It retained all "the cumbrous charge of a Gothic establishment," though all its usage and accommodation had "shrunk into the polished littleness of modern elegance." The outlay was enormous.

The expenditure on the court tables only was a thing unfathomable.

Waste was the rule in every branch of it.

There was an office for the Great Wardrobe, another office of the Robes, a third of the Groom of the Stole.

For these three useless offices there were three useless treasurers.