There must have been a very moderate and occasional use of both cheese and butter; the year’s purchase of the former only amounted to 32 stone 2 lbs., and of the latter to 25 stone. Rice, which was imported in large quantities from the East, has been mentioned as a pittance at Winchester; on two occasions in the whole year it seems to have served as a delicacy for a few at Durham, for there are two entries of the purchase of 12 lbs. of rice. When the number of mouths to be filled at this great monastery are considered, it is obvious that the weekly purchases of the cellarer, which averaged about £5 a week, must have been wholly inadequate for the bare support of life. It is therefore a relief to find that he had a well-stocked larder of salt flesh and fish to fall back upon. In this year William Hexham, the cellarer, had in the larder 202 “Marts” or Martinmas cattle, killed and salted for winter and subsequent consumption, some from their own manors, and others bought at Darlington and elsewhere. A large stock of mutton, and occasionally lamb, beef, and pork, was also received at intervals from the manors, and now and again purchased, which was also salted down for larder purposes. Moreover, upwards of sixty barrels of herrings, and 1000 cod fish were bought to be salted as larder storage, as well as 205 dried fish (probably large cod) for the servants. This seems a mighty store; but how many were there to support? The ideal number of monks for a large Benedictine establishment was seventy, but it was seldom realised. We know the exact numbers at Durham on various occasions; probably at this date it was sixty. Then there were the chaplains, the lay-brothers, the singing boys, the almonry boys, and a considerable number of paid servants of the house, as well as those of the priors’ lodgings, and of the great and roomy guest-house, and the monks’ infirmary. The cellarer had to provide food for all these, as well as for the large infirmary outside the gates, and to a considerable extent for a hospital in the town. Altogether, the mouths that had to be provided for (inclusive of guests of all ranks) may be safely estimated as averaging at least 250 a day. The great guest-house, with its courtly sets of apartments (the principal of which were termed the King’s chambers, the knights’ chambers, and the clerks’ chambers) were frequently filled, and this irrespective of humbler lodgings for middle-class folk and the poorer wayfarers. Moreover, “the releefe and almesse of the hole Convent was alwaies open and free, not onely to the poore of the citie of Durham, but to all the poore people of the countrie besides.”--(_Rites of Durham._) During 1333-4, the King paid three visits to the priory, once accompanied by the Queen. The King’s justices tarried with the prior when visiting Durham; on one of these three occasions during this year they stayed at the monastery for four days, and on another for a whole week. During