ed saddles. They tried various devices to
get his bundle away to carry it upon their own cruppers, but neither
jest nor earnest could unstrap that homely pack. The truth was that he
would not allow himself to change his old simple habits one jot, lest he
should develop the carnal mind. So they drew across Salisbury Plain and
on to Marlborough. Here was the Court and a great throng, and this
public disgrace of the pack was too much for the Lincoln exquisites.
They cut the straps of the objectionable bundle and impounded it. From
Marlborough the cavalcade rode into London, and Hugh was consecrated on
Sunday, September 21 (Feast of St. Matthew, the converted capitalist),
1186. King Henry was in fine feather, and, forgetting his rather near
habits, produced some fine gold plate, a large service of silver, a
substantial set of pots and pans, and a good sum of ready money to meet
the expenses of the festive occasion. Without some such help a penniless
Carthusian could hardly have climbed up that Lebanon at all, unless by
the sore scandal of a suit to the Lincoln Jewry. This handsome present
was made at Marlborough. William de Northalle was consecrated Bishop of
Worcester on the same day, of whom nothing else transpires than that he
died not long after, and is supposed to have been an old and toothless
bishop promoted for his ready fees. The place of consecration was
Westminster Abbey, in its prae-Edwardian state, and so no longer extant.

Hugh would undoubtedly sleep in the house in which he afterwards died.
This lay at the back of Staple Inn, where the new bursar, whom the king
had given him, bestowed the royal pots and crocks. Consecration like
necessity brings strange bedfellows, and plain, cheap-habited Hugh, by
gaudily trimmed William in his jewelled mitre, must have raised a few
smiles that Sunday morning.

Hugh's delays had ended with his prior's order, and he saw nothing now
to stay his journey northwards. With him rode Gilbert de Glanville,
Bishop of Rochester, a _malleus monachorum_, a great hammerer of monks,
and perhaps told off for the duty of enthroning the new bishop to
silence those who had a distaste for all monkery. Herbert le Poor, late
rival candidate for the See, also pranced alongside with all the
importance of a great functionary, whose archidiaconal duty it was to
enthrone all bishops of the Province of Canterbury. For this duty he
used to have the bishop's horse and trappings and much besides; but
al