Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/63

 and Sentiments. 43 to a round table, is tranllated by one, on ymbhwyrfte myfan thine, and by another, in yvihhwyrfte leodes thines. If we refer back to the preceding chapter, we Ihall fee, in the fubje6ts which appear to exhibit a fmall domeftic party (fee cuts No. 15, 19, and 24), that the table is round 5 and this was evidently the ufual form given among the Anglo-Saxons to the table ufed in the chamber or private room. This form has been preferved as a favourite one in England down to a very recent period, as that of the parlour-table among the clafs of fociety moft likely to retain Anglo-Saxon taftes and fentiments. In the piftures, the round table is generally reprefented as fupported on three or four legs, though there are inftances in which it was reprefented with one. In the latter cafe, the board of the table probably turned up on a hinge, as in our old parlour tea-tables 3 and in the former it was perhaps capable of being taken otf the legs ; for there is reafon for believing that it was only laid out when wanted, and that, when no longer in ufe, it was put away on one fide of the room or in a clofet, in the fixiallefl: poflible compafs. We have no information to explain to us how the bower or chamber was warmed. In the hall, it is probable that the fire gave warmth and light at the fame time, although, in the fragment of the Anglo-Saxon poem relating to the fight at Finnelburg, there is an indillinft intimation that the hall was fometimes lighted with horns, or creffetsj but, in the chamber, during the long evenings of winter, it was necelTary to have an artificial light to enable its occupants to read, or work, or play. The Anglo-Saxon name for this article, fo necelfary for domefl:ic comfort, was candel or condel (our candle) ; and, fo general was the application of this term, that it was even ufed figuratively as we now ufe the word lamp. Thus, the Anglo-Saxon poets fpoke of the fun as rodores candel (the candle of the firmament), woruld-candel (the candle of the world), heofon- condel (the candle of heaven), wyn-condel (the candle of glory). The candle was, no doubt, originally a mere mafs of fat plafi:ered round a wick (candel-icenc), and fluck upon an upright Hick. Hence the inftru- ment on which it was afterwards fupported received the name of candcl- fticca or candel-ftcef, a candleftick5 and the original idea was preferved even when the candle fupporter had many branches, it being then called a