470 The Rev. E. H. Pearce [May 14, 



the Sheriff of ^Middlesex and his valets and his hov, a herald from 

 the College of Arms with his boy, a messenger with a summons to 

 Parliament, and Criers from the King's Bench, came hard upon each 

 other's heels. 



One luxury the Abbot did indulge in, whether from preference 

 or at the dictates of fashion. Probably from preference, for other- 

 wise there was no need to make two clerks carry to his manor at 

 Pyrford a pair of organs from Westminster. Here is a boy dancing 

 before my lord for sixpence, and a piper retained at Pyrford all 

 Christmastide-for 14s. Clearly his tastes got to be known, for 

 AVilliam of AVykeham sent his pipers to strut their little hour l)efore 

 the Abbot at Pyrford ; Henry de Spenser, the fighting Bishop of 

 Norwich and a champion of Richard II., sent his minstrels to Birling- 

 ham ; the Duke of Gloucester — Thomas of Woodstock — had a blind 

 harper who performed at Denham ; the Abbot of Eynsham's enter- 

 tainer (" lusor ") and the ill-fated Earl of Arundel's minstrels were 

 other visitors ; and even when he was at Northampton, for the 

 General Chapter of the Benedictine Order, there are payments to 

 *' interlusores " or mummers. 



If I turn to the man himself and his public career as Abbot, I 

 see him conscious of the troubled conditions of the realm under 

 King Richard's rule. Listen, for example, to the message* which 

 he sent from his manor in Denham on the last day of August in a 

 year not specified : 



" My beloved sons in Christ, the King's most excellent Majesty 

 has bidden us to be instant in prayer to the Most High for the whole 

 estate of the realm ; for enemies without and rebels within are 

 confederate against the peace of the country. It therefore behoves 

 you to whom is committed the administration of our Convent's 

 concerns to put a limit— all of you save the Monk-Bailiff — upon 

 your walks abroad and your ridings into the country. Call your 

 brethren to chapter and bid them be content with their usual 

 recreation within the walls ; let them give thenjselves to prayer and 

 contemplation such as the present stress and the evils of the times 

 demand. Go in solemn procession every fourth day round the 

 limits of the monastery and every sixth day through the town of 

 AVestminster and in the latter c.ise summon all the chaplains and 

 clerks dwelling within the parish of St. Margaret, and specially, in 

 accordance with custom, the clerks of our Almonry. Fare you well." 



But I see him also compelled to be as heretofore a busy wanderer 

 in foreign lands in the service either of the King or the monastery 

 or the Church, and mostly, I suppose, of all three at once. From 

 1887-90 he was represented at Rome by his proctor, John Borewell, 

 who succeeded him as Archdeacon. In 1891 he was off again him- 

 self, this time on the King's business, as we learn from the " Liber 



* Mun. 6221. 



