266 COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



Archbishop Warham met this distinguished pair at the 

 west door of the Cathedral, and no dcubt performed 

 with due dignity the ornate duties of his distinguished 

 office. But it was not only in such purely official ex- 

 ercises as these that this good archbishop shone. He 

 was as good at a feast as at a reception — as he had proved 

 sixteen years before. On the occasion indeed of his in- 

 stallation, which must have been a very trying time, this 

 primate gave a foolish trifling banquet in the archbishop's 

 palace built by Lanfranc, which, from what I can read 

 of it, would have made some of our most redoubtable 

 seasoned aldermen stare, and on the morrow seek medical 

 aid. I should not like to name the number of courses, 

 or hint at the number of " subtylties " which appeared 

 between each course. " Subtylties " meanwhile strike 

 me as good. But were they good for one ? That is the 

 question ! I doubt it, considering the quaint mediaeval 

 precautions that had been taken for dealing with the 

 morrow. The high steward, the Duke of Buckingham, 

 indeed (who served the bishop with his own hands, 

 entered the hall on horseback, and had his own table 

 decorated with " subtylties "), was especially prepared 

 for ensuing fatalities. P'or he had the right, in recogni- 

 tion of his services, of staying for three days at the 

 archbishop's nearest manor for the purpose of being bled ! 

 So that really, so far as I can see, when our ancestors 

 banqueted they banqueted, and looked upon apoplexy 

 as a naturally culminating epilogue to a merry feast. 



Archbishop Warham, on this magnificent occasion, 

 had as guests the king and queen themselves, so that I 

 suppose courtly conversation took up most of his time, 

 and enabled him to make a show of eating while others 

 gorged. But from this sweeping accusation I am pleased 

 to be able to except the clergy, who fed on lampreys one 

 and all, and withstood subtylties as they withstood all 

 that is evil. 



But the truth is that so many kings of England 

 visited Canterbury that one becomes tired of naming 



