grew out of the chopstick, the spoon was probably
suggested by the ladle, a form of implement employed alike by the
baker and the cook; for the early tool which we see in the hands of
the operative in the oven more nearly resembles in the bowl a spoon
than a shovel. In India nowadays they have ladles, but not spoons.
The universality of broths and semi-liquid substances, as well as the
commencement of a taste for learned gravies, prompted a recourse to
new expedients for communicating between the platter and the mouth;
and some person of genius saw how the difficulty might be solved by
adapting the ladle to individual service. But every religion has its
quota of dissent, and there were, nay, are still, many who professed
adherence to the sturdy simplicity of their progenitors, and saw
in this daring reform and the fallow blade of the knife a certain
effeminate prodigality.

It is significant of the drift of recent years toward the monograph,
that, in 1846, Mr. Westman published "The Spoon: Primitive, Egyptian,
Roman, Mediaeval and Modern," with one hundred illustrations, in an
octavo volume.

The luxury of carving-knives was, even in the closing years of the
fifteenth century, reserved for royalty and nobility; for in the
"Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII.," under 1497, a pair is said to
have cost L1 6s. 8d. of money of that day. Nothing is said of forks.
But in the same account, under February 1st, 1500-1, one Mistress
Brent receives 12s. (and a book, which cost the king 5s. more) for a
silver fork weighing three ounces. In Newbery's "Dives Pragmaticus,"
1563, a unique poetical volume in the library at Althorpe, there is a
catalogue of cooking utensils which, considering its completeness, is
worth quotation; the author speaks in the character of a chapman--one
forestalling Autolycus:--

"I have basins, ewers, of tin, pewter and glass.
Great vessels of copper, fine latten and brass:
Both pots, pans and kettles, such as never was.
I have platters, dishes, saucers and candle-sticks,
Chafers, lavers, towels and fine tricks:
Posnets, frying-pans, and fine puddingpricks ...
Fine pans for milk, and trim tubs for sowse.
I have ladles, scummers, andirons and spits,
Dripping-pans, pot-hooks....
I have fire-pans, fire-forks, tongs, trivets, and trammels,
Roast-irons, trays, flaskets, mortars and pestles...."

And among other items he adds rollers for paste, moulds for cooks,
fine cutting knives, fi