Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/183

 aijd Sentiments. 163 it was perhaps only uted at the tables of princes and of the more powerful nobles. Of thefe ornaments, one of the moft remarkable was the nef, or fliip — a veflel, generally of filver, which contained the falt-cellar, towel, &c., of the prince, or great lord, on whole table it was brought with great ceremony. It was in the form of a fliip, raifed on a ftand, and on one end it had fome figure. Inch as a ferpent, or caftle, perhaps an emblem or badge chofen by its pofTeffor. Our cut No. 113, taken from a manufcript in the French National Library, reprefents the nef placed on the table. The badge or emblem at the end appears to be a bird. Our forefathers feem to have remained a tolerably long time at table, the plea- fures of which were by no means defpifed. Indeed, to judge by the lermons and fatires of the middle ages, gluttony feems to have been a very prevalent vice among the clergy as well as the laity 5 and however miferably the lower clalfes lived, the tables of the rich were loaded with every delicacy that could be procured. The monks were proverbially Ions vivants ; and their failings in this refpe6l are not unfre- quently fatiriied in the illuminated orna- ments of the mediaeval manufcripts. We have an example in our cut No. 114, taken from a manulcript of the fourteenth cen- tury in the Arundel Colle6tion in the Britilli Mufeum (No. 91); a monk is regaling himfelf on the lly, apparently upon dainty tarts or patties, while the dilh is held up by a little cloven-footed imp who feems to enjoy the fpirit of the thing, quite as much as the other enjoys the fubllance. Our next cut (No. 1 13) is taken from another manufcript in the Britilh Mufeum of the fame date (MS. Sloane, No. 2435), and forms an appropriate com- panion 3. The Nef. 4. Gluttony.