By these and other instructions the idle young
man in the wood is qualified to offer himself for
the post of carver. And now, what if he should
offer for the place of server, scutellarius, arranger
of the dishes kept in the scutellery, or scullery?
He must ascertain from the cook what dishes
will be wanted, and for what they will be used;
then the server has proper servants and marshals
to see that none are stolen, and to deliver the
dishes to his hand in the dining-hall, where it
will be his own duty to place them on the table.
This part of the subject we may close with John
Russell's bills of fare for dinner with Duke
Humphrey, on meat-day and fast-day.

Meat dinner.—First course: Boar's brawn
and mustard, soups, beef, stewed mutton, swan
and chaudern sauce, capon, pig, baked venison
leche lombard (pork, chopped fine, with eggs,
pepper, cloves, currants, dates, and sugar, boiled
in a bladder, then cut into strips and served with
a rich sauce), meat fritter and a subtilty, or
centre ornament, exhibiting the salutation of
the Virgin.

Second course: Two soups, blancmange of
white meat, roast venison, kid, fawn, or coney,
bustern, stork, crane, peacock, whole, with his
tail-feathers, heron sew, partridge, woodcock,
plover, egret, sucking rabbits, great birds, larks,
sea-bream, cheesecakes, puff paste with amber
jelly, poached fritters, and a subtilty or device,
showing an Angel singing to Three Shepherds
on a hill.

Third course: Almond cream, mameny (brawn
of capons, pounded, with sugar, almond, and
spice), curlew in broth, snipes, quails, sparrows,
roast martins, perch in jelly, crayfish, little pies
containing marrow, with ginger and sugar,
baked quinces, and sage fritters, with a device
showing the Virgin Mary and the Three Kings
of Cologne.

The fish dinner is in four courses. Among
the dainties of the first course are roast pike
and a porpoise, with pease porridge; the
ornament, a device of a wanton youth on a cloud,
piping, who represents Spring. The second
course includes John Dory in syrup, and roast
lampreys; its subtilty, an angry warrior standing
in fire, whose name is Summer. The third
course includes almond cream, fresh sturgeon,
perch in jelly, fresh herring, shrimps, and
periwinkles; the subtilty, a man with a sickle by a
weed-grown river, representing Autumn, or the
third age of man. The fourth course is of fruit,
and includes hot apples and pears, witli sugar-
candy, wafers, and hypocras. The device
represents Winter, feeble and old, with grey locks
and heavy of cheer, sitting on a stone. To each
of the four devices there should be a Latin
inscription. They represent also the four humours
of men—sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and
melancholic.

A meat dinner for a franklin or country
gentleman, who holds his land immediately of
the king, opens with brawn and mustard, bacon
and peas, beef or mutton stewed, boiled chicken,
roast goose, pig, or capon, and custard, as the
season suits. For the second course, meats
pounded, and mixed with grated bread, egg,
herb, and spice; then veal, lamb, kid, or coney,
roast chicken or pigeon, with pies, cheese-cakes,
and fritters. Then spiced apples and pears,
with bread and cheese, spiced cakes and wafers,
with bragot and mead. Bragot was made of ale,
honey, and spice fermented; mead, of course, by
fermenting honey and water.

Such counsel having much edified the Idle
Young Man so far, his thirst of knowledge
causes him to ask what he would have to do
were he a chamberlain. Well, he would have
to be clean, avoid holes in his clothes, be careful
about fire and candle, have always a cheerful
face to show his master. He must see that his
lord has his clean shirt, that his breeches are
well brushed, his socks not lost, and his slippers
as brown as a water-leech. Before his master
gets up in the morning, he must warm his linen
for him at a fire without smoke, place for him a
chair before the fire, with a cushion on it and a
foot-cushion before it, spread a sheet over the
chair and cushions, and see that he has his lord's
comb and kerchief ready. Then sweetly invite
him to the fire, put on him his undercoat, his
doublet, and his stomacher, well warmed, his
socks and his breeches, trussing them up to his
pleasure; then lace every hole of his doublet,
put a kerchief upon his shoulder, and proceed
with an ivory comb to comb his head; then also
wash his hands and his face with warm water.
Then kneel and say to your sovereign, "Sir,
what robe or gown pleaseth it you to wear to-day?"
Bring that which he asks for, and hold
it broad for him to put on. Arrange his girdle,
set his garment goodly, take him his head-cloak
or hat; but before he goes brush busily about
him, and see that all be clean, whether he wear
satin, silk, or velvet, scarlet or green. Before
he goes to church, see that cushion, carpet, and
curtain, beads and book, are ready in his pew;
then return to his bedroom, throw the clothes
off the bed, beat the feather bed, and see that
the fustian and sheets are clean, make the bed,
cover with a coverlet, lay carpets round, dress
windows and cupboards with carpet and cushion,
have a good fire laid. King Henry the Seventh,
by the way, had an ermine counterpane, and
ermine spread over his pillows, and after the
ceremony of making his bed, all the esquires,
ushers, and others present had bread, ale, and
wine, outside the chamber.

If your sovereign, says John Russell, should
desire more than washing of his hands and
face, this is the way to give him a bath. Have
sheets full of sweet green herbs and flowers
hung round about the roof. Let him sit on a
great sponge with a sheet over it, and have five
or six sponges to lean upon, as well as a sponge
under his feet. Take a basin of hot fresh herbs,
and with a soft sponge then rinse him with
warm rose-water, put on his socks and slippers,
that he may stand by the fire on his foot-sheet
to be wiped dry, then put him to bed.

But the Usher or Marshal must know every
estate after its degree, and be able to place all
men in the right order of their rank. He must
know that a Protonotary may sit, three to a
mess, with a Doctor of Divinity and a Pope's