CHAP. xn. PUB-LIC ENTERTAINMENTS. 329 



to the necessity of paying for the necessaries for 

 his household in money made of leather, in the 

 middle of which there was driven a silver nail." 

 There was great delay in the payment of the 

 succeeding instalments, and one fifth of the 

 amount was still owing, when another war broke 

 out under Henry the Fifth, near forty years 

 afterwards J . 



The public entertainments, and the expenses 

 of them, will serve to show the high value of 

 money, or the low cost of all the necessaries and 

 luxuries, as they were doubtless then deemed, 

 of the table and the household. The account 

 of the preparation for the dinner at the corona- 

 tion of Richard the First in 1189, to which all 

 who held lands as vassals of the crown were in- 

 vited, is as follows. A robe for William, son of 

 the Duke of Saxony (who was an accidental 

 visiter in England), one pound seventeen shil- 

 lings ; for 870 hens, 200 cups, Id50 scutellis or 

 platters, twelve pounds fifteen shillings ; for 

 2000 plates and 200 cups, three pounds fifteen 

 shillings and nine-pence ; for 2000 hens to be 

 bought and kept at Westminster for the corona- 

 tion, and 200 more cups, twenty-four pounds 

 nine shillings and three-pence ; for 1200 plates 

 and 500 cups, six pounds three shillings and 



1 Fcedera, vol. vi. p. 178. 



