THE ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE – The Bedchamber

Bedchamber at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire (Author)

Unless we live in a flat or bungalow, most of us in this modern age go upstairs to bed, but this was not always the case. In earlier centuries, it was customary for the wealthy to conduct their lives pretty much on the one floor, with bedchambers added beyond withdrawing rooms. This can be seen at houses such as Chatsworth, where the State Apartments have a corridor of doors, called an enfilade, stretching in a line from the State Dressing Room through the five other State Rooms and ending in the State Dining Room. This arrangement has evolved from the medieval custom of a chamber which was used for daily activities, for eating and sleeping, for business and the receiving of guests. As greater privacy became important, so this chamber was divided into smaller spaces until separate rooms were incorporated into the design, first introduced at the beginning of the seventeenth century and seen today in Palladian country houses of the Georgian period.

As a sign of rank and wealth, the bedchamber became more public, if less so than those in France. Rows of stools and chairs, covered in rich upholstery, were set against the walls and the room was furnished in a manner befitting a principal salon or reception chamber. The bed itself was hung with fabulous curtains and had the owner’s crest either embroidered or carved on the bed-head. This was, of course, a four-post bed, with a tester (‘ceiling’) or canopy lined with pelmets to keep out draughts (and hide the rails) and embellished with ostrich plumes. Charles II slept in such a bed at Powis Castle in Powys. By 1678 he had issued the directive, ‘Persons of Quality as well our servants as others who come to wait on us are permitted to attend and stay us in the withdrawing room.’ This, then, was the forerunner of the Drawing Rooms held at court during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although his bedchamber was less accessible, royal princes were admitted by right whenever they chose, whilst privy counsellors and other state officials were required to seek permission to gain access. Following the French custom, Charles caused the royal bedchambers in his palaces to have the bed set back within a balustraded alcove. This arrangement can still be seen in the bedchamber at Powis Castle, which was prepared for him in the style he had adopted from the Continent.

State Bedroom, Eastnor Castle (Author)

Whilst there is no balustrade, a bedchamber at the Brighton Pavilion shows the bed to be set back within an alcove as well as various furnishings to be found in the Regency era, if perhaps more elaborate than would be found in the generality of country houses.

Bedroom in the Brighton Pavilion, old print

At Ragley Hall in Warwickshire, designed circa 1678 by Robert Hooke (for Charles II’s Secretary of State, Lord Conway), the four so-called pavilions each contained a separate apartment, accessed from a central hall and saloon. Each had a drawing or withdrawing room, beyond which lay a bedchamber, a closet, a servant’s chamber and a backstairs to the kitchens &c. To the left and right of the hall respectively lay the chapel and the library. The saloon doubled as the dining room,

By contrast, whilst still possessing the pavilion wings, Hagley Hall in Worcestershire, built circa 1752 for Lord Lyttelton by Sanderson Miller and probably inspired by Croome Court, was designed to have two circuits of rooms which overlapped. To one side of the central hall and saloon lay a suite of private apartments, including the library, and to the other, the public circuit of dining and drawing rooms and the gallery. The bedchambers had by now been settled on the upper floor. With the emphasis changing in the country from high-ranking guests being entertained in a small number of grand apartments to visitors choosing to occupy their time in public saloons and drawing rooms rather than their own chambers, these last became reduced in size and importance. To accommodate this, an increased number of smaller apartments were included in architectural plans, with the average suite having a bedchamber and a dressing room, with perhaps also a closet. Such dressing rooms were often also used as sitting rooms and were handsomely fitted out. At Berrington Hall in Herefordshire, there are two such chambers, known as the White Dressing Room and the Corner Dressing Room, furnished as bedrooms (but about a hundred years after the Regency) and each with a small closet.

At Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire, built around 1701, the main entrance led into the Great Hall, with a Smoking Room and Steward’s Room beyond. From the Great Hall to the right, the visitor might enter either the Great Parlour or the Lobby, through which was reached the Withdrawing Room and the master’s bedchamber and dressing room. The ceiling was later altered to remove the lobby wall and form a drawing room in place of the Great Parlour and amalgamate the Lobby and Withdrawing Room into what is now the Dining Room.

Withdrawing Room (Dining Room) Ceiling, Hanbury Hall (Author)

Following the enclosures of land in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the production of wool had brought a great deal of prosperity to these shores and many early bed-hangings were produced in woollen cloth, some of which have survived to this day. For the wealthy, Spanish merino (introduced to Britain by George III in 1786) offered a warmer and less dear option than the expensive silks and satins which faded and failed to give ‘that clean appearance’ required by the English aristocracy. With the advent of cotton, the heavy moreen (liable to attract moths) and similar fabrics lost favour. Chintz, calico, dimity and muslin became popular for bed-hangings, curtains and upholstery during the Regency, being washable and far cheaper than Jacquard imported from France. A patent for an English version was issued to Stephen Wilton in 1820, allowing the textile industry in Britain to breathe more easily. Just before the start of the Regency proper, in about 1809, the ‘gaudy colours’, as Ackermann described them, of chintz and calico furnishings yielded to ‘a more chaste style’ which required only two colours to create an effect similar to damask.

Regency designers took inspiration from many different periods, and so the country house guest might find their bedchamber decked out with Gothic, Greek or Egyptian influences, in the Chinese style so much vaunted by the Prince of Wales, or in patterns incorporating stripes, trelliswork, architectural or geometric shapes. Curtains for windows were usually of a hue complementary to those on the bed, with linings in a colour to march with that. Quite often, the curtain at the head of the bed was gathered in a semicircular pattern resembling the sun’s rays, to add definition to the design. Bed linen was customarily white or the natural colour of the fabric, and blankets that of the wool from which they were made, although in wealthy households personal whims were no doubt accommodated. The same could be noted for the counterpane. Authors, please note here that the word bedspread is of American origin, dating from 1845.

A State bed of about 1754, part of a suite made by William Linnell for the Chinese Room at Badminton House in Gloucestershire, was decorated in Oriental emblems and japanned in gilt, red and black. It had a pagoda-style top ornamented with feathers, panels on the bed-head decorated in a geometric design reminiscent of brick paving, and (probably) neutrally coloured linen and hangings, but these have been replaced in modern times. Messrs. Gillow of Lancaster designed a canopied bed-head thought to be Egyptian in style, with swags of green and pink fabric caught into bunches above a carved frame that was filled with white material ornamented with rosettes and fringing. The heads of sphinxes which surmount four posts suggest, however, that the original inspiration had come from Classical Greece.

Curtains for windows in aristocratic houses were not always plain but might be printed and fringed, sometimes of cotton and sometimes of silk, and generally reaching to the floor. In 1803, Sheraton noted that whilst festoon curtains, drawn vertically, were still to be found in bedrooms, the French rod curtain had become widely introduced in fashionable houses. On a similar system to that we see today, these curtains hung from a wooden or brass rod and were drawn horizontally, either hidden behind a pelmet or swags of fabric or left on display with rosettes or tassels to show where the material was attached. The rings had strings which connected to a pulley, enabling the curtains to be drawn.

Bedroom furniture of the Regency era included a wash-hand stand, a dressing table and stool with looking-glass, an armoire or wardrobe, tables, chairs, an ottoman or chaise longue and perhaps a cheval mirror. In the early seventeenth century, a matched set of pier glass, pier table and candlesticks was a common facility provided in large houses. These items were principally designed for display rather than practicality and were elaborately fashioned: with marquetry, with lacquered finishes, inlaid with pewter and even made of silver. They were sited against the pier between the windows (hence the name), usually opposite the bed to catch the best daylight in the morning and the best candlelight at night. Gradually, with the increasing use of dressing rooms, the dressing table as we know it today was developed for practical use and placed, with wardrobes and other furniture for the pursuit of dressing, in the secondary room. Sometimes this also contained a truckle bed for the accommodation of a maid or valet.

Wash-hand Stand, Hanbury Hall (Author)

Dressing Table with Stool, Hanbury Hall (Author)

Marquetry Table and Chair, Hanbury Hall (Author)

Chair and Pier Table, Hanbury Hall (Author)

Cabinet or Wardrobe, State Bedroom, Eastnor Castle
(Susana Ellis, with permission)

Chaise Longue, Eastnor Castle (Author)

Pier Table and Glass, Berrington Hall (Author)

As very few Regency hangings have survived the centuries, representations of bedrooms of that era are hard to find, most having long since been redecorated to Victorian or Edwardian taste. At Hartlebury Castle in Worcestershire, however, a bedchamber was prepared by Richard Hurd, Bishop of Worcester, for an impending visit of the Prince of Wales, who had made it known in 1807 that he would like to visit and stop the night. Bishop Hurd was then eight-eight and unfortunately became too frail to welcome His Royal Highness. To a nerdy author’s delight, the room, while not large (it is almost filled by the bed), remains much as it was for that auspicious event.

The Prince Regent's Bed, Hartlebury Castle (Author)

All photographs are the property of the author unless otherwise stated and may not be copied or shared without the owner’s expressed permission.

 © Heather King, 2024