Cultural Pursuits

I went on a tour of the Victoria & Albert museum this week. The tour was run by a company called "The Original London Walking Tour" and they are the very best. I have been on about 6 or 7 of their tours since I have been here and only 1 was less than great. I always get some little interesting tidbit that I repeat over and over to people (pretending I knew it all along).

The museum is named after Queen Victoria (duh) and her husband, Prince Albert. It focuses on design and art as it relates to design. That is not to say that it is museum showing "The Evolution of the Chair - From Rock to Bar Stool." But it shows important pieces of history that happen to be dresses, chairs, art, rugs etc. The tour takes you through some of the highlights of the museum, hoping that you will go back for more. I plan to. One of the great things about most of the museums here is that they are free for general admission. Sometimes a particular temporary exhibit might have a fee associated with it but usually most things are free. So it is great just to go for about an hour (Snake's limit) to look at a few things and then move on.

There were some interesting pieces. I saw this dress, which is called a mantua. It was basically a court dress, a dress you wore if you were at the English King's court in 1740. This one was considered modest because it was only 5 feet wide! Apparently there are some that could go up to 7 feet wide. Jeez, you could hide some good sized hips in that dress!! It is all held up with a hoop like contraption underneath. The tour guide was asked how one would sit down and the reply was that one wouldn't sit down. The ladies just kind of leaned everywhere. You also couldn't walk through a door unless you went sideways. Crazy!

Another interesting item was the Great Bed of Ware. Apparently carved sometime in the 16th century, the bed was originally at one of the many inns in England. It became widely known because it was so large, approximately 11 ft by 11 ft, incredibly ornate with large wood posts and it could sleep many people. Guest started carving their initials in the head posts, sort of a ". . . slept here" kind of thing. It is mentioned in many literary works of the time, most notably Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

What I found interesting about the Bed of Ware did not really have much to do about this particular bed but a story that the guide told us about beds in this time frame. Apparently, there weren't such things as box springs or bed slats to hold the mattresses up. So they had an elaborate system of ropes underneath. Five or more ropes running the length of the bed about 6-8 inches apart and then five or more ropes running the width of the bed creating a criss-cross type of pattern. The mattresses were then placed on top of the ropes. The ropes had to be pulled very tautly with no slack or it wouldn't hold the mattress up and people would tumble to the floor. People were constantly worried about the ropes being tight enough. So that is where the expression "sleep tight" comes from.

And that is my one tidbit I am going to tell everyone, although you now know where it came from. Maybe I can find out where "Don't let the bed bugs bite" comes from, although I am not sure I really want to know.