Old Gainsborough's Old Bed

Gainsborough Old Hall possesses one of those heavy, dark-stained wooden beds from the Elizabethan or Jacobean periods which manor houses and stately homes are wont to contain. Bedecked by fabric, this four-poster would have shielded its occupants from the wintry draughts which their walls and roofs were apparently unable to prevent. Yet the woodwork, though exquisitely carved, cannot be described as dainty, but heavy and somewhat oppressive. Unlike other examples I have seen, this one has thick, tassel-like ornaments hanging down which I might have feared would fall on my head. Although the sleeping folk of Gainsborough Old Hall were spared the horrors of having a carved image of Elizabeth I glaring down upon them (though the dame below could still be her), they are reminded of Adam and Eve’s temptation, and the slaying of Abel at the hand of his brother, Cain.

The Fall (middle) and its consequence (above)

If ever a bed was designed to give frequent nightmares to its occupants, this is it. Whatever conjugal relations occurred on that mattress over the centuries, the corrupted DNA of our first parents was there dutifully transmitted to a new generation. It has always been fashionable to decry and disparage the hard doctrine of original sin, but its evidence is all around us, from rioting thugs, heartless thieves and murderous dictators. Sin is ours from conception; salvation is ours from conversion. The first birth ushered our entry to earth; the new birth opens the gates of heaven. Now that is something worth meditating upon during the watches of the night.