after he left the place, and its remains are now in the possession of Alderman Drake. It had a wooden bottom, and under that a false one, of the same materials, like a floor and its underceiling. Between these two bottoms was concealed a quantity of gold coin worth about £300 of our present money, but then worth many times that sum. Thus he personally watched his treasure and slept on his military chest." All this is mere assertion, and is to a large extent contradicted by the results of Thompson's investigation, full particulars of which will be found in an article which he contributed to the "Reliquary." (Vol. XII, p. 211, sqq.) There is, however, another statement, made by Throsby, which is worth consideration. He says that, after the murder, the bed came into the possession of a servant of the Blue Boar, "and before it came into the hands of Mr. Alderman Drake it had been many years in the Red Cross Street, where it had been cut to make it fit for a low room. The feet which were cut off were 2 feet 6 inches long, and each square 6 inches. The present feet, as one may see by the engraving, are modern. I have the old feet in my possession and the headboard which were taken from it when it was shortened." If the Elizabethan super-structure was raised on the old oak bed-stock while it was at the Blue Boar in the time of the Clarkes or their predecessors, and afterwards exhibited as King Richard's Bedstead, perhaps by the servant into whose hands it is said to have come, when the legend of the treasure had gone abroad, it would be a relic so well known that, even after the lapse of more than 150 years, Mr. Drake, who is said to have been a furniture broker, might have had no difficulty in identifying it; and as Throsby appears to have been himself cognisant of the circumstances under which it was removed from the Inn to Redcross Street, and cut down to fit into its new quarters, and even to have secured some of the discarded parts, his evidence is of value. But, although there is a strong presumption that the foundation of the bed now at Beaumanor was the one on which King Richard slept, the story of the hidden treasure, which gave it its celebrity, and probably preserved its existence, has little claim upon our belief. The tale was never heard until after the burglary, and was, in all probability, suggested by that
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