Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/50

 30 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners fteel {style), which is the only part preferved, has been inlaid with bronze. When the repall was concluded, and the hands of the guefts wafhed, the tables appear to have been withdrawn from the hall, and the party commenced drinking. From the earlieft times, this was the occupation of the after part of the day, when no warhke expedition or preffing bufinefs hindered it. The lord and his chief guefts fat at the high feat. An Anglo-Saxon Knife. while the others fat round on benches. An old chronicler, fpeaking of a Saxon dinner party, fays, " after dinner they went to their cups, to which the Englifli were very much accuftomed."* This was the cafe even with the clergy, as we learn from many of the ecclefiaftical laws. In the Ramfey Hiftory printed by Gale, we are told of a Saxon bifhop who invited a Dane to his houfe in order to obtain fome land from him, and to drive a better bargain, he determined to make him drunk. He there- fore prefTed him to ftay to dinner, and "when they had all eaten enough, the tables were taken away, and they paiTed the reft of the day, till evening, drinking. He who held the office of cup-bearer, managed that the Dane's turn at the cup came round oftener than the others, as the bifliop had dire6ted him." We know by the ftory of Dunftan and king Eadwy, that it was confidered a great mark of difrefpe6t to the guefts, even in a king, to leave the drinking early after dinner. Our cut. No. 22, taken from the Anglo-Saxon calendar already men- tioned (MS. Cotton. Julius, A. vi.), reprefents a party fitting at the hcah-fetl, the high feat, or dais, drinking after dinner. It is the lord of the houfehold and his chief friends, as is ftiown by their attendant guard that these knives were late Saxon, and their similarity in form to those given in the manuscripts shows that he was correct. lingford, in Gale, p. 542. of
 * Post prandium ad pocula, quibus Angli nimis simt assueti.— Chron. J. Wal-