[21–22]. Ladies on horseback. Two drawings illustrative of both ways of riding; sitting sideways: Chaucer’s prioresse, and riding astride: Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. From the Ellesmere MS. • 105
[23]. A family dinner. From the MS. Addit. 28162, in the British Museum, fol. 10 b, early fourteenth century; French. Note the carver, the cup-bearer, the musicians, the marshal of the hall, whose mission it is to expel objectionable intruders, whether men or dogs. In the present case, while this officer is expelling a very objectionable lazar, come under pretence of sprinkling the diners with holy water, a little further a dog seizes his opportunity, and gets hold of a fish on the table. The carver grasps the meat with his left hand; forks then were unknown, but good breeding was, nevertheless, not neglected, and it consisted in the server’s touching the meat only with the left hand. Writing later than the time we speak of, John Russell, marshal of the hall to Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (fifteenth century), adds one refinement more, that is to use only three fingers of the left hand. This was, in his mind, the acme of fine breeding:
“Sett never on fysche nor flesche, nor fowle trewly,
Moore than ij fyngurs and a thombe, for that is curtesie.
Touche never with youre right hande no maner mete surely.”
“Boke of Nurture” (Furnivall, 1868, p. 137).
It may be seen from our picture that part of these niceties was unknown yet to carvers in the first half of the fourteenth century. The whole of the left hand is used to grasp the meat • 109
[24].
“A cooke thei hadde . . .
To boyle chiknes and the mary bones.”