Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/286

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260
USAGES OF DOMESTIC LIFE

which was left unoccupied for the more convenient access of servants. The probability is, therefore, that this phrase, and the distinction it inferred, applied only when the company sat on both sides of a long table, where the position of a large salt marked the boundary of the seats of honour, or what may be termed the dais of the board.

So long as people were compelled to the occasional use of their fingers in dispatching a repast, washing before as well as after dinner was indispensable to cleanliness, and not a mere ceremony. The ewers and basins[1] for this purpose were generally of costly material and elaborate fabric:—

"L'eve demande por laver,
Li vilains maintenant lor baille
Les bacins d'or, et la toaille
Lor aporte por essuier."

La Mule sanz Frain.

The will of John Holland, duke of Exeter, date 1447, mentions "an ewer of gold, with a falcon taking a partridge with a ruby in its breast[2]."

In the days of chivalry it was high courtesy towards a guest to invite him to wash in the same basin:—

"Puis fist on les napes oster
Et por laver l'iaue aporter;
Li Chevalier tout premerains
Avec la Comtesse ses mains
Lava, et puis l'autre gent tout."

Barbazan, iii. 109.

This however was perhaps a species of compliment naturally attendant on the equivocal honour of eating from the same plate with your host[3], though it should be observed, in justice to the poets who are our veracious authorities for the custom, that there was generally a lady in the case:—

"Trestot delez li, coste a coste,
Lo fet seoir la damoisele
Et mengier à una escuele."

Recueil de Meon, i. 31.
  1. In Strutt's Horda, vol. i. Pl. xvi. fig. 3, is an engraving of a Saxon drawing re- presenting Lot entertaining the angels: an attendant bears a vase-shaped basin for washing, together with a long narrow maniple. which hangs over his left arm, and is fringed at the ends.
  2. Royal Wills, p. 284. In the inventory of the jewels of Edward the Third, is "a silver gilt ewer, triangular, enamelled with the images of the three kings of Denmark, Germany, and Aragon." Archæologia, vol. x. p. 252.
  3. For a more oppressive exercise of hospitality in old times the curious reader may consult St. Foix, "Essais Historiques sur Paris," vol. i. p. 98.