evening repast) in
the hall; as for the wassail, the steward and treasurer were to go for
it, bearing their staves; the chapel choir to stand on the side of the
hall, and when the steward entered at the hall door he was to cry
three times, "Wassail! Wassail! Wassail!" and the chapel to answer
with a good song; and when all was done the King and Queen retired to
their chamber.

Among the special features of the banquets of this period were the
devices for the table called subtleties, made of paste, jelly, or
blanc-mange, placed in the middle of the board, with labels describing
them; various shapes of animals were frequent; and on a saint's day,
angels, prophets, and patriarchs were set upon the table in plenty.
Certain dishes were also directed as proper for different degrees of
persons; as "conies parboiled, or else rabbits, for they are better
for a lord"; and "for a great lord take squirrels, for they are better
than conies"; a whole chicken for a lord; and "seven mackerel in a
dish, with a dragge of fine sugar," was also a dish for a lord. But
the most famous dish was "the peacock enkakyll, which is foremost in
the procession to the king's table." Here is the recipe for this royal
dish: Take and flay off the skin with the feathers, tail, and the neck
and head thereon; then take the skin, and all the feathers, and lay it
on the table abroad, and strew thereon ground cinnamon; then take the
peacock and roast him, and baste him with raw yolks of eggs; and when
he is roasted, take him off, and let him cool awhile, and take him and
sew him in his skin, and gild his comb, and so serve him with the last
course.

CARD-PLAYING WAS FORBIDDEN EXCEPT AT CHRISTMAS,

by a statute passed in the reign of Henry VII. A Scotch writer,[34]
referring to this prohibition, says: "A universal Christmas custom of
the olden time was playing at cards; persons who never touched a card
at any other season of the year felt bound to play a few games at
Christmas. The practice had even the sanction of the law. A
prohibitory statute of Henry VII.'s reign, forbade card-playing save
during the Christmas holidays. Of course, this prohibition extended
only to persons of humble rank; Henry's daughter, the Princess
Margaret, played cards with her suitor, James IV. of Scotland; and
James himself kept up the custom, receiving from his treasurer, at
Melrose, on Christmas Night, 1496, thirty-five unicorns, eleven French
crowns, a ducat, a _ridare_, and