ways - from what I heard. During the Dark Ages, serfs could not afford dishes (certainly not expensive china), so they ate off slices of stale bread. But as I understand it, the Earl of Sandwich one-upped this custom by eating stuff between TWO slices of bread (and most definitely NOT stale for Lord Sandwich).

Fun trivia: An Earl is never addressed to his face as "Earl so-and-so," but Lord so-and-so.