SC - Foot and Mouth disease

[Michael Newton]

I promised to send this quote about nefs earlier, here it is:

Nef: from _The English Medieval Feast_ by William Edward Mead, (originally published
circa 1937) (NY: Barnes & Noble, 1967)
"If the feast were at all a pretentious one of the most conspicuous ornaments was likely
to be the nef, a vessel in the form of a medieval ship with a high prow and stern. In
some households this held the saltcellar, small towels for wiping the hands and mouth,
and sometimes knives and spoons." p. 142

However, in p. 137, the author quotes:
"Meat and drink are ordained and convenient to dinners and feasts, for at first meat is
prepared and arrayed; guests are called together; forms and stools are set in the hall,
and tables, cloths, and towels are ordained, disposed, and made ready. Guests are set
with the lord in the chief place of the board, and they sit not down at the board before
the guests was their hands. Children are set in their place, and servants at a table by
themselves. FIRST, KNIVES, SPOONS, AND SALTS ARE SET ON THE BOARD, and then bread and
drink, and many diverse messes . . ." [emphasis mine].


 -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer
Heise jenne at mail.browser.net disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"He cooks eternally, imperturbably, suspended in the chaos of which the 
Master interprets the meaning..." Kipling, "With the Night Mail"