Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/382

 362 Hijlory of Domejlic Manners will be recognifed at once by all who have been accuftomed to examine the original doors ftill remaining in lb many of our old buildings, but why the perfon who thus fignifies his wilh to enter lliould hold the ring with his right hand, and the knocker with his left, is not very clear. The knocker, inftead of being plain, as in this cut, was often very ornamental. This is, of courfe, the outer door of the houfe, and our readers will not overlook the loophole and the fniall window through which the perfon who knocked might be examined, and, if neceffary, interrogated, before the door was opened to him. Let us now pafs through the door on the ground floor, always open by day, into the hall. This was ftill the moft fpacious apartment in the houfe, and it was ftill alfo the public room, open to all who were admitted within the precintts. The hall continued to be fcantily furniflied. The permanent furniture confifted chiefly in benches, and in a feat with a back to it for the fuperior members of the family. The head table at leaft was now generally a permanent one, and there were in general more permanent tables, or tables dormant, than formerly, but ftill the greater part of the tables in the hall were made for each meal by placing boards upon treftles. Cufliions, with ornamental cloths, called hankers and dorfers, for placing over the benches and backs of the feats of the better perfons at the table, were now alio in general ufe. Tapeftry was fuf- pended on the walls of the hall on fpecial occafions, but it does not appear to have been of common ufe. Another article of furniture had now become common— the buftet, or ftand on which the plate and other veffels were arranged. Thefe articles appear to have been generally in the keeping of the butler, and only to have been brought into the hall and arranged on the buftet at meal times, for fliow as much as for ufe. The dinner party in our cut No. 236, taken from an illumination of a manufcript of the romance of the " Comte d'Artois," formerly in the pcfleflion of M. Barrois, a diftinguiflied and well-known colleftor in Paris, reprefents a royal party dining at a table with much fimplicity. The ornamental veflel on the table is probably the falt-cellar, which was a very important article at the feaft. Befides the general utility of fait, it was regarded with profoundly fuperftitious feelings, and it was confidered defirable