A Trotter and a Massinger, i.e. messenger, were perhaps much the same thing. Wardroper is of course wardrobe keeper, but Chaucer uses wardrope (B. 1762) in the sense which Fr. garde-robe now usually has. The Lavender, Launder or Lander saw to the washing. Napier, from Fr. nappe, cloth, meant the servant who looked after the napery. The martial sound with which this distinguished name strikes a modern ear is due to historical association, assisted, as I have somewhere read, by its riming with rapier! The water-supply was in charge of the Ewer. The provisioning of the great house was the work of the Lardner, Fr. lard, bacon, the Panter, or Pantler, who was, at least etymologically, responsible for bread, and the Cator (Chapter III) and Spencer (Chapter III), whose names, though of opposite meaning, buyer and spender, come to very much the same thing. Spence is still the north-country word for pantry, and is used by Tennyson in the sense of refectory-- "Bluff Harry broke into the Spence And turn'd the cowls adrift." (The Talking Oak, 1. 47.) Purser, now used in connection with ships only, was also a medieval form of bursar, and every castle and monastery had its almoner, now Amner. Here also belongs Carver. In Ivey Church (Bucks) is a tablet to Lady Mary Salter with a poetic tribute to her husband-- "Full forty years a carver to two kings." As the importance of the horse led to the social elevation of the marshal and constable (Chapter IV), so the hengstman, now henchman, became his master's right-hand man. The first element is Anglo-Sax. hengest, stallion, and its most usual surnominal forms are Hensman and Hinxman. Historians now regard Hengist and Horsa, stallion and mare, as nicknames assumed by Jutish braves on the war-path. Sumpter, Old Fr. sommetier, from Somme, burden, was used both of a packhorse and its driver, its interpretation in King Lear being a matter of dispute-- "Return with her? Persuade me rather to be slave and Sumpter To this detested groom" (Lear, ii, 4). As a surname it probably means the driver, Medieval Lat. sumetarius. Among those who ministered to the great man's pleasures we must probably reckon Spelman, Speller, Spillman, Spiller, from Mid. Eng. spel, a speech, narrative, but proof of this is lacking "Now holde your mouth, par charitee, Bothe knyght and lady free, And herkneth to my spelle" (B, 2081). The cognate Spielmann, lit. Player, was used in Medieval German of a wandering minstrel. The poet is now Rymer or Rimmer, while Trover, Fr. trouvere, a poet, minstrel, lit. finder, has been confused with Trower, for Thrower, a name connected with weaving. Even the jester has come down to us as Patch, a name given regularly to this member of the household in allusion to his motley attire. Shylock applies it, to Launcelot-- "The patch is kind enough; but a huge feeder." (Merchant of Venice, ii. 5.)