[1] St. Palaye, to whom we owe the ideal of chivalry, has truly observed, "Toutes les vertus recommandées par la Chevalerie tournoient au bien public, au profit de l'Etat." It was when the causes of its institution ceased, and nothing remained but its forms without its motive, that altered manners could safely ridicule some noble qualities which, though now displaced, have not always found equal substitutes. In the advancement of society we may count some losses. [2] I recollect this trait in Chaucer. The Norway hawk was among the most valuable articles of property, valued at a sum equal to £300 of the present day.--Nicholls, "History of Leicestershire," xxxix. [3] The Norman William punished men with loss of eyes for taking his venery.--Selden's notes to "Drayton's Polyolbion," Song ii. An instant execution of two youths by the gamekeepers, at the command of their Lord, appears in an ancient romance recently published in France.--_Journal des Savans_, 1838. [4] A curious specimen of these "Household Books," though of a later period, is that of the Northumberland family, printed by Bishop Percy. Many exist in manuscript, and contain particulars more valuable than the prices of commodities, for which they are usually valued; they offer striking pictures of the manners of their age. [The Wardrobe accounts of Edward the Fourth, the Privy Purse expenses of Edward IV. and Henry VIII., have been since published by Sir Harris Nicolas; and those of the Princess Mary, afterwards Queen, by Sir Frederick Madden. The judicious notes and dissertations of these editors render them of much use in illustration of the history of each era.--ED.] [5] "Warton," i. 94. [6] "Warton," ii. 412. [7] Stowe's "Survey by Strype," book iii. 235. We might wish to learn the authority of Stowe for ascribing this "pleasant wit" to Rahere of the eleventh century! As the pen of venerable Stowe never moved idly, our antiquary must have had some information which is now lost. "The king's minstrel" is also a doubtful designation: was the founder of this priory "a king of the minstrels?" an office which the French also had, _Roy des Ménéstraulx_, a governor instituted to keep order among all minstrels. Our Rahere, however "pleasant-witted," seems to have fallen into penance for his "wit," for he became the first prior. [8] _Antiquités Nationales_, par Millin, xli. Two plates exhibit this Gothic chapel and the various musical instruments.