Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/482

 462 Hi ft or y of Do?neJiic Mariners the plate on the dreffer, and to the ceremonies attending it, that it was made a point of etiquette how many fteps, or gradations, on which the rows of plate were raifed one above another, members of each particular rank of fociety might have on their cupboards. Thus, a prince of royal blood only might have five fteps to his cupboard ; four were allowed to nobles of the higheft rank, three to nobles under that of duke, two to knights-bannerets, and one to perfons who were merely of gentle blood. Thefe rules, however, were probably not univerfally obeyed. It was the duty of the butler to have charge of the plate in the hall, and his ftation there was ufually at the fide of the cupboard, as in the engraving taken from "Der Weifs Kunig" (No. 291). Comparatively few examples of the domeftic plate of an early period have furvived the revolutions of fo many ages, during which they were often melted for the metal, and thofe which remain are chiefly in the poflTeflion of corporations or public bodies ; but feveral fine colleftions of the ornamental plate of the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries have been made, and among thefe one of the beft and moft interefting is that of the late lord Londelborough, now in the poflTeflion of lady Londelborough.* A dinner fcene on a fmaller fcale is reprefented in our next cut (No. 292), copied from one in which Albert Durer reprefents Herodias dancing and performing before Herod at his folitary meal. This pageantry at dinner was fucceeded, and apparently foon fuperfeded, in the higher fociety by mafques after dinner, which continued to be very fafliionable until the breaking out of the civil commotions in the middle of the feventeenth century. During the period of the Prote6torate and the Commonwealth, the forms of eating and drinking were much fim- middle ages, and especially of the age of the Renaissance and succeeding period, may consult with advantage lord Londesborough's handsome and valuable volume, the " Miscellanea Graphica," and the " Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Antique Silver Plate formed by Albert, lord Londesborough, now the property of lady Londesborough," printed by her ladyship for private distribu- tion ; the latter of which contains no less than a hundred and fourteen examples of ornamental plate excellently engraved by Mr. Fairholt, among which are several fine examples of the nef, or ship. plified.
 * The reader who wishes for further information on the ornamental plate of the