A PIONEER SCORNED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 212, 13 September 1940, Page 2

A PIONEER SCORNED

I fingers before forks J ho saying that lingers were made before forks is probably only 200 or 300 years old; because it is - only since the beginning of Ihe seventeenth century that forks have been used. With tlie joint of meat in the old days the carver cut off a slice of meat, placed it on a piece of bread, and handed it to the diner, wlioc ut off portions with his dagger, and did the rest 'with thumb and lingers. Spoons were known in those days, but Jittle used with meat, and it was considered just as bad manners in the Middle Ages to use more than two fingers and a thumb as it is to-day to eat peas with a knife. The fork was first brought to England from Italy by a Somerset man named Thomas Coryate, At first it was not well received—in fact, the use ol iorks was looked upon as a serious affectation. Coryate, in a book of travels published in 1611, says that he had seen Italians using a liny fork at meals, but that he was made fun of by his friends when V did the same at home. In spite of the fun poked at this pioneer in the use of the fork, people soon realised the usefulness of such an implement, and by the time of the Commonwealth forks were generally used. i l *-