Thus of what we call furniture there were two chairs and a folding table only, a carpet, an aumbrey or an armoire, and certain coffers and chests. Yet this couple had a plentiful supply of mattresses, feather beds, pillows, sheets, and blankets; they had apparently a large quantity of kitchen apparatus; they had fur clothes in abundance; they had six casks of wine in the house; they had silver cups and silver spoons. The list shows very clearly how a house of the middle sort was furnished. One thing will be noted: as there were but two chairs it is certain that the trader of London did not entertain his friends. Society, with the craftsman, has at all times been conducted during summer in the street, during winter in the tavern; the Church also offered to the women even larger opportunities for social intercourse than they could enjoy at the open door in the intervals of household work. The platters and spoons were of wood—“treene.” When people grew richer they used pewter plates; when they were richer still, silver. The table linen and napkins were hempen first, and in better households, flaxen. A ball of thread was called a “bottom of thread.” Hence the name of Bottom the weaver. In accounts and inventories of ecclesiastical, as well as domestic, furniture, we are constantly meeting with material called _latoun_. On this compound metal, Skeat has the following note: “The word _latten_ is still in use in Devon and the North of England for plate tin, but, as Halliwell remarks, that is not the sense of _latoun_ in our older writers. It was a kind of mixed metal, somewhat resembling brass both in its nature and colour, but still more like pinchbeck. It was used for helmets, lavers, spoons, sepulchral memorials, and other articles. Todd remarks that the escutcheons on the tomb of the Black Prince are of _laton_ over-gilt, in accordance with the Prince’s instructions. He adds, ‘In our old Church Inventories a _cross of laton_ frequently occurs.’” The description of the metal given in Batman upon Bartholomew is as follows: “Laton is called _Auricalcum_, and hath that name, for, though it be brasse or copper, yet it shineth as gold without, as Isidore saith: for brass is _calco_ in Greek. Also laton is hard as brasse or copper: for by medling of copper, of tinne, and of auripigment (orpiment) and with other mettal, it is brought in the fire to the colour of gold, as Isidore saith. Also it hath colour and likenesse of gold, but not the value.” In Mediæval inventories of furniture frequent mention is made of a mazer. This, which was the common and favourite form of drinking cup, was a bowl made of maple wood chiefly of the spotted variety called bird’s eye. The part chosen for the hollowing of the cup was the bole of the tree, or the part where several branches met. Great houses and monasteries contained a great many mazers. Canterbury had 182 in the year 1328; Battle, in 1437, had 32; Durham, in 1446, had 49; Westminster, in 1540, had 40.