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XIV
THE BEDROOM
IN olden times people rarely slept in their bed-
rooms, which were mostly chambres de parade,
where everyone was received and much business
was transacted. The real bedroom was usually a
smallish closet nearby. These chambres de parade
were very splendid, the beds raised on a dais, and hung
with fine damasks and tapestries-tapestries thick with
bullion fringes. The horror of fresh air felt by our
ancestors was well illustrated here. No draughts
from ill-constructed windows or badly hung doors
could reach the sleeper in such a bed.
This was certainly different from our modern ideas
of hygiene:  In those days furniture that could not
be hastily moved was of little importance. The bed
was usually a mere frame of wood, made to be covered
with valuable hangings which could easily be packed
and carried away on occasions that too often arose in
the troublous days of the early Middle Ages. The
benches and tables one sees in many foreign palaces
to-day are covered with gorgeous lengths of velvet and
brocade. This is a survival of the custom when furni-
ture was merely so much baggage. With the early
Eighteenth Century, however, there came into being
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