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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