It Was Very Likely Bought For The Use Of The Council When He Was Governor.

The "table-boards" mentioned were laid on "trestles" (cross-legged and folding supports of proper height), which had the

Great merit that they could be placed in any convenient spot and as easily folded up, and with the board put away, leaving the space which a table would have permanently occupied free for other use.

Bradford mentions that when the fire of Sunday, January 14., 1621, occurred in the "common house," the "house was as full of beds as they could lie one by another." There is a doubt, however, whether this indicates bedsteads or (probably) "pallets" only. Beds, bedding of all sorts, pillow-"beers," pillow-cases and even "mattrises," are of most frequent mention in the earliest wills and inventories. (See Appendix.) "Buffets," "cupboards," and "cabinets," all find mention in the earliest writers and inventories, and one or two specimens, for which a MAY-FLOWER history is claimed, are in possession of the Pilgrim Society and others. The "White" cabinet, of putative MAY-FLOWER connection, owned by the Pilgrim Society, is a fine example of its class, and both its "ear marks" and its known history support the probable truth of the claim made for it. Of "chests" and "chests-of-drawers" there were doubtless goodly numbers in the ship, but with the exception of a few chests (or the fragments of them), for which a MAY-FLOWER passage is vaunted, little is known of them. The chest claimed to be that of Elder Brewster, owned by the Connecticut Historical Society, was not improb ably his, but that it had any MAY-FLOWER relation is not shown. A fragment of a chest claimed to have been "brought by Edward Winslow in the MAY-FLOWER" is owned by the Pilgrim Society, and bears considerable evidence of the probable validity of such claim, but proof positive is lacking. Boxes of several kinds and sizes were part of the Pilgrims' chattels on their ship, some of them taking the place of the travellers' "trunks" of to-day, though "trunks" were then known by that name and find early mention in Pilgrim inventories, and there were no doubt some upon the Pilgrim ship. A few claiming such distinction are exhibited, but without attested records of their origin.

"Andirons, fire-dogs, and cob-irons" (the latter to rest roasting spits upon) were enumerated among the effects of those early deceased among the Pilgrims, rendering it well-certain that they must have been part of their belongings on the MAY-FLOWER. Fire-tongs and "slices" [shovels] are also frequently mentioned in early Pilgrim inventories, placing them in the same category with the "andirons and fire-dogs."

In "Mourt's Relation," in the accounts given of the state reception of Massasoit, "a green rug and three or four cushions" are shown to have performed their parts in the official ceremonies, and were, of course, necessarily brought in the MAY-FLOWER.

Spinning-wheels and hand-looms were such absolute necessities, and were so familiar and omnipresent features of the lives and labors of the Pilgrim housewives and their Dutch neighbors of Leyden, that we should be certain that they came with the Pilgrims, even if they did not find mention in the earliest Pilgrim inventories.

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