USAGES OF DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.
THE DINING-TABLE.——PART II.
We take the first opportunity to continue our remarks on the ancient dining-table and its appendages.
Those of our forefathers who were opulent enough had plates and dishes of silver, although "treen," or wooden, spoons and platters for the table held their place for many a day in the domestic offices of the great and the dwellings of the humble. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries pewter[1] was applied to the manufacture of similar articles, but the price of that metal, which continued high even till the early part of the eighteenth century, prevented the general use of it among the lower classes. Harrison in his description of England, written about 1580, adverting to the reputation of English pewterers, says, "in some places beyond the sea a garnish of good flat English pewter of an ordinarie making, . . . . is esteemed almost so pretious, as the like number of vessels that are made of fine silver; and in maner no lesse desired amongst the great Estates, whose workmen are nothing so skilful in that trade as ours." He tells us the "garnish" contained twelve platters, twelve dishes, and twelve saucers, and that its price varied from sixpence to eightpence the pound[2]; an excessive value when compared with that of beef and mutton at the same period.
Convenience of form as well as long usage have so accustomed us to round plates, that we may well be surprised they should ever have been made angular; yet they were fre-
