od of his rule there was nothing but a succession of
masques, disguisings, and dances of all kinds. All the nobles, even
the Mayor of London, had an officer of this kind chosen in their
households. Dancing was a very favourite amusement. It was practised
by the nobility of both sexes. The damsels of London spent their
evenings in dancing before their masters' doors, and the country
lasses danced upon the village green."[24]

[Illustration: THE LORD OF MISRULE.]

A Royal Christmas was kept at Westminster, with great splendour, in
1358, when King Edward had two crowned guests at his feast; but these
were present from no choice of their own: they were the victims to the
fortune of war at Poictiers and Neville's Cross. And in
1362, King David of Scotland and the King of Cyprus met at King
Edward's grand entertainments. The later years of his life were spent
by this great warrior-king in partial retirement from public affairs,
and under the influence of his mistress, Alice Perrers, while John of
Gaunt took a leading part in the government of the state. In 1376
Edward the Black Prince died, and the same year King Edward III. kept
his last Christmas at Westminster, the festival being made memorable
by all the nobles of the realm attending to swear fealty to the son of
the Black Prince, who, by the King's desire, took precedence of his
uncles at the banquet as befitted the heir apparent to the crown. The
King died on the 21st of June, 1377, having reigned for just over half
a century.

The old chronicler, Stowe, refers to a

TERRIBLE CHRISTMAS TEMPEST,

which he says occurred in 1362: "The King held his Christmas at
Windsore, and the XV. day following a sore and vehement south-west
winde brake forth, so hideous that it overthrew high houses, towers,
steeples, and trees, and so bowed them, that the residue which fell
not, but remained standing, were the weaker."

King Edward the Third's wardrobe accounts witness to the

COSTLY CHRISTMAS ROBES

that were worn at this period. And these accounts also show that Alice
Perrers was associated with the King's daughter and granddaughter in
the Christmas entertainments. There are items in 1376 stating that the
King's daughter Isabella (styled Countess of Bedford), and her
daughter (afterwards wife of Vere, Earl of Oxford), were provided with
rich garments trimmed with ermine, in the fashion of the robes of the
Garter, and with others of shaggy velvet, trimmed with the same f