Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/175

Rh was also not unusual to bring a chair into the hall as a mark of particular respect. Thus, in the Englisg metrical romance of Sir Isumbras: —

Until comparatively a very recent date, the hour of dinner, even among the highest classes of society, was ten o'clock in the forenoon. There was an old proverb which defined the divisions of the domestic day as follows : —

Which is preserved in a still older and more complete form as follows:—

Five o'clock was the well-known hour of the afternoon meal; and nine seems formerly to have been an ordinary hour for dinner. In the time of Chaucer, the hour of prime appears to have been the usual dinner hour, which perhaps meant nine o'clock. At least the monk, in the Schipmannes Tale, calls for dinner at prime:—

And