"Item (quant au tierce) [=n]re S[=r] le Roi disoit [=q] ceo fuist de counge de luy et de sa volunte [=q] gentz de sa retenue portent et usent mesme la Livere de Coler."--_Rolls of Parliament_, vol. iii. p. 313. "Richard Earl of Arundel, after the commencement of this present parliament, said to the King in the presence of the archbishops of Canterbury and of York, {474} the Duke of Gloucester, the Bishops of Winchester and Salisbury, the Earl of Warwick, and others.... "Item. That the King uses to wear the livery of the collar of the Duke of Guienne and of Lancaster. "Item. That persons of the retinue of the King wear the same livery. "To which our lord the King then answered to the said earl.... "That soon after the coming of his said uncle of Guienne, when he came from Spain last into England, that himself our lord the King took the collar from the neck of the same his uncle and put it on his own neck, and said that he vowed to wear and to use it in sign of good love of whole heart between them also, as he did the liveries of his other uncles. "Item (as to the third). Our lord the King said that it was by leave from him, and by his wish, that persons of his retinue wear and use the same livery of the collar." This practice of one of our early sovereigns seems to afford a precedent for the mode in which divers gentlemen and persons of quality voluntarily showed civility towards Richard Evelyn, and for that in which several gentlemen of birth and estate testified their respect and affection for Humphrey Chetham. Nicholas Assheton also appears to have the support of this royal precedent in so far as relates to his accepting and wearing the livery of a friend and neighbour; and the custom of his day evidently lends its sanction to his forming, upon a state occasion, one of the body of menial servants in attendance upon Sir Richard Houghton, when he went to meet the king. Another passage in the _Rolls of Parliament_ seems to afford a respectable civic precedent for the services performed by Nicholas Assheton and other liveried gentlemen, when they waited at the lords' table at Houghton Tower: "11^{th} Edward III. A.D. 1337.