The Londoner had two meals a day. For the nobility, dinner at eleven and supper at five. For the merchants, dinner at twelve, supper at six. Cookery books in manuscript have come down to us from the fourteenth century, and a great many menus of feasts have been preserved. So it is quite easy to understand how the King and the great lords lived, but it is not so easy to understand the ordinary fare of the well-to-do citizen and the craftsman. Before presenting the menu let us speak of certain dinner customs. The tables were movable; they were laid on trestles; they were covered with white cloths. Before every man was a wooden platter or a “roundel.” The roundel was a circular wooden platter, one side of which was covered with a black ground on which were inscribed certain verses in gilt letters within a circle formed by a broad band of white and a narrow band of gold. In the inner circle was a figure of some kind, and generally each roundel was one of a series representing a group of figures. Thus in _Archæologia_, vol. xxxiv., may be found the figures and verses of nine such roundels out of a set of twelve. They belong to the time of Elizabeth or James I.; that is to say, later than that we are now considering. Each figure represents some calling or trade. Thus, there are the Courtier, the Divine, the Soldier, the Lawyer, the Merchant, the Gentleman, the Bachelor, the Wife, the Widow, nine in all. Three are lost. It is suggested that these platters were used for fruit. But surely fruit would speedily have stained the figures. May they not have been intended for bread, which would not spoil a trencher? But it is possible also that they were only used for ornaments. For the King or for any great lord there was the taster, to prevent the danger of poison; and the fool or jester sat or stood near the King and made him laugh—a feat, at times, of considerable difficulty. As for the provisions at the banquet, here are two menus, both of the fourteenth century; they belong to great feasts, the kind of feast which would last for perhaps three days:— FIRST COURSE Browet farsed, and charlet, for pottage. Baked mallard. Teals. Small birds. Almond milk served with them. Capon roasted with the syrup. Roasted veal. Pig roasted “endored, and served with the yoke on his neck over gilt.” Herons. A leche. A tart of flesh. SECOND COURSE Browet of Almayne and Viaunde rial, for pottage. Mallard. Roasted rabbits. Pheasant. Venison. Jelly. A leche. Urchynnes (hedgehogs). Pome de orynge. THIRD COURSE Boar in egurdouce, and Mawmené, for pottage. Cranes. Kid. Curlew. Partridge. (All roasted.) A leche. A custarde. A peacock endored and roasted and served with the skin. Cockagris. Flaumpoyntes. Daryoles. Pears in syrup. FIRST COURSE.—Brawn with mustard; cabbages in pottage; swan standard; cony, roasted; great custards.