Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/384

 M Hijlory of Dojnefiic Manners table in thefe dinner fcenes of the fifteenth century, any more than in the previous period. This, no doubt, arofe from the common praftice at that time, of people carrying their own knives with them in a flieath attached to the girdle. We find, moreover, few knives enumerated in our inventories of houfehold goods and chattels. In the Englilli metrical " Stans Puer ad Menfam," or rules for behaviour at table, written by Lydgate, the gueft is told to " bring no knyves unikoured to the table," which can only mean that he is to keep his own knife that he carries with him clean. The two fervants are here duly equipped for duty, with the towel thrown over the Ihoulder. The table appears to be placed on two board-lhaped treftles, but the artift has forgotten to indicate the feats. But in oar next cut (No. 237), a very private party, taken from a manu- No. 237. A Prmate D'rr.ncr. fcript of the early French tranflation of the Decameron (in the National Library at Paris, No. 6887), are placed in a feat with a back to it, although the table is flill evidently a board placed upon treftles. It may be remarked that in dinner fcenes of this century, the gentlemen at table are almoft always reprefented with their hats on their heads. As we have already hinted, the inventories of this period give us curious information on the furniture of houfes of different defcriptions. We learn from one of thefe, made in 144'^, that there were at that time belonging to the hall of the priory of Durham, one dorfal or dorfer, embroidered with the birds of St. Cuthbert and the arms of the church, five pieces of red cloth (three embroidered and two plain), no doubt for the