taken from the table, and became so bold that they seem to have often seized or tried to seize the provisions from the cooks as they carried them to the table. William Rufus established ushers of the hall and kitchen, whole duty it was to protect the guests and the cooks from this rude rabble. Gaimar’s description of that king’s grand feast at Westminster, contains some curious allusions to this practice. After telling us that three hundred ushers (_ussers_, i.e. _huissiers_), or doorkeepers, were appointed to occupy the entrance passages (_us_), who were to hand with rods to protect the guests as they mounted the steps from the importunity of the _garsons_-- _Cil cunduaient les barons_ _Par les degrez, pur les garçons;_ _Od les verges k’es mains teneient_ _As barons vaie fesaient,_ _Ke jà garçon ne s’apremast,_ _Si alcon d’els ne l’ comandast_-- he adds, that those who carried the provisions and liquor to the table were also attended by these ushers, that the “_lecheurs_” might not snatch from them, or spoil, or break, the vessels in which they carried them:-- _Ensement tut revenaient par els_ _Cil ki aportouent les mès_ _De la quisine e des mesters,_ _E li beveres e li mangers,_ _Icil usser les cunduaient,_ _Pur la vessele dunt servaient,_ _Ke lecheur ne les escheçast,_ _Ne malmeist, ne defrussast._ --Gaimar, Estorie des Englès, l. 5985. [Illustration: _No. 56. The Norman Butler in his Office._] [Illustration: _No. 57. A Draw-Well._] In the cut from the Bayeux tapestry, the feasting-room is approached by what is evidently a staircase of stone. In our cut No. 56, taken from a manuscript of the earlier half of the twelfth century in the Cottonian library (Nero, C. iv.), and illustrating the story of the marriage feast at Cana, the staircase is apparently of wood, little better than a ladder, and the servants who are carrying up the wine assist themselves in mounting by means of a rope. It is a picture which at the same time exhibits several characteristics of domestic life--the wine vessels, the cupboard in which they are kept, and the well in the court-yard, the latter being indicated by the tree. The butler, finding wine run short, sends the servant to draw water from the well. It may be remarked that this appears to have been the common machinery of the draw-well among our forefathers in the middle ages--a rude lever, formed by the attachment of a heavy weight, perhaps of lead, at one end of the beam, which was sufficient to raise the other end, and thus draw up the bucket. It occurs in illuminations in manuscripts of various periods; our example in cut No. 57 is taken from MS. Harl. No. 1257, of the fourteenth century. [Illustration: _No. 58. Norman Cooks and the Attendants serving at Table._]