himself down before his betters, he must take him up, and place him lower.

"For the Chamber-Let the best fashioned and apparalled servants attend above the salte, the rest below.

"If one servant have occasion to speak to another about service at the table, let him whisper, for noise is uncivil.

"If any servant have occasion to go forth of the chamber for any thing, let him make haste, and see that no more than two be absent; and for prevention of errands, let all sauces be ready at the door, for even one mess of mustard will take a man's attendance from the table; but lest any thing happen unexpected, let the boy stand within the chamber door for errands, and see that your water and voyder be ready so soon as meat is served, and set on the table without. Have a good eye to the board for empty dishes and placing of others, and let not the board be unfurnished.

"The Cupboard-Let no man fill beer or wine but the cupboard-keeper, who must make choice of his glasses or cups for the company, and not serve them hand over head. He must also know which be for beer, and which for wine; for it were a foul thing to mix them together.

"Once again let me admonish silence; for it is the greatest part of civility.

"Let him which doth order the table be the

last

last in it (the room) to see that nothing be left behind that should be taken away.

66

Many things I cannot remember, which I refer to your good care, otherwise I should seem to write a book hereof."

State of Manners in England, 1678.

From a MS. of Aubrey's, in the Ashmole Museum.

"There were very few free schools in England before the Reformation. Youth were generally taught Latin in the monasterys; and young women had their education, not at Hackny as now (1678), but in the nunneries, where they learnt needle-work, confectionary, surgery, physic (apothecaries and surgeons being then rare), writing, drawing, &c. Old Jackquor now living has often seen from his house the nuns of St. Mary, Kingston, in Wilts, coming forth into the nymph hay with their rocks and wheels to spin, sometimes to the number of seventy; all whom were not nuns, but young girls sent there for education. Antiently, before the Reformation, ordinary men's houses and copyholders, and the like, had no chimneys, but flues like louver holes ; some of 'em were in being when I was a boy.

"In the halls and parlours of great houses were wrote texts of scriptures on the painted cloths. "The lawyers say, that before the time of Hen.

VIII. one shall hardly find an action on the case, as for slander, &c. once in a year; quod nota.

"Before the last civil wars, in gentlemen's houses, at Christmas, the first dish that was brought to table was a boar's head, with a lemon in his mouth.

"At Queen's Coll. Oxon. they still retain this custom, the bearer of it bringing it into the hall, singing to an old tune an old Latin rhyme, Apri caput defero,' &c.

"The first dish that was brought up to table on Easter-day was a red herring riding away on horseback; i. e. a herring ordered by the cook something after the likeness of a man on horseback set in a corn sallad.

"The custom of eating a gammon of bacon at Easter (which is still kept up in many parts of England) was founded on this, viz. to shew their abhorrence of Judaism at that solemn "commemoration of our Lord's resurrection.

"The use of your humble servant came first into England on the marriage of Queen Mary, daughter of Hen. IV. of France, which is derived from vore tres humble serviteur. The usual salutation before that time was, God keep you, God be with you, and among the vulgar, How dost do? with a thump on the shoulder.

"Till this time the Court itself was unpolished and unmannered: King James's Court was so far from being civil to women, that the ladies, nay,"

the

the Queen herself, could hardly pass by the King's apartment without receiving some affront.

"At the parish priests houses in France, especially in Languedoc, the table-cloths were on the board all the day long, and ready for what was in the house to be put thereon, for strangers, travellers, friars, pilgrims; so it was, I have heard my grandfather say, in his grandfather's time.

"Heretofore noblemen and gentlemen of fine estates had their heralds, who wore their coats of arms at Christmas and at other solemn times, and cried Largesse' thrice.

"A neat-built chapel, and a spacious hall, were all the rooms of note: the rest were small. At Tomarton, in Glostershire, antiently the seat of the Rivers, is a dungeon 13 or 14 feet deep; about 4 feet high are iron rings fastened in the wall, which was probably to tye offending villans to, as all lords of manors had this power over their villans (or socage tenants), and had all of them no doubt such places for punishment.

"It is well known all castles had dungeons, and so, I believe, had monasteries; for they had often within themselves power of life and death

"Mr. Dugdale told me, that about Henry III.'s time the Pope gave a bull or patent to a company of Italian architects to travel up and down Europe to build churches.

"In days of yore, lords and gentlemen lived in the country like petty kings, had jura regalia

belonging

belonging to Seignories, had castles and boroughs, had gallows within their liberties, where they could try, condemn, and execute; never went to London but in Parliament time, or once a year to do their homage to the King. They always eat in their Gothic halls at the high table or orsille (which is a little room at the upper end of the hall where stands a table) with the folks at the side table. The meat was served up by watchwords. Jacks are but of late invention; the poor boys did turn the spits, and licked the dripping for their pains. The beds of the men servants and retainers were in the hall, as now in the guard or privy chamber here. In the hall mumming and loaf stealing and other Christmas sports were performed.

"The hearth was commonly in the middle, whence the saying, Round about our coal fire.

"Every baron and gentleman of estate kept great horses for men at arms; some had their armories sufficient to furnish out some hundreds of men. The halls of the Justice of Peace were dreadful to behold. The skreen was garnished with corslets and helmets, gaping with open mouths, with coats of mail, launces, pikes, halberts, brown bills, bucklers.

"Public inns were rare; travellers were entertained at religious houses for three days together, if occasion served. The meetings of the gentry were not at taverns, but in the fields or forests,