FURNITURE FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 333 square posts, at the four corners ; and the back and ends are filled in with boarding grooved and tongued ; while the front is formed into panels, one of which at top and another at bottom are fixed, and two between them slide in grooves, and form the door of the bed. The roof is of boards, and the bottom of laths, three inches wide, and about two or three inches apart. There is generally a shelf, and sometimes two, fixed to the inside of the bottom of the bed, just above the bedclothes; and sometimes there is one at top, close under the roof. There are also sometimes one or two shelves against the back of the bed ; so that this piece of furniture not only serves as a bed, but as a wardrobe and linen chest. In some parts of the country the bed doors fix within by bolts, or have a lock to fasten them on the outside; so that a person going to bed, with all his treasure round him on the surrounding shelves, may secure it while he is asleep at night, or going out to work in the daytime, by bolting or locking the doors. These box beds can be easily taken to pieces, and put together again ; the ends, backs, and roofs being in separate pieces, and fitting into grooves in the posts, and in the top and bottom rails, in the manner of Manning's portable cottages, § 512. Besides serving as a wardrobe, &c., a box bed may be made to supply the place of a partition, two of them being often placed, in Scotland, as well as in Alsace, across any apartment of fourteen or fifteen feet in width, which they thus divide into two rooms (a but and a ben), leaving a passage between them. In roomy cottages, four are sometimes so placed back to back ; thus giving two beds to be entered from the kitchen, and two from the parlour. A bed of this sort, well made, was formerly considered the principal article in a Scottish cottager's furnishing ;'and this is still the case in Alsace and Lorraine, as we learned when we visited those countries in 1829. Something might be made of these beds in any country where the cottager's house is his own, and where he is likely to be a permanent resident ; but they are too costly, and too cumbersome, for a tenant at will, or on a short lease. 659. French beds are generally formed like couch beds, especially those in use by French cottagers. Fig. 694, p. 328, shows a French bedstead of an improved description, with the furniture complete. There are two drawers underneath, and a small cupboard, all of which open from the front ; because the furniture would be in the way if they opened at the ends. There is a turned rail above the headboard, to keep the furniture from the face ; and another over the footboard, to be uniform with it. The pole whict supports the curtain is screwed into an upright piece, which is seciu-ely fixed by a mortise and tenon to the back rail of the bottom of the bedstead, as shown in fig. 695, so that the bedstead and furniture can be removed from the wall. Castors may be introduced into the four pillars, so as not to be seen. It will be observed that the Design of fig. 695 is different from that of fig. 694 : both may be considered elegant, and well adapted for a superior description of cottage. These bedsteads may be made of deal, and painted, with the exception of the upright piece, which should be of beech or some other stiff wood. Fig. 696 is a French bedstead of wrought iron, which costs when two feet six inches wide, 46s., and when five feet wide, 84s. The curtains, in this case, are supposed to be thrown over a pole, projecting from the wall, and supported by a bracket.
