By the Rev. Canon J. E. 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 thejr 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 moder, 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 at a 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. 



