able to live, and pay their rents, without selling a cow, or a horse, or more, although they paid but four pounds, at the uttermost, by the year.’ Footnote 3: A rough, coarse mantle. Footnote 4: Probably hop-sacking. Footnote 5: Henry the Eighth’s reign. Footnote 6: Wooden and earthen dishes. “It is impossible not to smile at Holinshed’s enumeration of the evils attendant upon the introduction of chimneys. Colds, catarrhs, &c. are included; whilst he gravely assures us, that whilst they had only reredosses, their heads were free from pain. Smoke being considered not only a sufficient hardener of the timber in the house, but the best medicine to keep the good man and his family from the quack, or catarrhs, which were then but little known.” Mrs. Spencer smilingly remarked, that she supposed our forefathers would willingly have acquiesced in the observation, that, “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.” “But,” she added, “I believe they took their meals at much earlier hours than are at present in fashion.” “Yes,” answered Mr. Wilmot: “the nobility and gentry dined at eleven o’clock before noon, and supped at five, or between five and six o’clock in the evening. The merchants seldom dined or supped before twelve at noon, or six at night, especially in London. The husbandmen dined at high noon, and supped at seven or eight; but out of term, in our universities, the scholars dined at ten. “Great silence was observed at the tables of the ‘honourable and wise;’ and it seems that a curious custom prevailed amongst artificers and husbandmen, of each _guest_ bringing his own dish, or so many with him, as his wife and he could agree upon. “Abundance and unbounded liberality, prevailed at the entertainments of the great. The cooks, at this period, seem to have been mostly Frenchmen, or strangers. Besides the usual meats, and the delicacies that the season afforded, red deer is particularly enumerated. It was usual to reserve the beginning of every dish for the greatest personage sitting at table, to whom it was handed up by the waiters, as order required; from whom it again descended to the lower end, so that every guest tasted of it. Unexpected and numerous visitors flocked to the mansions of the nobility and gentry, and rendered it necessary not only to retain a large retinue of servants, but a very ample supply of provisions. “The chief part of the food was brought in before them, chiefly on silver vessels, if they were of the degree of barons, bishops, and upwards, and placed on their tables. What was left, was sent down to their serving-men and waiters; and their reversion was bestowed upon the poor, who waited in flocks at their gates to receive the bounty.