The Mediæval Hospitals of England by Rotha Mary Clay
3. BEDDING
212 words | Chapter 77
In early days, the sick and poor were laid on pallets of straw, but
wooden bedsteads were probably introduced late in the twelfth century.
A dying benefactor left to the brethren of St. Wulstan’s, Worcester,
the bed on which he lay and its covering of _bys_, or deer-skin
(1291).[105] A Durham founder bequeathed money to “amend the beds what
tyme they shall happyne to be olde or defective” (1491). A strange
civic duty was performed at Sandwich. It was customary for the mayor
and townsmen, as [p173] “visitors” of St. John’s House, to examine the
condition and number of the feather-beds, and bedding, and to ascertain
if all was kept very clean. Where travellers came and went, it was no
light task to supply fresh linen. At St. Thomas’, Canterbury, an annual
payment of xlvj_s._ viij_d._ was made “to Rauf Cokker keper of the seid
hospitall and his wif for kepyng wasshyng of the bedds for poure peple”
(1535). The same year, the inquiry made into the condition of the Savoy
hospital included these items:—
“Whether the hundred beddes appoynted by the founder be well and
clenely kept and repayred, and all necessaries to theym belongyng.
“Whether any poore man do lie in any shetes unwasshed that any other
lay in bifore.”
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