heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

262 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
" In the byllyard chamber and terrayce
: one byllard board, the
"picture of our Saviour and Virgin Mary, 12 pictures in black and
of cities and shires.
"whyte, 3 landskippes in frames, 16 mappes
"In the great chamber: 12 high chayres of green damask, 2 grene
"carpets, 2 large window curtaynes of grenet, 8 pictures. Item: i
Turkey -
" work carpet, a large one.
" In the closet :
my
"or pigeon-holes.
" In the music room :
Lady Frances' gettorne, and 2 trowle-madams,
" i statue of her grandfather Burleigh, in stone."
i
great picture of the Countess of Cumberlande,
In this inventory fifty-seven apartments
hung with arras ;
the better beds with silk or velvet.
There appears to have been but one looking-glass in the house,
are named the best rooms
in the Earl's room. The plate had been sent to York, I suppose for
safety, but ineffectually, for the countess of Cork, the Earl's sole heiress,
" complains in another paper that, at the surrender of the city, she had
"effects taken from her to the amount of
; 1,500, contrary to the articles."
The household books, which have been preserved, contain many
quaint entries illustrative of the customs of the times, and,
must add, the extravagance of the family.
In the first year of the seventeenth century, the income from the
Craven and Londesborough estates was about ^2,000, the expenditure ,3,000,
and sometimes nearly double; but they were as generous as they were
I am afraid I
hospitable, and allowed ten per cent, upon all bills not paid the first year.
The household consisted of thirty servants, and the money was spent
in wines, journeys, clothes, presents, and tobacco. Claret, sack, and muscadine,
they consumed in such quantities that it is
only
reasonable to
suppose that the upper servants had their share at least of the first. For
tobacco they paid
1 8s.
per lb., the best, and inferior,
1 2S.
The following items which I have selected, will throw a curious light
upon the comparative value of things in those days and ours: "Five
"hundred oysters, 2S. t>d. Halfe toone of wine for my lord, _8 55. od.
"For 31 trootes, eles and ombres, is. td. Paid to William Townley for
" 6 lb. and i oz. of pepper, for baking a stagg sent to Grafton, for another
" sent to Westmorland and Cumberland for the assizes,
1 8^. 6d. For J lb.
" of sugar which Sir Stephen Tempest had in wyne, $d." Sugar, therefore,
cost is. 8d. per lb., as the value of money
at that time went.
The price of a fat wether was scarcely that of 2 Ibs. of sugar.
"4 chickens and 24 eggs,
is. 6d. ; 45 eggs, at 5 a penny, gd.; 4 Ibs. of
"butter, is. $d.; 10 burden of rishes against the judge coming, 2od.
"
A suite for my
If food was cheap clothing was expensive
:
lord of
" fyne Spanish cloth, laced with 3 gould and silver laces, with silk stockings,