in also the custom of long and stately
sitting at meat, whereby their feasts resembled those ancient pontifical
banquets whereof Macrobius speaketh (lib. 3, cap. 13), and Pliny (lib. 10,
cap. 10), and which for sumptuousness of fare, long sitting, and curiosity
shewed in the same, exceeded all other men's feasting; which fondness is
not yet left with us, notwithstanding that it proveth very beneficial for
the physicians, who most abound where most excess and misgovernment of our
bodies do appear, although it be a great expense of time, and worthy of
reprehension. For the nobility, gentlemen, and merchantmen, especially at
great meetings, do sit commonly till two or three of the clock at
afternoon, so that with many it is a hard matter to rise from the table to
go to evening prayer, and return from thence to come time enough to
supper.[146]

* * * * *

With us the nobility, gentry, and students do ordinarily go to dinner at
eleven before noon, and to supper at five, or between five and six at
afternoon. The merchants dine and sup seldom before twelve at noon, and
six at night, especially in London. The husbandmen dine also at high noon
as they call it, and sup at seven or eight; but out of the term in our
universities the scholars dine at ten. As for the poorest sort they
generally dine and sup when they may, so that to talk of their order of
repast it were but a needless matter. I might here take occasion also to
set down the variety used by antiquity in their beginnings of their diets,
wherein almost every nation had a several fashion, some beginning of
custom (as we do in summer time) with salads at supper, and some ending
with lettuce,[147] some making their entry[148] with eggs, and shutting up
their tables with mulberries, as we do with fruit and conceits of all
sorts. Divers (as the old Romans) began with a few crops of rue, as the
Venetians did with the fish called gobius; the Belgaes with butter, or (as
we do yet also) with butter and eggs upon fish days. But whereas we
commonly begin with the most gross food, and end with the most delicate,
the Scot, thinking much to leave the best for his menial servants, maketh
his entrance at the best, so that he is sure thereby to leave the worst.
We use also our wines by degrees, so that the hostess cometh last to the
table: but to stand upon such toys would spend much time, and turn to
small profit. Wherefore I will deal with other things mo