mounted in silver, and often of ostrich eggs, similarly treated,
and less frequently of horns hollowed out and set on feet. Mediæval
loving cups were usually named, and frequently for some estates
that belonged to the owner. Cups have been known to bear such names
as "Spang," "Bealchier," and "Crumpuldud," while others bore the
names of the patron saints of their owners.

A kind of cruet is recorded among early French table silver, "a
double necked bottle in divisions, in which to place two kinds
of liquor without mixing them." A curious bit of table silver in
France, also, was the "almsbox," into which each guest was supposed
to put some piece of food, to be given to the poor.

Spoons were very early in their origin; St. Radegond is reported
by a contemporary to have used a spoon, in feeding the blind and
infirm. A quaint book of instructions to children, called "The
Babee's Booke," in 1475, advises by way of table manners:

"And whenever your potage to you shall be brought,
Take your sponys and soupe by no way,
And in your dish leave not your spoon, I pray!"

And a later volume on the same subject, in 1500, commends a proper
respect for the implements of the table:

"Ne playe with spoone, trencher, ne knife."

Spoons of curious form were evidently made all the way from 1300
to the present day. In an old will, in 1477, mention is made of
spoons "wt leopards hedes printed in the sponself," and in another,