FORKS. These table instruments are only about three centuries old. The Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations knew nothing of forks. They had large F. for hay, and also iron F. for taking meat out of pots, but no instruments of the nature of table-forks. In ancient times, as is the practice still in the East, meat was commonly prepared as stews; or if roasted, it was cut into small pieces by a carver, so as to be easily taken in mouthfuls by the guests, who used their fingers and a knife for the pur pose. It certainly is a strange fact, that the use of any species of F. at table was quite unknown till the 15th e., and they were then known only in Italy, which has the merit of this invention. None of the sovereigns of England had F. till after the reign of Henry VIII.; all, high and low, used their fingers. It was accordingly a part of the etiquette of the table to employ the fingers so delicately as not to dirty the hand to any serious degree; but as even by the best management the fingers were less or more soiled, it was the custom to wash the hands immediately on the dishes being removed from the table. Hence, in the royal household, there was a dignitary called the ewrar or ewary, who with a set of subordinates attended at meals with basins, water, and towels. The office of ewary survived after P. came partially into use. We learn that when James I. entertained the Spanish ambassador at dinner, very shortly after his accession, " their majesties washed their hands With water from the same ewer, the towels being pre sented to the king by the lord treasurer, and to the queen by the lord high admiral." The prince of Wales had a ewer to himself, which was after him used by the ambassador.—Ellis's Letters. The first royal personageln England who is known to have had a fork was queen Elizabeth; Iffit although several were presented to her, it remains doubtful whether she used them on ordinary occasions. From the inventory of her majesty's appointments in Nichols's Progresses, it would appear that these F. were more for ornament than use. "Item, a knife and a spoune, and a forke of chris tall, garnished with golde sleightly, and sparekst of garnetts: given by the countess of Lyncolne. Item, a forke of coral], slightly garnishee with golde: given by Mrs. Fran ces Drury. Item, one spoune and forke of golde: the forke garnished with two lyttle rqbyes, two lyttle •perles pendant, and a lyttle Corall: given. brttie countess of War wicke." These ornamental F. had doubtless been presented to the queen as foreign curiosities of some value, and were probably never used at table. As yet, and for a considerable time afterwards, F. were not in common use, a circumstance less attribu table to ignorance of the invention, than to prejudice. So far was this prejudice car rind, by even educated persons, that one divine preached against the use of F., as being an insult to Providence not to touch one's meat with one's fingers! Italy, as has been said, claims the merit of this useful invention. This fact is explicitly learned from an account of a tour in Italy by a traveler named Thomas Cor. `fate, who visited that country in 1608. His travels, styled G'ruchtics, were published first in 1611, and republished in 1776. In these Crudities appear the following passages respecting the Italian towns: " I observed a custom in all those Italian cities and townes through which I passed, that is not used in any other country that I saw in my travels; neither do I think that any other nation of Christendom (loth use it, but only Italy.
The Italian and also most strangers do always at their meals use a little forke when they cut their meat. For while with their knife, which they hold in one hand, they cut the meate out of the dish, they fasten the forke, which.they hold in their other hand, upon the same dish; so that whatsoever he be that sitting in the company of others at meals, should unadvisedly touch the dish of meat with his fingers, from which all the table doe cut, he will give occasion of offence unto the company, as having transgressed the laws of good manners, in so much that for his error he shall be at the least brow beaten, if not reprehended in wordes. This form of feeding, I understand, is generally used in all places of Italy; their forks being for the most part made of yron,"steele, and some of silver, but these are used only by gentlemen. The reason for this curiosity is, because the Italian cannot by any means indure to have his dish touched with fingers, seeing that all men's fingers are not alike cleane. Hereupon, I myself thought good to imitate time Italian' fashion by this forked cutting of meate, not only while I was in Italy, but also in Germany, and oftentimes in England since I came home; quipped for that frequent using of my forke, by a certain learned gentleman, a familiar friend of mine, Mr. Laurence Whitaker, who in his merry humour, doubted not to call me at table furcifer, only for using a forke at feeding, but for no other cause." The term here employed jocularly, was in its serious meaning one of reproach, having been applied by the Romans to those slaves who as a punishment bore a forked frame or yoke (furca), resembling an inverted A—hence the Italian /arca and forchetta; the latter (little fork) being followed in the French term fourchette, while the former is the root of the English word fork.
F. came so slowly into use in England, that they were employed only by the higher classes at the middle of the 17th century. About the period of the revolution, few noblemen had more than a dozen F. of silver, along with a few of iron or steel. At length, for general use, steel F. became an article of manufacture at Sheffield: at first, they had but two prongs, and it was only in later times that the three-pronged kind were made. As late as the early part of the 18th c., table-forks, and we may add knives, were kept on so meager a scale by country inns in Scotland (and, perhaps, also in some parts of England), that it was customary for gentlemen in traveling to carry with them a portable knife and fork in a shagreen case; and till this day a small knife and fork form part of the ornamental equipment in the Highland dress. The general introduc tion of silver F. into Great Britain is quite recent; it can be dated no further back than the opening of the continent to English tourists at the termination of the French war in 1814. The extensive use of these costly instruments in the present day, marks in an extraordinary degree the rapid progress of wealth and refined taste throughout the United Kingdom.