conference with graziers and purveyors." The higher officers were to
see that the master was not deceived by purveyors and buyers, and that
other men's cattle did not feed on my lord's pastures; they were to
take care that the clerk of the kitchen kept his day-book "in that
perfect and good order, that at the end of every week or month it be
pied out," and that a true docket of all kinds of provisions be set
down. They were to see that the powdered and salted meats in the
larder were properly kept; and vigilant supervision was to be
exercised over the cellar, buttery, and other departments, even to the
prevention of paring the tallow lights.

Braithwaite dedicates a section to each officer; but I have only space
to transcribe, by way of sample, the opening portion of his account
of "The Officer of the Kitchen:" "The Master-Cook should be a man of
years; well-experienced, whereby the younger cooks will be drawn the
better to obey his directions. In ancient times noblemen contented
themselves to be served with such as had been bred in their own
houses, but of late times none could please some but Italians and
Frenchmen, or at best brought up in the Court, or under London cooks:
nor would the old manner of baking, boiling, and roasting please them,
but the boiled meats must be after the French fashion, the dishes
garnished about with sugar and preserved plums, the meat covered over
with orangeade, preserved lemons, and with divers other preserved and
conserved stuff fetched from the confectioner's: more lemons and sugar
spent in boiling fish to serve at one meal than might well serve
the whole expense of the house in a day." He goes on to describe and
ridicule the new fashion of placing arms and crests on the dishes.
It seems that all the refuse was the perquisite of the cook and his
subordinates in a regulated proportion, and the same in the bakery and
other branches; but, as may be supposed, in these matters gross abuses