as he sat in his hard, uncompromising chair before the fire on a winter’s evening, with perhaps a few of his cronies gathered round him, quaffing their bright March beer or mellow old October as they talked and ruminated in turns on the crops, the market or the hunt. It is not, however, so easy for the degenerate sons of modern days to realise the mighty draughts of ale taken at breakfast, soon after daylight. Yet, before the introduction of tea and coffee, ale was the morning drink in the palace of the king as in the cottage of the labourer. In 1512 the breakfast of the Earl and Countess of Northumberland on a fast-day in Lent was “a loaf of bread, two manchetts (_i.e._, rolls of fine wheat), a quart of beer, a quart of wine, two pieces of salt fish, six bawned herrings, four white herrings, or a dish of sprats.” On flesh days “half a chyne of mutton or a chyne of boiled beef” was substituted for the fish. In the same household, the boys, “my lord Percy and Mr. Thomas Percy,” were allowed “half a loaf of household bread, a manchett, a pottle (2 quarts) of beer and three mutton bones boiled.” “My lady’s gentlewoman” seems to have been a rather thirsty soul; she was allowed for breakfast “a loaf of bread, a pottle of beer and three mutton bones boiled.” Even the two children in the nursery were brought up on this diet of beer; their breakfast consisted of “a manchett, a quart of beer, a dish of butter, a piece of salt fish and a dish of sprats.” The _liveries_, or evening meal, produced even a greater supply of malt liquor. My Lord and Lady then had “two manchetts, a loaf of bread, a _gallon_ of beer and a quart of wine.” The allowance of food and drink made from the Court to Maids of Honour and other attendants, was called the _bouche of Court_, a name corrupted into the _bouge of Court_, and “to have bouge of Court” signified to have meat and drink free. In the Ordinances, of Eltham, 17 Henry VIII., Maids of Honour of the Queen are each allowed for breakfast “one chet lofe, one manchet, _two gallons of ale_, dim’ pitcher of wine.” Lady Lucy, one of the Maids of Honour in the same reign, was allowed for breakfast—a chine of beef, a loaf, and a gallon of ale; for dinner—a piece of boiled beef, a slice of roast meat and a gallon of ale; and for supper—porridge, mutton, a loaf and a gallon of ale. {275}