The Morgan Trenchers

Extract

For visitors to the historical museums of many English cities, trenchers are familiar objects; a small body of scholarly literature has also grown up concerning them. Those who are interested in the subject may find a convenient summary in Professor Sir Arthur H. Church's chapter on ‘Old English Fruit Trenchers’ (Some Minor Arts as Practised in England [London, 1894], PP. 47-54). The use to which these tablets were put, whether in the serving of fruits and sweetmeats or as a source of entertainment for the guests, is uncertain; certain it is, however, that they were extremely popular in Tudor and Stuart days. In most cases, the trenchers were adorned with mottoes, proverbs, epigrams, Biblical and classical quotations, or bits of English verse.