Cl*p.IX. OF MANCHESTER.. jot
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• « • • IN this Hikit of the Brhrfh manufactories, when the hifls of Britain were found *to be replenished, as even in the third cen- tury they were actually difcovered to abound, With a rich variety of all forts of metals "* ; the* primaeval Britons of Lancaftiire r and their brethren in the other parts of the ifland, muft have flept upoii'ikinS of beafts,; and have lain upon the floor of their apartments This jnuft have been the practice univerfally inr the firft ages. This was originally the practice of the Greeks and the Romans in particular '. But the prefent example of the Romans fuggefted to the Siftuntii the ufe r and the prefent introdu&ion of agriculture lupplied the Siftuntii with the me^ns, of the. neater cOovenierijp^ 6f ft£a<r-beds. For many ages the heds of the Romans wei% u conftantly cotnpofed of ftraw r and. ftraw ftill formed the beds of the foldiers and the officers at the conqueft of Lancashire From them the Britons in general and the Manctmians'ih particular muft have learnt the ufe of ftraw-beds at this pfefi^rd ; and with both it continued for many centuries afterwards. Straw was ufed even iri the royal bed- rooms of England aS fate as the conclufion of the thirteerith? century 5 . Moft of our Mahcunirin peafants ufe beds of chaff atr prefent. And ftraw-bods remain general in France and in Italy to the pr'dferit moment. But at this peffbd the bed was no longer fuffered to reft updn the ground?. The better mode that had veryr antiently prevailed in the eaft, and that had long before been in- troduced into Italy, was now adopted in Britain, and the bed was- mounted upon pedeftals V The hearth of the primaeval' Britons feems to have been fixed* in the middle or their great halls, being pretty certainly nothing more than a large ft one, depreffed perhaps a little- below the- level qf the floor, and thereby adapted to contain the afties* But this muft have- been now changect for a portable fire-pan, raifed* upon low fupporters* and fitted with a circular grating of bars,. -Suchi >
