CHAP. XVI. GOLD AND SILVER FURNITURE. 39 



were very coarse, were conveyed from house to 

 house in seventeen carts and one waggon, though 

 the family consisted of two hundred and twenty- 

 three persons. In no part of the book does there 

 appear to have been any expenditure for plate, 

 and it seems probable that little if any was used. 

 Pewter must have been a substitute for it, and 

 that not wholly the property of the Duke, as 

 one of the charges in the account is for the hire 

 of pewter vessels without noticing the description 

 of them. 



When alluding to the rarity of utensils of gold 

 and silver, it is impossible to overlook the article 

 of watches, which now engross so large a share of 

 those metals. The discovery of that invention for 

 measuring time, which is now in the pockets of 

 millions, may be dated not earlier than the reign 

 of Henry VIII., and it was by no means in com- 

 mon use even in the reign of Elizabeth. The 

 Emperor Charles V. had several which he seems 

 to have kept in order by great personal attention, 

 and our Henry VIII. had one which was noticed by 

 Sir Isaac Newton, as being in existence in his day ; 

 but at any rate they could scarcely have been 

 known, and certainly not common at the time of 

 the discovery of America in 1483. 



It could only be a conjecture, and necessarily a 

 loose conjecture, if we were to attempt to state 

 the proportion which gold and silver in the form 

 of furniture bore to the quantity of those metals 



