51.
*** Ypod.Neust.p.

504.
Stowe, in his Survey of London, gives us a curious instance of the hospitality of the ancient nobility in this period; it is taken from the accounts of the cofferer or steward of Thomas earl of Lancaster, and contains the expenses of that earl during the year 1313, which was not a year of famine.

For the pantry, buttery, and kitchen, three thousand four hundred and five pounds.

For three hundred and sixty-nine pipes of red wine, and two of white, one hundred and four pounds, etc.

The whole, seven thousand three hundred and nine pounds; that is, near twenty-two thousand pounds of our present money; and making allowance for the cheapness of commodities, near a hundred thousand pounds.
I have seen a French manuscript, containing accounts of some private disbursements of this king.