The Mace

1895

The mace was originally a potent weapon of offense, originating doubtless in that earliest and most common weapon, the wooden club. It was an essential part of a knight's accouterment, being useful at close quarters. For ready convenience it was hung at his saddle bow. Says an ancient poem:

And with his heavy mase of stele
Then he gave the kying his dele.

The besague and baston were varied forms of the mace. The mace used on horseback was a small weapon, usually of steel. That used on foot was much longer and commonly of wood, with head armed with iron rings and spikes. It was carried by the escort of magistrates and others as a ready protection against violence. As society quieted down and its original use fell into abeyance, the thing assumed the ornamental appearance it now has, it now being carried in a mere honorary form. — Notes and Queries.

A Good Knight

1901

"Don't you think that if I had lived the days of old I would have made a good knight?" asked the young man who had been talking ancient history from 8 to 11 p. m.

"I don't care so much what you would have made then," wearily observed the young lady, "but you might see what kind of a good night you can make right now." — Baltimore American.


Caricatures and Photos

Most of the dandies of the Georgian period took as great a pleasure in seeing themselves caricatured as our generation does in seeing their photograph in the shop windows.


Sugartime

The refining of sugar was invented in Antwerp in the sixteenth century.

An Ample Kitchen

1901

What is said to be the largest kitchen in England is that of Raby castle, the seat of the Duke of Cleveland. It is 30 feet square, having three chimneys, one for the grate, a second for the stoves and the third for the great cauldron. The roof is arched, with a small cupola in the center. It has five windows, from each of which steps descend, but only in one instance to the floor, and a gallery runs round the whole interior of the building. The ancient oven has a diameter of 15 feet.

Vast as this kitchen is, it must have been sometimes taxed by the hospitality of former ages, for in one of the apartments of the castle 700 knights were upon one occasion entertained at the same time, and the knights of that day were men of brawn and sinew, who would think lightly of demolishing, each man of them, five pounds of beef, half a suckling pig and a venison pasty or two, washed down with huge flagons of brown October.