Into this hotchpotch are flung notes of the yearly allowances which the Earl gave his Countess when they were together, of the amount of rent paid by certain tenants, and all other disputes about the jointures of the Countess, leases, houses, lands, and other property settled upon various members of the family by father and mother. Not a single scrap of personal or real estate seems to have been forgotten. The unhappy couple tussled especially hard over their plate. In the Hatfield MSS. catalogue the inquisitive will find a full list of the articles. They include “a podinger” (of which the dish seems to be in my Lady’s hands, while her Lord retains the lid), a “great silver salt having many little ones within it to be drawn out,” one “George,” enamelled white and set with diamonds, costing £38, “a cup of assay,” gilt “talbots,” ewers, plates, standing-pots, bowls, candlesticks, trenchers, “parcel gilt and double gilt.” Then there was the same pull-devil pull-baker business over household linen, mattresses, and hangings—those hangings which were always such a cause of bother to the couple all through their fifteen years of menage in connection with their troublesome prisoner-guest. The demands of the Earl on his part infuriate his wife, and there is a scornful and sarcastic entry in the Hatfield MSS., endorsed by Burghley, to the effect that “the parcels above demanded by the Earl are things of small value and mere trifles for so great and rich a nobleman to bestow on his wife in nineteen years.” The Countess then reminds him of her share in the way of gifts: “the Earl hath received of her at several times, pots, flagons, dishes, porringers, warming-pans, boiling-pot, a charger or voider of silver, with many other things she now remembereth not. Besides, better than £1000 of linen consumed by him, being carried to sundry of his houses to serve his Lordship’s turn. And with his often being at Chatsworth with his charge and most of his stuff there spoiled.” In addition, she quotes an annual contribution of 30 to 40 mattresses, 20 quilts, etc. etc. All these absurd and pitiful obstacles made the Queen’s order for cohabitation very distasteful, and in July the Earl lashed out in an important and emphatic letter to Court. His wife had of her own will left him, and he did not see why he should receive her under his roof now simply because she offered to come. “It appeareth,” goes on the statement, “by her words and deeds she doth deadly hate him, and hath called him knave, fool, and beast to his face, and hath mocked and mowed at him.” Here follow two letters from the contending parties. Her Ladyship had written to my Lord on August 4th, 1586, to which he sends the long reply quoted. She again writes on August 11th. _Earl of Shrewsbury to his Countess._