Some of the early forms of British and Dutch calendars, "annuals," and agricultural "hand-books," it is certain were brought over by several families, and were doubtless much consulted and well-thumbed "guides, counsellors, and friends" in the households of their possessors. The great preponderance of reading matter brought by the little colony was, however, unquestionably of the religious controversial order, which had been so much a part of their lives, and its sum total was considerable. There are intimations, in the inventories of the Fathers, of a few works of historical cast, but of these not many had yet been printed. "Caesar's Commentaries," a "History of the World," and a "History of Turkey" on Standish's shelves, with the two Dictionaries and "Peter Martyr on Rome" on Dr. Fuller's, were as likely to have come in the first ship, and to have afforded as much satisfaction to the hungry readers of the little community as any of the books we find named in the lists of their little stock. It is pathetic to note, in these days of utmost prodigality in juvenile literature, that for the Pilgrim children, aside from the "Bible stories," some of the wonderful and mirth-provoking metrical renderings of the "Psalme booke," and the "horne booke," or primer (the alphabet and certain elementary contributions in verse or prose, placed between thin covers of transparent horn for protection), there was almost absolutely nothing in the meagre book-freight of the Pilgrim ark. "Milk for Babes," whether as physical or mental pabulum, was in poor supply aboard the MAY-FLOWER.

The most that can be claimed with confidence, for particular objects of alleged MAY-FLOWER relation, is that there is logical and moral certainty that there was a supply of just such things on board, because they were indispensable, and because every known circumstance and condition indicates their presence in the hands to which they are assigned, while tradition and collateral evidence confirm the inference and sometimes go very far to establish their alleged identity, and their presence with their respective owners upon the ship. A few other articles besides those enumerated in possession of the Pilgrim Society, and of other societies and individuals, present almost equally strong claims with those named, to be counted as "of MAY-FLOWER belonging," but in no case is the connection entirely beyond question. Where so competent, interested, and conscientious students of Pilgrim history as Hon. William T. Davis, of Plymouth, and the late Dr. Thomas B. Drew, so long the curator of the Pilgrim Society, cannot find warrant for a positive claim in behalf of any article as having come, beyond a doubt, "in the MAY FLOWER," others may well hesitate to insist upon that which, however probable and desirable, is not susceptible of conclusive proof.

That certain articles of household furniture, whether now existent or not, were included in the ship's cargo, is attested by the inventories of the small estates of those first deceased, and, by mention or implication, in the narratives of Bradford, Winslow, Morton, and other contemporaries, as were also many utensils and articles of domestic use. There were also beyond question many not so mentioned, which may be safely named as having very certainly been comprised in the ship's lading, either because in themselves indispensable to the colonists, or because from the evidence in hand we know them to have been inseparable from the character, social status, daily habits, home life, or ascertained deeds of the Pilgrims. When it is remembered that furnishings, however simple, were speedily required for no less than nineteen "cottages" and their households, the sum total called for was not inconsiderable.

[Bradford, in Mourt's Relation (p. 68), shows that the colonists were divided up into "nineteen families," that "so we might build fewer houses." Winslow, writing to George Morton, December 11/21, 1621, says: "We have built seven dwelling-houses and four for the use of the plantation." Bradford (Historie, Mass. ed. p. 110) calls the houses "small cottages."]

Among the furniture for these "cottages" brought on the Pilgrim ship may be enumerated: chairs, table-chairs, stools and forms (benches), tables of several sizes and shapes (mostly small), table-boards and "cloathes," trestles, beds; bedding and bed-clothing, cradles, "buffets," cupboards and "cabinets," chests and chests of drawers, boxes of several kinds and "trunks," andirons, "iron dogs," "cob-irons," fire-tongs and "slices" (shovels), cushions, rugs, and "blanckets," spinning wheels, hand-looms, etc., etc. Among household utensils were "spits," "bake-kettles," pots and kettles (iron, brass, and copper), frying-pans, "mortars" and pestles (iron, brass, and "belle-mettle"), sconces, lamps (oil "bettys"), candlesticks, snuffers, buckets, tubs, "runlets," pails and baskets, "steel yards," measures, hour-glasses and sun-dials, pewter-ware (platters, plates, mugs, porringers, etc.), wooden trenchers, trays, "noggins," "bottles," cups, and "lossets." Earthen ware, "fatten" ware (mugs, "jugs," and "crocks "), leather ware (bottles, "noggins," and cups), table-ware (salt "sellars," spoons, knives, etc), etc. All of the foregoing, with numerous lesser articles, have received mention in the early literature of the Pilgrim exodus, and were undeniably part of the MAY-FLOWER'S lading.

The MAY-FLOWER origin claimed for the "Governor Carver chair" and the "Elder Brewster chair" rests wholly upon tradition, and upon the venerable pattern and aspect of the chairs themselves. The "Winslow chair," in possession of the Pilgrim Society at Plymouth (Mass.), though bearing evidence of having been "made in Cheapside, London, in 1614," is not positively known to have been brought on the MAY-FLOWER. Thacher's "History of Plymouth" (p. 144.) states that "a sitting-chair, said to have been screwed to the floor of the MAY-FLOWER'S cabin for the convenience of a lady, is known to have been in the possession of Penelope Winslow (who married James Warren), and is now in possession of Hannah White." There are certain venerable chairs alleged, with some show of probability, to have been the property of Captain Standish, now owned in Bridgewater, but there is no record attached to them, and they are not surely assignable to either ship or owner. That some few tables —mostly small—were brought in the MAY-FLOWER, there is some evidence, but the indications are that what were known as "table-boards"—long and narrow boards covered with what were called "board-cloths"—very largely took the place of tables. The walnut-top table, said to have once been Governor Winslow's and now in possession of the Pilgrim Society, is not known to have come over with him, and probably did not. It was very likely bought for the use of the Council when he was governor. The "table-boards" mentioned were laid on "trestles" (cross-legged and folding supports of proper height), which had the great merit that they could be placed in any convenient spot and as easily folded up, and with the board put away, leaving the space which a table would have permanently occupied free for other use.

Bradford mentions that when the fire of Sunday, January 14., 1621, occurred in the "common house," the "house was as full of beds as they could lie one by another." There is a doubt, however, whether this indicates bedsteads or (probably) "pallets" only. Beds, bedding of all sorts, pillow-"beers," pillow-cases and even "mattrises," are of most frequent mention in the earliest wills and inventories. (See Appendix.) "Buffets," "cupboards," and "cabinets," all find mention in the earliest writers and inventories, and one or two specimens, for which a MAY-FLOWER history is claimed, are in possession of the Pilgrim Society and others. The "White" cabinet, of putative MAY-FLOWER connection, owned by the Pilgrim Society, is a fine example of its class, and both its "ear marks" and its known history support the probable truth of the claim made for it. Of "chests" and "chests-of-drawers" there were doubtless goodly numbers in the ship, but with the exception of a few chests (or the fragments of them), for which a MAY-FLOWER passage is vaunted, little is known of them. The chest claimed to be that of Elder Brewster, owned by the Connecticut Historical Society, was not improb ably his, but that it had any MAY-FLOWER relation is not shown. A fragment of a chest claimed to have been "brought by Edward Winslow in the MAY-FLOWER" is owned by the Pilgrim Society, and bears considerable evidence of the probable validity of such claim, but proof positive is lacking. Boxes of several kinds and sizes were part of the Pilgrims' chattels on their ship, some of them taking the place of the travellers' "trunks" of to-day, though "trunks" were then known by that name and find early mention in Pilgrim inventories, and there were no doubt some upon the Pilgrim ship. A few claiming such distinction are exhibited, but without attested records of their origin.

"Andirons, fire-dogs, and cob-irons" (the latter to rest roasting spits upon) were enumerated among the effects of those early deceased among the Pilgrims, rendering it well-certain that they must have been part of their belongings on the MAY-FLOWER. Fire-tongs and "slices" [shovels] are also frequently mentioned in early Pilgrim inventories, placing them in the same category with the "andirons and fire-dogs."

In "Mourt's Relation," in the accounts given of the state reception of Massasoit, "a green rug and three or four cushions" are shown to have performed their parts in the official ceremonies, and were, of course, necessarily brought in the MAY-FLOWER.

Spinning-wheels and hand-looms were such absolute necessities, and were so familiar and omnipresent features of the lives and labors of the Pilgrim housewives and their Dutch neighbors of Leyden, that we should be certain that they came with the Pilgrims, even if they did not find mention in the earliest Pilgrim inventories. Many ancient ones are exhibited in the "Old Colony," but it is not known that it is claimed for any of them that they came in the first ship. It is probable that some of the "cheese fatts" and churns so often named in early inventories came in the ship, though at first there was, in the absence of milch kine, no such use for them as there had been in both England and Holland, and soon was in New England.

Among cooking utensils the roasting "spit" was, in one form or another, among the earliest devices for cooking flesh, and as such was an essential of every household. Those brought by the Plymouth settlers were probably, as indicated by the oldest specimens that remain to us, of a pretty primitive type. The ancient "bake-kettle" (sometimes called "pan"), made to bury in the ashes and thus to heat above and below, has never been superseded where resort must be had to the open fire for cooking, and (practically unchanged) is in use to-day at many a sheep- herder's and cowboy's camp fire of the Far West. We may be sure that it was in every MAY-FLOWER family, and occasional ancient specimens are yet to be found in "Old Colony" garrets. Pots and kettles of all sorts find more frequent mention in the early inventories than anything else, except muskets and swords, and were probably more numerous upon the ship than any other cooking utensil. A few claimed to be from the Pilgrim ship are exhibited, chief of which is a large iron pot, said to have been "brought by Myles Standish in the MAY-FLOWER," now owned by the Pilgrim Society.

Hardly an early Pilgrim inventory but includes "a mortar and pestle," sometimes of iron, sometimes of "brass" or "belle-mettle" (bell metal). They were of course, in the absence of mills, and for some purposes for which small hand mills were not adapted, prime necessities, and every house hold had one. A very fine one of brass (with an iron pestle), nine and a half inches across its bell-shaped top,—exhibited by the Pilgrim Society, and said to have been "brought in the MAY-FLOWER by Edward Winslow,"—seems to the author as likely to have been so as almost any article for which that distinction is claimed.