Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/475

 and Sentijnents. acc French word which meant a night-lamp. The crefTet is mentioned by Shakefpeare and other writers as though it were chiefly ufed in procelfions at night, and by watchmen and guides. The flrft figure in our cut No. 287, taken from Donee's " Illuftrations of Shakefpeare," reprefents one of the crefTets carried by the marching watch of London in the fixteenth century. From the continual mention of the creffet along with the fire-irons of the hall, in the wills publiflied by the Surtees Society, we can hardly doubt its being ufed, at leart in the north of England, for lighting the hall itfelf An improvement of the common crelfet con- fifted in enclofing the flame, by whatever material it was fed, in a cafe made of fome tranfparent fubfl:ance, fuch as horn, and thus makino- it neither more nor lefs than a large lantern fixed on the end of a pole. The form of this implement was generally globular, and, no doubt from its appearance when carried in the night, it was denominated a moon. The "moon" was carried by fervants before the carriages of their mafters, to guide them along country lanes, and under other iimilar circumftances. The fecond figure in our cut No, 287 reprefents a "moon" which was formerly preferved at Ightham Moat Houfe, in Kent; the frame was of brafs, and the covering of horn. To afiill: in lighting the hall, fometimes candlefiicks were fixed to the walls round the hall, and this perhaps will explain the rather large number of candlefiicks fometimes enumerated among the articles in that part of the houfe. In our cut No. 282, we have an example of a candleftick placed on a frame, which, turning on a pivot or hinges, may be turned back againft the wall when not in ufe. During the period of which we are now fpeaking, almofi: everything conneded with the table underwent great change. This was leafl: the cafe with regard to the hours of meals. The ufual hour of breakfaft was feven o'clock in the morning, and feems fcarcely to have varied. During the fixteenth century, the hour of dinner was eleven o'clock, or jufi four hours after breakfaft. "With us," fays Harrifon in his defcription of England, prefixed to Holinflied's Chronicle, " the nobilitie, gentrie, and ftudents (he means the Univerfities), doo ordinarilie go to dinner at eleven before noone, and to fupper at five, or between five and lixe, at afternoone." Before the end of the century, hovever, the dinner hour appears