It is wisely said, "Fingers were made before spoons," a fact true enough, but as time went on and the habits and customs of men and women became less rough, although as yet hardly refined, a need sprang up for utensils for personal use. Hitherto cooking forks and spoons were used in the kitchen, but the hunting-knife mostly served at table. It is true spoons were in use in very early times and even by the common people. At first of iron or wood, afterwards made of brass and latten, they are found wherever there are remains of mediæval dwellings. A Scotchman is said to have declared that "the discovery of hot broth was an epoch in the evolution of man, and that as the ladle is to the pot so is the spoon to the bowl." Such brass ewers and basins, known as aquamaniles, mostly of bronze (one of Continental make is illustrated in Fig. 11) were used for the purpose of washing the hands, over which the water was poured. They were used in connection with bowls. Another type of laving ewer is that of the gemellions, made in pairs, one portion being held under a person's hands while water was poured out of the spouted bowl. Gemellions seem to have been the somewhat clumsy prototypes of the more convenient jug and bowl of later days. The use of ewers and basin was very necessary both before and after meals when knives and spoons were little used and it was no uncommon thing for two persons to eat out of one dish. In mediæval days even domestic articles were frequently decorated, for English and European metal-workers had caught the figure work of the Oriental school. Their ornament took the form of hunting and battle scenes. Sometimes patrons were eulogized, and flattering inscriptions covered the objects wrought for them by their servile dependents. In Fig. 18 there is shown a bucket or bath vessel now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, rather an unusual piece of early metal-work and an interesting mediæval curio. Not long ago a similar bucket was dug up in the neighbourhood of Weybridge. We are apt to regard with disdain what we term the grandmotherly legislation which tampers with the liberty of the subject. The present day, however, is not alone remarkable for regulations by which the home life of the nation is controlled. The Norman law which ordered "lights out" when curfew rang cut short the "overtime" of the worker of that day. So stringent was the enforcement of that law that not a glimmer of light must be seen after the appointed time. To darken or extinguish the dying fire on the hearth the _couvre de feu_ became a feature. Such covers of well authenticated antiquity are rare; the one illustrated in Fig. 12 is a well-preserved example now in the Bolton Museum. Metal Signs and Badges.