264

USAGES OP DOMESTIC LIFE at Winchester College, represented here by permission of the Rev. the Warden. The godet, a sort of mug or cup ; the juste {just a), which was rather a conventual than a secular measure, and so named from contain- ing no more than a prescribed allow- ance of winei'; the barrel^, and the tankard. Another frequently named in inventories, was, the "standing nut," or mounted nut-shell; the shell of the cocoa was imported into Europe, through Egypt, at an early period, and appears to have been held in some estimation. But a substance " d'oiil- imner, still more highly prized as a material for cups, was the " grype," or griffin's egg, which was in all pro- bability merely the egg of the ostrich or emu'. As our forefathers believed the griffin to be of monstrous size, they had no hesitation in treasuring a very long horn as a specimen of its formidable claws. In the British Mu- seum there is a cmious example of this ancient credulity. It is a horn of the Egyptian Ibex, {Ccqora Nubia ua,) , ,,u. more than two feet in length ; on a silver rim around its base is engraved, in characters not older than the six- teenth century ; ^-o Grtphi vngvis divo Cvthberto Dvnel- MENSi SACEE. Tlic different vessels above enumerated were usually of silver, rarely gold, and sometimes of ivory ; although it has been said that cups of crystal Avere not uncommon", some research convinces us that crystal beryl, or fine glass, and such substances, were rarer still than gold, and it was not until towards the close of the fifteenth century that glass came into use for drinking-cups. They were generally embossed or enamelled with the armorial bear- P Prompt. Parvul. ed. Way, torn. i. niimitis, pond, in toto xls." Wardrobe p. 2(J8. account 8 Edw. III. A.D. 1334. Cotton T "Item, quatre barils de Ivoir, garniz MS. Nero, C. viii. lb. 3H)ft. dp laton, od lus coffins." Inv. of Piers "■ Prompt. Parvul. cd. Way, .sub voce. Gavcston, A.l). 1313. Fcedera. "Duo "■ Warton's Hist, of Eufilisb Poetry, barilli argent! deaurati cum zonis argenti vol. ii. p. 26 i.