Class I. OX. 23 



delivered down from our British ancestors to 

 much later times, and continued equally preva- 

 lent during the whole period of our feodal go- 

 vernment: the chieftain, whose power and 

 safety depended on the promptness of his vassals 

 to execute his commands, found it his interest 

 to encourage those employments that favoured 

 that disposition; the vassal, who made it his 

 glory to fly at the first call to the standard of 

 his chieftain, was sure to prefer that employ, 

 which might be transacted by his family with 

 equal success during his absence. Tillage 

 would require an attendance incompatible with 

 the services he owed the baron, while the for- 

 mer occupation not only gave leisure for those 

 duties, but furnished the hospitable board of his 

 lord with ample provision, of w T hich the vassal 

 was an equal partaker. Thereliques of the larder 

 of the elder Spencer are evident proofs of the 

 plenty of cattle in his days ; for after his winter 

 provisions may have been supposed to have 

 been mostly consumed, there were found, so late 

 as the month of May, in salt, the carcases of not 

 fewer than 80 beeves, 600 bacons, and 600 

 muttons.* The accounts of the several great 

 feasts in after times, afford amazing instances 

 of the quantity of cattle that were consumed in 



* Bumfs history of England,. u. 153. 



