Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/127

 and Sentiments. 107 bone," Thefe, as well as dice, which were now in common ufe, were alio made of horn and bone, and the manufa6bare of fuch articles feems to have been a very extenfive one. Even in the little town of Kirkcud- bright, on the Scottifli border, there was, in the middle of the twelfth century, a maker of combs, draughtfm^en, cheffmen, dice, fpigots, and other fuch articles, of bone and horn, and flag's horn appears to have been a favourite material.* In the Chanfon de Roland, Charlemagne and his knights are repre- fented, after the capture of Cordova from the Saracens, as fitting in a fliady garden, fome of them playing at tables, and others at chefs. Sur palies hlancs Jiedent cil ce-vakrs, As tables juent pur eh ejhaneier, E as ejchecs li plus fai-ve e U 'veill, E efcremiffent cil hacheler leger. Chefs, as the higher game, is here defcribed as the amufement of the chiefs, the old, and the wife ; the knights play at tables, or draughts ; but the young bachelors are admitted to neither of thefe games, they amufe themfelves with bodily exercifes — fham fights. Although fuch games were not unufually played by day, they were more efpecially the amufements which employed the long evenings of winter, and candles appear at this time to have been more generally ufed than at a former period. They ftill continued to be fixed on candlefticks, and not in them, and fpikes appear fometimes to have been attached to tables or other articles of furniture, to hold them. Thus, in one of the pretended miracles told by Reginald of Durham, a facrillan, occupied in committing the facred veflments to the fafety of a cupboard, fixed his candle on a ftick or fpike of wood on one fide {candelam...in affere collaterali confixit), and forgetting to take away the candle, locked the cupboard door, and only difcovered his negligence when he found the whole cupboard in flames. Another ecclefiaftic, reading in bed, fixed his studiosiis advenit, cujiis negotiationis opus in pectinibus conformandis, tabulati? et scaccariis, talis, spiniferis, et casteris talibiis, de corniuim vel solidioii ossuiim materia procreandis et stadium intentionis effulsit. — Reg. Dunelm, c 88. candle
 * Qii^iclam de villiila in confinio posita, artificiosus minister, sub diiirno tempore