HEATHER BEDS. 



are named for their consequent worthlessness, in the 

 eyes of the Greek farmer; they were the plants he 

 'tore up' for his bed or signal fire, his word for them 

 including a farther sense of crushing or bruising into 

 a heap." 



Buchanan, describing the Western Isles, says of 

 the inhabitants: "In their houses they also lie on 

 the ground ; only they lay under them Fern or Heath, 

 which they place with their Roots downward, and 

 their Brush upward, so prettily that their Beds are 

 almost as soft as a Feather-bed, but far more whole- 

 some. For Heath being naturally a very great Drier, 

 doth exhaust superfluous Humours, and restores 

 Vigor to the Nerves, after it hath freed them from 

 such noxious Guests; so that they who lie down in 

 the Evening weary and faint, in the Morning rise 

 up nimble and sprightly." 



Cordiner, in his "Antiquities and Scenery of the 

 North of Scotland," writing to Pennant from Moss- 

 dale, Sutherlandshire, in June, 1780, subsequent to 

 the latter's "Tour," gives his experience with the 

 Heath bed as follows : "The inn where we are to 

 sleep is supplied with all necessary articles of refresh- 

 ment; they are soon to have even a feather bed for 

 the accommodation of travelers; but I must sleep on 

 heath, and the good woman tells me 'my sleep shall 

 be sweet,' for the rushes that form the pillow were 

 pulled with her own hand at sunset, fresh from the 

 bog." 



Smollett supports Buchanan's idea of comfort 

 afforded by a Heather bed. In the "Expedition of 

 Humphrey Qinker," in a letter written from Argyll- 

 69 



