164 



The Country House 



floor, and were glad of the chance. Later a cord-strung frame, raised slightly 

 from the floor, became the ancestor of the modern bedstead. After various natural 

 changes the large four poster of the Renaissance, perched upon a dais or plat- 

 form, and hung heavy with hangings, shone forth in its glory a wonder of the 

 cabinetmaker's and upholsterer's art. About the seventeenth century, England 

 and her American colonies climbed into bed by the aid of a step-ladder. This 

 stilted type, however, gave way to the more rational height of the present day. 



The bedroom suite, usually comprising an ante-chamber, chamber, boudoir, 

 dressing room and bathroom, is seldom used in this country. Unlimited means 

 and room alone make such extensive arrangement possible. Where the suite 

 is attempted at all, it usually comprises the chamber, dressing room and bath. 

 That the suite is not more considered is perhaps from slightly differing conditions 

 and customs rather than any real quarrel with the arrangement itself. 



The bedchamber is more often badly than w r ell planned. The average is a 

 room of fair size with doors and windows, called a chamber. If you get the bed- 

 stead placed in any decent sort of shape you are lucky, and the finding of a fair 

 lodging for the dresser, bureau, etc., is nothing short of miraculous. If you can 

 then get into bed without crawling over everything else in the room your triumph 

 *5 complete. As a matter of fact, the planning of openings and wall spaces in 

 this room should be most carefully considered, and the disposal of the opening 

 with a view to avoid a draught across the bed be deemed one of the most important 



features. 



As to the hand- 

 ling of the chamber 

 floors, it is undoubt- 

 edly better that they 

 be well covered with 

 some substantial 

 covering; the cheer- 

 less "cold floor" of 

 unhappy memory is 

 not a thing one cares 

 to contemplate. 



Why is it that 

 a person with so 

 much taste in the 

 selection of the wall 

 covering for the 

 other rooms in the 

 house falls so abso- 

 lutely flat when it 

 comes to the cham- 

 ber ? Who has not 



lain ill in bed and studied, puzzled and contrived until nearly ready to turn over 

 and expire, and all because the crazy, self-evident wall paper made things and 

 did things most extraordinary ? The walls of the chamber should be extremely 



Dressing room at Cohasset, Mass., used also as a boudoir 



