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This, the best bedroom above the great hall, forms part of the 17th century's civilizing additions to the castle.
The four-poster was the marriage-bed of Sir Hugh Campbell and Lady Henrietta Stuart (Lord Moray's sister) whose wedding took place nearby at Darnaway Castle [q.v.] in 1662. The gilded and silvered Venetian headboard is original but the bedstock timbers have been replaced, for instance the oak posts are dated 1857. Until recently, the bed was dressed in the bleached and tattered remnants of the old materials, which were far beyond repair and getting beyond a joke. The style of the restoration was guided by an inventory entered by Lady Henrietta in her personal housekeeping notebook, while spring-cleaning in April 1688:
In the Crimson Chamber (she wrote) there is an Crimson velvet bed, with head and foot valances both [gilt-]laced alike, lined with white taffeta, with feathers on the top of the bed, an gilded head in the bed, an feather bed-bolster . . .
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The Flemish tapestries, a type once known as arras hangings, are woven from wool and silk. The panels were ordered from Oudenaarde (now in Belgium) to fit out the room, and are hung directly over the unplastered stone walls for warmth and decoration. The account for their purchase in 1682 is still preserved here, and lists the freight route: Ghent, Bruges, Dysart, Leith, Findhorn, Cawdor, at a total cost of £483 including £3 customs duty.
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