another whole week the prior entertained the members of his council; visits were also paid by bishops and earls, on one occasion by two bishops at the same time. The retinue of these distinguished visitors was always considerable. It may also be remembered, when thinking of the two hundred salted “marts” that found their way into the larder during the year, and the carcases of sheep bought for salting or occasionally for fresh use, that the cattle of those days were decidedly smaller than what are now seen in butchers’ shops, whilst the sheep resembled the small Welsh mutton. It is no guess-work that the Durham cellarer provided all the necessary food for the hostelries and for the prior’s table, or even an assertion based upon the usual custom of Benedictine houses. It is testified to in extant rolls. For this year, 1333-4, Brother Robert de Middleham was hosteler, and his expenses show that he found--in addition to wine, of which more anon--nothing save diverse special pittances for guests and for prior, sub-prior and their companions, at diverse special occasions, at the small cost of 21_s._ 3_d._; a pittance made to the convent in the refectory on the first Rogation Day at the price of 26_s._; and a pittance of 11_s._ 6_d._ provided for the chaplain who heard the confessions in Lent of the parishioners of St. Oswald’s. Everything else, even for kings, bishops, or earls, was provided by the cellarer; and we find at the end of his roll, under the heading _Empcio specierum_, various small purchases of almonds, pepper, saffron, mace, cinnamon, sugar, rice, honey, figs, and raisins, of much of which it is expressly stated that it was for the prior’s table. In later days delicacies of confectionery were occasionally provided by the priory cooks or purchased, such as anise comfit, madryan, gobett reall, pinyonade, sugar-in-plate, chardecoyne, or geloffors, but always for the guests. So far as the Durham rolls are concerned, a close study of them proves beyond doubt that the fare of these monks was (for the times in which they lived, when meat was plentifully enjoyed by the poorest) simple in quality, and moderate in quantity, and further, that the fasts were most carefully observed. Neither in amount nor in variety of food did the monks of Durham fare so well as the inmates of an average English work-house of the present day. A recent most capable historical writer (Miss Bateson) has said: “At St. Albans the diet seems to have been very severe; it was an innovation there in the thirteenth century to allow the sick in the infirmary to have meat. It is clear from the detailed custumals of Abingdon and Evesham that mutton and beef were not eaten in their refectories, but bacon was generally consumed, and all kinds of fat.”