twenty-four pence which he received for each lawsuit about land. For every outside judge he examined, however, he was to have twenty-four pence all for himself. Presumably he had plenty of spare time, for the law allowed him, wherewith to amuse himself, " a throwboard of the bone of a sea animal, " a game resembling chess, played with a black king and eight black men, against sixteen white men. Next on the list are the Groom and the Page. The latter was to make the royal bed, to carry the King's messages, and to take care of his personal treasures. For these services the law allowed him his land free, a horse, and his majesty's cast-off bed clothes. Eighth on the list is the Bard, and ninth the Silentiary or Husher, whose chief duty was to keep silence and to strike the pillar above the Priest when the latter blessed the food and chanted the " Pater." Then came the Chief Huntsman. An amusing law in connection with this func tionary was this : that lest sport should be spoiled some day by the Huntsman being hunted by the bailiffs, it was specially pro vided that throughout the hunting season he was not to answer any claim " unless he be taken before he has risen from his bed, and has put on his boots." After this privileged character comes the Mead-brewer and the Mediciner. Like the Judge's, the Mediciner's seems to have been rather an unlucrative position, for he had to administer medicine gratuitously to all with in the palace, and to receive nothing from them except their bloody clothes; unless indeed the patient's skull was cracked or his limbs broken, when, besides the clothes, he was entitled to nine score pence with his food, or else one pound without it. He was permitted to have an outside practice, but his fees were small and strictly regulated by law. The Butler, the Doorward, the Cook, and the Candle-bearer complete the list of the King's officers. The duty of the latter was
to hold a candle opposite the dish while his majesty was eating, and to walk before him when he retired to his chamber. He had also to light all the wax candles in the Palace on state occasions, and as a per quisite he was to have " the wax he may bite off their tops." Next follow the laws governing the Queen's eight attendants, and then we are made aware of the fact that there are eleven more officers, termed " officers by custom." Captain of the eleven was the Groom of the Rein, second the Foot-holder, whose im portant duty it was to hold the King's feet in his lap from the time he began the ban quet until he fell asleep. He also had to "rub the King," and see to it that his royal master did not doze over some prosy afterdinner speech. The Bailiff, who ranked third, was allowed three score pence for every person who entered his jail. The Apparitor was evidently the Court fireman, for he had to " stand between two pillars, with a rod in his hand, and watch lest the house should be burned whilst the King is at meat." A very curious law concerning this functionary was that if he entered a house wherein death had taken place, he was to have "the meat and the butter in cut, the lowest stone of the quern, the green flax, the lowest layer of corn, the hens, the cats, the fuel axe, and the headland or the skirts of corn uncut." Truly the apparition of the Apparitor under such circumstances must have been hailed with terror. The Porter is the fifth of the officers by custom, and like the railroad variety of our day, his perquisites were vast. He was to have a handful of every small gift, such as fruit and eggs, and herrings, that entered the palace gate. He was also to have "the sow which he shall be able with one hand to lift by her bristles until her feet are as high as his knee." And furthermore he was to receive his land free, his food from the palace, and — a caution to guinea-pigs and Manx cats — "any animal that came
