See how he dabs his great hand in
the dish and hands forth the gobbets. He is more used to a
camp-kettle than a silver plate. The big man with the black beard
is Sir Bartholomew Berghersh, whose brother is the Abbot of
Beaulieu. Haste, haste! for the boar's head is come and the
plate's to be cleaned."
The table manners of our ancestors at this period would have
furnished to the modern eye the strangest mixture of luxury and of
barbarism. Forks were still unknown, and the courtesy fingers,
the index and the middle of the left hand, took their place. To
use any others was accounted the worst of manners. A crowd of
dogs lay among the rushes growling at each other and quarreling
over the gnawed bones which were thrown to them by the feasters.
A slice of coarse bread served usually as a plate, but the King's
own high table was provided with silver platters, which were wiped
by the Squire or page after each course. On the other hand the
table-linen was costly, and the courses, served with a pomp and
dignity now unknown, comprised such a variety of dishes and such
complex marvels of cookery as no modern banquet could show.
Besides all our domestic animals and every kind of game, such
strange delicacies as hedgehogs, bustards, porpoises, squirrels,
bitterns and cranes lent variety to the feast.
Each new course, heralded by a flourish of silver trumpets, was
borne in by liveried servants walking two and two, with rubicund
marshals strutting in front and behind, bearing white wands in
their hands, not only as badges of their office, but also as
weapons with which to repel any impertinent inroad upon the dishes
in the journey from the kitchen to the hall.
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