From the illumination in the Ellesmere MS. of the “Canterbury Tales.” The pot-hooks with three prongs, which he carries, were the distinctive attribute of cooks and cookmaids, and appear on all representations of such people: several are to be found in the Louterell psalter; see “Vetusta Monumenta,” vol. vi., the Roy. MS. 10 E. IV., passim, &c. They used it to turn the meat and take it out of the deep round-bellied pots, standing on three legs over the fire, which were then in common use • 116
[25]. The new habits of luxury; a gentleman, helped by two attendants, dressing before the fire in his bedroom. From the MS. 2 B. vii., in the British Museum, fol. 72 b, English, early fourteenth century • 127
Of this luxury, of the spread of the use of chimneys, &c., Langland, as a satirist, complains; and this, as a marshal of the hall, John Russell a little later recommends as the proper method of dressing for a gentleman. He then thus addresses the attendant:
“Than knele down on youre kne, and thus to youre soverayn ye say:
‘Syr, what robe or govn pleseth it yow to were today?’” &c.
“Boke of Nurture” (Furnivall, 1868, p. 178).
[26]. An English inn of the fourteenth century. From the Louterell psalter • 129
[27]. The New Inn, Gloucester, originally built for pilgrims, middle of the fifteenth century, still in use • 131
[28]. On the roadside; the alehouse. From the MS. 10 E. IV., in the British Museum, fol. 114 b; English, fourteenth century • 133
[29]. The hermitage chapel of St. Robert, hewn out of the limestone, at Knaresborough, Yorkshire, thirteenth century; the figure of the knight, of a much later date. Similar rock habitations are innumerable in France in the valley of the Loire and of certain of its affluents, especially in Vendomois (at Troo for example); some are still occupied; several were, in the middle ages, the place of abode of hermits and still bear signs thereof • 139