Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/477

 and Sejtthnents. ^S7 No. 28S. A BciUn and Elver, Sixteenth Centiay. Our cut No. 288 reprefents ornamental articles of this defcription, of the fixteenth century, taken from an engraving in Whitney's"Emblems," printed in 1586. This cuftom was rendered more neceffary by the circumftance that at table people of all ranks ufed their fingers for the purpofes to which we now apply a fork. This article was not ufed in England for the purpofe to which it is now applied, until the reign of James I. It is true that we have inftances of forks even fo far back as the pagan Anglo-Saxon period, but they are often found coupled with fpoons, and on con- fidering all the circumftances, I am led to the conviction that they were in no inftance ufed for feeding, but merely for ferving, as we ftill ferve falad and other articles, taking them out of bafin or dilli with a fork and fpoon. In fa6t, to thofe who have not been taught the ufe of it, a fork mull necelTarily be a very awkward and inconvenient inftrument. We know that the ufe of forks came from Italy, the country to which Eng- land owed many of the new fafliions of the beginning of the feventeenth century. It is curious to read Coryat's account of the ufage of forks at table as he firft faw it in that country in the courfe of his travels. " I obferved," fays he, "a cuftome in all thofe Italian cities and townes through which I palled, that is not ufed in any other country that I faw in my travels, neither doe I thinke that any other nation of Chrillendome doth ufe it, but only Italy. The Italian, and alfo mod ftrangers that are commorant in Italy, doe alvvaies at their meales ufe a little forke, when they cut their meate. For while with their knife which they hold in one hande they cut the meat out of the dilh, they fallen their forke, which they hold in their other hande, upon the fame difli, fo that what- foever he be that fitting in the company of any others at meale, fliould unadvifedly touch the difii of meate with his ringers, from which all at the table do cut, he will give occafion of oflence unto the company, as having tranlgrelfed the lawes of good manners, infomuch that for his error 3 N he