central compartment for a sugar bowl was added.
In nearly all the better boxes there was provision for the silver caddy
spoon with which to apportion the accustomed supply.

Chelsea and Bow Cupids.

Those curious little boy figures known as Chelsea and Bow Cupids are for
the most part classed with ornaments, but they more appropriately
belong to table appointments, for in olden time when the cloth had been
removed these curious little figures were placed upon the mahogany or
oaken board along with the dessert, as if to guard the fruit and the
wine. The Cupids are garlanded with flowers, baskets of which they have
in their hands--delightful little figures when genuine antiques. They
vary in size and are said to have been divided in the past as "small"
and "large" boys.

Nutcrackers.

Many a famous joke has been cracked over the "walnuts and wine." It was
when the board was cleared of the viands that the nuts and fruit were
partaken of. The edible nuts mostly favoured before foreign supplies
came into the market were the hazel, walnut, chestnut, and the famous
Kent filberts. Although doubtless supplemented by any objects handy, the
primitive method of cracking nuts with the teeth was generally practised
by the common people. What more natural than for the early inventor to
see in the human head the "box" in which to place his mechanical device
and to give power and leverage by utilizing the legs of the man he had
carved in wood. In the Middle Ages some remarkable carvings were
produced, mostly working on the same lines as the earliest forms. In the
seventeenth century, when metal crackers came into vogue, pressure was
applied by means of a screw, and the contemporary wood crackers were
designed on that principle. Afterwards the older type of cracker was
revived, both in wood and metal; subsequently the simpler form at
present in use was adopted.

Here and there in museums and among domestic relics odd pairs of these
old crackers are discovered. The interest in them, however, grows when
several early examples are placed side by side. There are a few
instances of specialized collections, and through the courtesy of Mr.
Charles Evans, of Nailsea Court, who possesses a unique collection of
all periods, we are able to illustrate a variety of forms. Fig. 31
represents a very early pair of nutcrackers, probably made in the
fourteenth century; the one shown in Fig. 34 has the Elizabethan ruff
round the neck of the carve