There is a curious custom at the high table connected with these dishes. At the end of dinner on ordinary nights, before grace is said, a rose-water dish with an empty ewer is placed before the fellow sitting at the head of each table. I conjecture that this dates from a time when napkins and forks were unknown, and diners were accustomed to rinse their hands in water before rising from the table. Now the appearance of the empty ewer is only a sign that dinner is over. At feasts the ewer contains rose-water which is poured into the dish and passed round the table. We have a fine specimen of a standing salt in a piece associated with the name of James Duport. Its breadth is nearly ten inches, and its height, without the handles, seven inches. It was these massive salts, and not "trencher salts," that were originally used to divide the company into those that sat above and below the salt; and in the middle ages the standing salt was generally the most valued single piece in the house and the chief ornament on the table. The medieval specimens usually have a cover to protect the salt, and the handles in specimens like ours are said to have been introduced for a similar reason, as a napkin can be twisted round them so as to cover the salt, and thus save it from dust. Our specimen bears the inscription εχετε εν εαυτοις ἁλας και ειρηνευετε εν αλληλοις, together with a statement that it was given by Duport. Probably his gift was made in 1665, when he left the College on his appointment as master of Magdalene. The piece, however, bears the hall-mark 1733-34; here, and in some other cases, it would seem that the original piece was exchanged for a new one, perhaps when repairs were required, and it was the custom in such circumstances to engrave the old inscription on the new piece of plate. In spite of our losses at the end of the eighteenth century some fine drinking cups and covers still remain in our possession. Notable among these is one of 1691-92 given by Charles and George Firebrace, one of 1697-98 given by Henry Boyle, and one of 1711-12 given by John Verney. We have also a cup and cover of 1726 given by the earl of Sandwich, another of 1729 given by Samuel Husbands, another of 1763 given by John Damer, another of 1771 given by George Augustus Henry Cavendish, another of 1776 given by William Greaves, and another of 1780 given by the earl of Mexborough. To these I may add the Lyndhurst silver-gilt cup and cover of 1876-77 given by Sir Theodore Martin. All these are fine specimens of silversmith's work, and can be used at feasts as loving cups, with the ceremonial customary to such drinking.