Butter. Also 3 gallons 3 qrts of butter @ 2_s._ 4_d._ the gallon 9 4-1/2 Eggs. Also 5816 eggs @ 10_d._ the hundred 2 8 5-1/4 Salt. Also one peck of salt @ 3_d._ 3 -------------- Total £3 8 11-3/4" Our Kitchener makes some trifling assumptions in his multiplication as to the butter and the eggs, and he robs the Convent of fivepence when he adds up the total. The number of eggs sounds large, but it means only 103 and a fraction daily, and when it is considered that in 1389 the Prior and his Brethren numbered forty-nine persons, this works out at the by no means excessive rate of 2-1/2 eggs daily to each brother. [Illustration: THE KITCHENER'S ACCOUNT FOR PANCAKES.] But there is a local reason for dwelling on this custom. Westminster School is admittedly a Tudor foundation, but at the Abbey we cherish the conviction that its roots penetrate deep down into the monastic soil. Every Shrove Tuesday the school--in modern times by means of selected gladiators--makes a furious onset upon a single pancake. Mr. Sergeaunt[17] speaks of the ceremony as "the sole survivor of the medieval sports," and adds that "although its origin cannot be traced, it can hardly have come into being after the date of Elizabeth's foundation." Is it, then, beyond all likelihood that it arose out of some ancient protest of our Benedictines against the prospect of being fed upon pancakes every day for eight weeks? Is it inconceivable that the successful protestant was conducted at the end of the "greese," as now, to the Lord Abbot's presence to receive one mark from his lordship's bounty? All we can say is that the Brethren continued to be similarly regaled from Easter to Trinity until the Dissolution of the House. IV A PROCTOR AT ROME