1869 Drinking Cups and their Customs (Mixellany)

16 CUPS AND THE1B CUSTOMS. also spoken of: and as these worthies had the peculiar custom of burying the drinking-eups with their dead, we may conclude they were held in high esteem, while at the same time it gives us an opportunity of actually seeing the vessels of which the romance informs us; for in Saxon graves, or barrows, they are now frequently found. They were principally made of glass ; and the twisted pattern alluded to appears to have been the most prevailing shape. Several other forms have been discovered, all of which, however, are so formed with rounded bottoms that they will not stand by them- selves; consequently their contents must have been quaffed before replacing them on the table. It is probable that from this peculiar shape we derive our modem word a tumbler f and, if so, the freak attributed to the Prince Regent, and since his time, occasionally performed at our Universities, of breaking the stems off the wine-glasses in order to ensure their being emptied of the contents, was no new scheme, it having been employed by our ancestors in a more legitimate and less expensive manner. We also find, in Anglo- Saxon graves, pitchers from which the drink was poured, differing but little from those now in common use, as well as buckets in which the ale was conveyed from the cellar. That drinking-cups among the Anglo-Saxons were held in high esteem, and were probably of con- siderable value, there can be no doubt, from the frequent mention made of their being bequeathed after death j in proof of which, from among many others, we may quote the instance of the Mercian king Witlaf giving