USAGES OF DOMESTIC LIFE, ETC.

259 quently copies, in a more precious material, of the square wooden trencher of the kitchen : at the same time circular plates arc often represented in old drawings of feasts. Dishes were much of the same form as at present ; the largest were called " chargers," and seem to have been shaped like shallow bowls. The salt, that important and stately ornament of the middle- age table, was a conspicuous object before or on the right hand of the master of the housed It appears in various shapes : sometimes as a covered cup on a narrow stem ; occa- sionally in a castellated form ; and at the caprice of the owner or maker it frequently took the figure of a dog'^, a stag, or some other favourite animal. The annexed cut represents a large silver salt of the early part of the seven- teenth century, pre- served among the ])late at Winchester College ; although of comparatively re- cent date, there is every reason to be- lieve it w^as fash- ioned after a more ancient type. The three projections on the upper rim seem to have been intended for the support of a cover, perhaps a napkin, as it was considered desirable to keep the cover clear of the salt itself : " loke that yoiu'C salte seller lydde touclie not the salte," saith the "boke of keruynge." It appears from numerous allusions to the fact, that the state salt was used by the "sovereign" or entertainer only; and it is not unlikely, from the great number of salts mentioned in old in- ventories, that when possible each guest also had one for his particular use. It is not easy to understand how any one at the upper or cross table could be seated " below the salt," as it was not customary to sit at the lower side of that board, Ancient Salt. ' "The boke of keruynge ;" — "than set your salt on the ryght syde where your souerayne shall sytte and on y^ lefte syde the salte set your trenchours." •^ Two are named in the will of Edmund ^Mortimer, earl of March, A.D. l.'5S0 ; also " un saler en la manere d'lme lyoun ove le pee d'argent susorrez." Roval Wills, pp. 112—11 I.