankettes, my beft carpet, a new coverlyght with fftowers, ij. payer of fchetes, ij. pelows with the berys." Thefe extrafts from only one fet of wills are fufficient to fliow the great advance svhich our forefathers had made during the fourteenth century in the comfort and richnefs of their beds, and how cautious we ought to be in receiving general obfervations on the condition of previous ages by thofe who write at a fubfequent period. I make this obfervation in allufion to the account fo often quoted from Harrifon, who, in the defcription of England written in ElTex during the reign of Elizabeth, and inferted in Holinflied's " Chronicles," informs us that " our fathers (yea, and we our felves alfo) have lien full oft upon ftraw pallets, on rough mats, covered onelie with a flieet, under coverlets made of dag- fvvain.