Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/483

 and Sentiments. 463 plified, and all that expenfive oftentation, which had arifen in the high times of feudal power, and had become burthenfome to the ariftocracy after it had been weakened by the reigns of the Tudors, dilappeared. The regular order of fervice at dinner feems to have been ftill three courfes, each confifting of a number and variety of dillies, according to before Herod. the richnefs of the entertainment. To judge from the early cookery books, which have been defcribed in a former chapter, our anceftors, previous to the fixteenth century, in the better clalfes of fociety, were not in the habit of placing fubliantial joints on the table, but inftead of them had a great variety of made dilhes, a conliderable proportion of which were eaten with a fpoon. At the tables of the great, there was a large attendance