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260 which was left unoccupied for the more convenient access of servants. The probability is, therefore, that this phrase, and the distinction it inferred, applied only when the company sat on both sides of a long table, where the position of a large salt marked the boundary of the seats of honour, or what may be termed the dais of the board.

So long as people were compelled to the occasional use of their fingers in dispatching a repast, washing before as well as after dinner was indispensable to cleanliness, and not a mere ceremony. The ewers and basins for this purpose were generally of costly material and elaborate fabric:—

2em

The will of John Holland, duke of Exeter, date 1447, mentions "an ewer of gold, with a falcon taking a partridge with a ruby in its breast ."

In the days of chivalry it was high courtesy towards a guest to invite him to wash in the same basin:—

2em

This however was perhaps a species of compliment naturally attendant on the equivocal honour of eating from the same plate with your host, though it should be observed, in justice to the poets who are our veracious authorities for the custom, that there was generally a lady in the case:—

2em