SENSE OP COMFOBT ÄND LUXTJBY.

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a stove, the funnel of which passed through the ceiling: whilstthe candles common among the people at the same date con-sisted of splinters of wood fatted—gas, it is needless to State,being an invention of the prescnt Century.

Nor had we such things as glass Windows to our roomstili the beginning of the twelfth Century, and even then thematerial had to be imported from Italy. Further, carpetswere articles of extreme luxury down to the same period;and it is mentioned by old historians, as an instance of Becket'ssplendid style of living, about the year 1160, that his sumptuousapartments were every day in winter strewn with clean hay orstraw. Indeed our Kidderminster and Wilton manufacturesare the growth of the last hundred years.

The plates and dishes, too, on which the food was for-merly served, were unglazed, being more like pantiles than ourpresent crockery, up to the time of Palissy the potter, whodiscovered the art of giving a glassy surface to earthenware,towards the middle of the sixteenth Century: whilst forks are anItalian innovation, not having been known among us more thantwo hundred and fifty years; for one Thomas Coryate, writingin 1608, teils us that at Venice it was the custom then to provideeach person at dinner with a fork to hold the meat, besidesthe ordinary knife and spoon — it being considered ill mannersthere to touch the viands with the band; and he adds, " Imyself have thought it good to imitate the Italian fashionsince I came home to England."

Then, even as regards the majority of our eatables, the sameaccount must be given. The principal vegetables that are nowsent to table with our meat were brought from Flanders in thereign of the eighth Henry; for, previous to 1509, we are toldthat sugar was generally eaten with animal food, " to correctits putrescency." Even cabbages, salads, and gooseberries,were unknown among us tili the year 1520, and apples