One or two remarks are necessary for the due understanding of Benedictine diet-rolls, of which several are extant besides those of Winchester. Although there were a variety of dishes, it was usual, save on feast days, for the monk to partake of only one dish, though the old as well as those in the infirmary were often allowed a pittance, or something extra. The general method of serving was for two dishes to be handed to or placed in reach of each; “if anyone cannot eat of one dish let him eat of the other, if of neither they shall bring him something else so long as it is not a delicacy.” The great quantity of eggs used--eggs not being permitted as an addition to but instead of meat--seems to prove that even in the somewhat easy-going house of St. Swithun, towards the end of its days, the large majority of the professed monks did not follow a flesh dietary but only those who were dispensed. No. 39 of the old Benedictine rule strictly forbade flesh of quadrupeds or of birds except to those who were genuinely weak or ill (_omnino debiles et egrotes_); but this rule was afterwards relaxed by general councils of the order. A homely touch occurs in the refectory custumal of the monks of St. Swithun’s, Winchester. The convent gardener had to find apples as a slight relief to the severe fare of Advent and Lent on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, save when some festival intervened. The apples were distributed in numerical accordance, with due gradation, to the monks in official position. It is to be hoped that they were permitted to distribute the fruit within or without the house! The prior, if present, had fifteen of the apples, the second prior ten, the third prior eight, and so on with the rest of the obedientiaries or officials. In recognition of his trouble in this respect the gardener was to receive a conventual loaf on the first and last days of each of these festivals. In the same house cheese was provided daily in the refectory both at dinner and supper, from Easter until Lent began. Butter was supplied after a very limited fashion, namely on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and that only from May 1st to September 14th.