these ensuing ulcers amongst the members of the
common body."

The employment of trenchers, which originated in the manner which I
have shown, introduced the custom of the distribution at table of
the two sexes, and the fashion of placing a lady and gentleman
alternately. In former days it was frequently usual for a couple thus
seated together to eat from one trencher, more particularly if the
relations between them were of an intimate nature, or, again, if it
were the master and mistress of the establishment. Walpole relates
that so late as the middle of the last century the old Duke and
Duchess of Hamilton occupied the dais at the head of the room, and
preserved the traditional manner by sharing the same plate. It was a
token of attachment and a tender recollection of unreturnable youth.

The prejudice against the fork in England remained very steadfast
actual centuries after its first introduction; forks are
particularised among the treasures of kings, as if they had been crown
jewels, in the same manner as the _iron_ spits, pots, and frying-pans
of his Majesty Edward III.; and even so late as the seventeeth
century, Coryat, who employed one after his visit to Italy, was
nicknamed "Furcifer." The two-pronged implement long outlived Coryat;
and it is to be seen in cutlers' signs even down to our day. The old
dessert set, curiously enough, instead of consisting of knives and
forks in equal proportions, contained eleven knives and one fork for
_ginger_. Both the fork and spoon were frequently made with handles of
glass or crystal, like those of mother-of-pearl at present in vogue.

In a tract coeval with Coryat the Fork-bearer, Breton's "Court and
Country," 1618, there is a passage very relevant to this part of the
theme:--"For us in the country," says he, "when we have washed our
hands after no foul work, nor handling any unwholesome thing, we need
no little forks to make hay with our mouths, to throw our meat into
them."

Forks, though not employed by the community, became part of the
effects of royal and great personages, and in the inventory of Charles
V. of France appear the spoon, knife, and fork. In another of the Duke
of Burgundy, sixty years later (1420), knives and other implements
occur, but no fork. The cutlery is described here as of German make.
Brathwaite, in his "Rules for the Government of the House of an Earl,"
probably written about 1617, mentions knives and spoons, but not
forks.

As the fork