By the Rev. Canon J. B. Jackson, F.S.A. 147 
The number of mouths is accounted for, when I find that the 
gentry of the neighbourhood who were invited thought it becoming 
their dignity to bring a rather large part of their respective estab- 
lishments with them: for among others are my Lady Hungerford 
with six servants and gentlewomen; Sir Anthony Hungerford, my 
Lady his wife and 8 servants; Master Wroughton with 5; my Lady 
Darrell with 4; Sir John Brydges with 8. 
The expense of all this seems however not to have fallen upon 
the master of Wulfhall. The King’s own officers and purveyors 
provided the greater part of it, and presents from the neighbours 
came in aid. 
The particulars, of which I have given only a few, relate solely 
to the King’s visit to Wulfhall; but in other account-books of this 
Earl of Hertford (afterwards Protector Somerset) there is a vast 
number of curious miscellaneous entries, which supply a good deal 
of information as to the modes of living and state of the country in 
those days. In fact it is chiefly from obscure sources of this kind 
that we really learn most about the manners and habits of our fore- 
fathers. In stately and elaborate histories, such things are omitted. 
There the great personages pass before us on the stage in their solemn 
dress of State—Kings, Queens, Prime Ministers, Cardinals, &c., 
just as you see them ata play; but the household and private ac- 
counts of a great man, admit us, as it were, behind the scenes, and 
we see how they lived and what they did, in a nearer and more 
familiar way. 
Lord Macaulay is one of the few who are not indifferent to these 
things. “It will be my endeavour,” he says, “ not to pass by with 
neglect, even the revolutions which have taken place in dress, repasts, 
and public amusements. I shall cheerfully bear the reproach of 
having descended below the dignity of history, if I can succeed in 
placing before the English people of the nineteenth century a true 
picture of the life of their ancestors.” 
We may not perhaps all of us agree with Lord Macaulay in the 
political complexion of his history, or approve the use he has made 
of his materials, but nobody, I suppose, reproaches him for having 
descended below the dignity of history, in giving us such details, 
