k table-cloths, and twenty candlesticks. The Constable wore gilt
armour and a plumed helmet, and bore a poleaxe in his hands. On St.
Thomas's Eve a parliament was held, when the two youngest brothers,
bearing torches, preceded the procession of benchers, the officers'
names were called, and the whole society passed round the hearth singing
a carol. On Christmas Eve the minstrels, sounding, preceded the dishes,
and, dinner done, sang a song at the high table; after dinner the oldest
master of the revels and other gentlemen singing songs.

On Christmas Day the feast grew still more feudal and splendid. At the
great meal at noon the minstrels and a long train of servitors bore in
the blanched boar's head, with a golden lemon in its jaws, the
trumpeters being preceded by two gentlemen in gowns, bearing four
torches of white wax. On St. Stephen's Day the younger Templars waited
at table upon the benchers. At the first course the Constable entered,
to the sound of horns, preceded by sixteen swaggering trumpeters, while
the halberdiers bore "the tower" on their shoulders and marched gravely
three times round the fire.

On St. John's Day the Constable was up at seven, and personally called
and reprimanded any tardy officers, who were sometimes committed to the
Tower for disorder. If any officer absented himself at meals, any one
sitting in his place was compelled to pay his fee and assume his office.
Any offender, if he escaped into the oratory, could claim sanctuary, and
was pardoned if he returned into the hall humbly and as a servitor,
carrying a roll on the point of a knife. No one was allowed to sing
after the cheese was served.

On Childermas Day, New Year's Day, and Twelfth Night the same costly
feasts were continued, only that on Thursday there was roast beef and
venison pasty for dinner, and mutton and roast hens were served for
supper. The final banquet closing all was preceded by a dance, revel,
play, or mask, the gentlemen of every Inn of Court and Chancery being
invited, and the hall furnished with side scaffolds for the ladies, who
were feasted in the library. The Lord Chancellor and the ancients
feasted in the hall, the Templars serving. The feast over, the
Constable, in his gilt armour, ambled into the hall on a caparisoned
mule, and arranged the sequence of sports.

The Constable then, with three reverences, knelt before the King of the
Revels, and, delivering up his naked sword, prayed to be taken into the