53 
For many centuries the only implements provided to assist the 
process of eating were knives and spoons. It seems extraordinary 
that an instrument like the fork, both useful and cleanly, should 
have continued out of use during so long a period. Edward the 
First might have boasted the possession of one ; it was kept among 
his jewels. Piers Gaveston, in the time of Edward the Second, 
had four of silver, for “ eating pears.” 
About 1610 the use of forks found its way from Italy into this 
country, though they were not generally adopted till a considerable 
time after. Later researches, however, have proved in two in¬ 
stances the use of the fork in England at a very much earlier 
period than the examples quoted. Without assuming any undue 
advancement in the refinements of life amongst the inhabitants of 
this district in Anglo-Saxon times, certain it is that the only two 
instances of the existence of the fork at that remote period have 
turned up in Wiltshire. In 1837 a silver fork of somewhat elegant 
form was dug up at Sevington, in North Wilts, together with 
Saxon coins of a.d. 806—890. It has been suggested that this 
was used for sacred purposes ; however this may be, it is certain 
that the second example, discovered in 1853 in an Anglo-Saxon 
burial ground at the foot of Harnham Hill, adjoining this city, 
together with a knife, were implements of daily use. This last 
fork is of the most homely description, being of iron with two 
prongs and a buckhorn handle ; the date is probably some period 
between the end of the fifth century and a.d. 635, when the King 
of the West Saxons was converted to the Christian faith. 
The consequence of the want of forks at table may be readily 
imagined; the carver who officiated served the company at the 
point of his knife, perhaps with the assistance of a spoon. In the 
“boke of kervyng,” 1513, the following very necessary precepts 
are addressed to this household officer :—“ Set never on fysche, 
flesche, beest, nor fowle, more than two fyngers and a thombe.” 
Again, “ your knyfe must be fayne and your handes must be clene, 
and passe not two fyngers and a thombe upon your knyfe.” 
Before the days of forks a round-ended knife assisted the pro¬ 
verbial fingers of the eater. It is still customary in France to 
serve the “ gigot” with a clean piece of paper twisted round the 
knuckle for the purpose of holding the joint whilst the knife is 
used to cut the slices. The custom still lingers in our own country 
where the haunch of mutton or the ham is still sent up with a 
handle of ornamented paper round the bone, as if we were still 
expected to lay hold of it and operate in the old way. 
1 to 71. Knives of different forms, with handles of metal, bone, 
and ivory, variously ornamented. Many of them have still 
the perforation for suspension. 
Early specimens are found in Mr. E. T. Stevens’s Case L L 
(see No. 358, also Nos. 85 and 87, found at Old Sarum). 
72. Knife and fork of good workmanship, in their original stamped 
