“Eustace pointed with his lance
“To the horn which there was hanging,
“Horn of the Inheritance.”
* * *
“Who of right claimed the Lordship
“By the proof upon the Horn.”
Drinking Horns.
Both Pliny and Cæsar allude to the elaborate horn cups of their period. Johannis Salisburiensis tells us that the Danes used horns as well as the Saxons, and Giraldus Cambrensis mentions the Horn of St. Patrick.
Sometimes these horns were so skilfully made that they could be used both for blowing and drinking; vide Chaucer’s “Frank Tale,” l. 2,809: “And drinketh of his bugle horn the wine.” Perhaps, however, the most interesting and historic horn cup was that which Witlaf, King of Mercia, gave to the Abbey of Croyland, “cornu mensæ suas ut,” etc.—the horn from his own table that the elder monks might drink out of it on Festivals and Saints’ Days, and that when they gave thanks, they might remember the soul of Witlaf the donor. Ingulphus mentions that when the Monastery was almost burnt down this horn was saved.
Medical Horns.