Note 19 — FURNITURE

The covers would be fastened by a lock and key, as a defence, not against poison, but against theft. “A little afterwards Don Federico de Cardona, who had gone out to see how matters were proceeding, returned, bearing a large silver vessel, the cover of which was secured by a lock and key, as is the custom in Spain.”—Countess d'Aulnoy's Travels. As late as the year 1792, Townsend, in his “Directions to the Itinerant in Spain,” recommends (vol. i., p. 2) that the vessel to boil the traveller's meat should be provided with a cover and a lock.