In the room containing the crown jewels, in the Tower of London, are to
be seen eleven magnificent golden salt-cellars, the oldest dating from
the reign of Elizabeth. Of these the so-called state salt-cellar, which
is a model of the White Tower, was presented by the city of Exeter to
King Charles II., and was used at coronation banquets.
Descriptions and illustrations of old English salt-cellars of different
epochs are to be found in a volume entitled “Old English Plate,” by
Wilfred Joseph Cripps, M. A., F. S. A., London, 1886; and in “Old Plate,”
by J. H. Buck, New York, 1888. In the former work mention is made of a
magnificent salt-cellar, “in the form of an olifaunt,” the property of
John, Earl of Warrenes, in 1347; and another, “in the shape of a dog,”
belonging to Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, in 1380.
From an early period until the close of the seventeenth century, the rank
of guests at a banquet in wealthy households, as in the halls of country
squires, in England, was indicated by the situation of their places at
table with reference to the massive silver centre-pieces which contained
the salt,[341] sometimes called the “salt-vat” or “salt-foot.”
At the head of the table, which was called _the board’s end_, and “above
the salt,” sat the host and his more distinguished guests; and during the
reigns of Henry VII. and VIII. it was enjoined upon the ushers to see
that no person occupied a higher place than he was entitled to. Probably
no penalty was imposed upon guests who unwittingly selected a more
honorable seat than their rank warranted, other than removal to a lower
position. But in the less civilized era of the eleventh century, the laws
of King Canute provided that any person sitting at a banquet above his
position should be “pelted out of his place by bones, at the discretion
of the company, without the privilege of taking offense.”[342]
In a book called “Strange Foot-Post, with a Packet full of Strange
Petitions,” by Nixon (London, 1613), the author says in reference to a
poor scholar:—
Now, as for his fare, it is lightly at the cheapest table, but
he must sit under the salt, that is an axiome in such places;
then having drawne his knife leisurably, unfolded his napkin
mannerly after twice or thrice wiping his beard, if he have it,
he may reach the bread on his knife’s point.
The “Babees Book” (1475) says: “The salt also touch not in his salere
with nokyns mete, but lay it honestly on the Trenchoure, for that is
curtesy;” and the “Young Children’s Book” (1500) contains this passage:
“It was not graceful to take the salt except with the clene knyfe; far
less to dip your meat into the salt-cellar.”
Joseph Hall, in his “Satires” (1597), speaking of the conditions imposed
by a gentle squire upon his son’s tutor, says that the latter was
required to sleep in a trundle-bed at the foot of his young master’s
couch, and that his seat at table was invariably “below the salt.”
Again, in a volume of “Essayes,” by Sir William Cornwallis (1632), occurs
the following:—
There is another sort worse than these, that never utter
anything of their owne, but get jests by heart, and rob bookes
and men of prettie tales, and yet hope for this to have a roome
_above the salt_.