ject of these feudal endowments was the establishment
of a cordon round the throne of powerful subjects under conditions
and titles which to ourselves may appear incongruous and obscure,
but which were in tolerable keeping with the financial and commercial
organisation of the period, with a restricted currency, a revenue
chiefly payable in kind, scanty facilities for transit, and an absence
of trading centres. These steward-ships, butler-ships, and cook-ships,
in the hands of the most trusted vassals of the Crown, constituted a
rudimentary vehicle for in-gathering the dues of all kinds renderable
by the king's tenants; and as an administrative scheme gradually
unfolded itself, they became titular and honorary, like our own
reduced menagerie of nondescripts. But while they lasted in their
substance and reality, they answered the wants and notions of a
primitive people; nor is it for this practical age to lift up its
hands or its voice too high; for mediaeval England is still legible
without much excavation in our Court, our Church, nay, in our Laws.
There lurk our cunning spoilers!

Mr. Fairholt, in the "Archaeological Album," 1845, has depicted for
our benefit the _chef_ of the Abbey of St. Albans in the fourteenth
century, and his wife Helena The representations of these two notable
personages occur in a MS. in the British Museum, which formerly
belonged to the Abbey, and contains a list of its benefactors, with
their gifts. It does not appear that Master Robert, cook to Abbot
Thomas, was the donor of any land or money; but, in consideration of
his long and faithful services, his soul was to be prayed for with
that of his widow, who bestowed 3s. 4d. _ad opus hujus libri_, which
Fairholt supposes to refer to the insertion of her portrait and that
of her spouse among the graphic decorations of the volume. They are
perhaps in their way unique. Behold them opposite!

Another point in reference to the early economy of the table, which
should not be overlooked, is the character of the ancient buttery, and
the quick transition which its functionary, the butler, experienced
from the performance of special to that of general duties.

He at a very remote period acted not merely as the curator of the
wine-cellar, but as the domestic steward and storekeeper; and it was
his business to provide for the requirements of the kitchen and the
pantry, and to see that no opportunity was neglected of supplying,
from the nearest port, or