Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/108

 Hijiory of Domejlic Manners Conqueror is pi6lured in the Bayeux tapeftry, and they held fo im- portant a polition in his houfehold, that, when one of his moll powerful barons, Guenelon, was accufed of treafon, Charlemagne is made to deliver him in cuftody to the charge of his cooks, who place him under the guard of a hundred of the "kitchen companions," and thefe treat him much in the fame way as king William's cooks fought to treat Here- ward, by cutting or plucking out his beard and whilkers. Li r eh fait prendre le cunte Giiemlun^ Si Vcumandat as cous de fa maijun^ Tut li plus maijire en apelet Befgun : ' Ben le me guarde,Jl cume tel felon, De ma maifnee adfaite traifun.'' Cil le receit,Jl met c. cumpaignons De la quifne, des mielz e des pejurs ; Icil li peilent la harhe e les gcrnuns. — Chanson Jc I?o!and, ].. 71. Alexander Neckam, in his Di6tionarius (written in the latter part of the twelfth century), begins with the kitchen, as though he confidered it as the mofi: important part of a manfion, and defcribes its furniture rather minutely. There is good reafon, however, for believing that the cooking was very commonly performed in the court of the houfe in the open air and perhaps it was intended to be reprefented fo in the fcene given above from the Bayeux tapeftry. The cooks are there delivering the food through a door into the hall. The Norman dinner-table, as lliown in the Bayeux tapeftry, differs not much from that of the Anglo-Saxons. A few difhes and bafins contain viands which are not eafy to be recognifed, except the fifh and the fowls. Moft of the fmaller articles feem to have been given by the cooks into the hands of the guefts from the fpits on which they had been roafted. Another dinner fcene is reprefented in our cut No. 59, taken from the Cottonian manufcript already mentioned (Nero, C. iv.). We fee again fimilarly formed veflels to thofe ufed at table by the Anglo- Saxons. The bread is ftill made in round flat cakes, and is marked with a crofs, and with a flower in the middle. The guefts ufe no forks; their knives are different and more varied in their forms than under the Anglo- Saxons