Tracking it for some time, Nicholas Clamp at length turned
off on the right, and, crossing a sort of ante-room, led the way into a
large chamber with stone walls and a coved and groined roof, lighted
by a great window at the lower end. This was the royal kitchen, and in
it yawned no fewer than seven huge arched fireplaces, in which fires
were burning, and before which various goodly joints were being
roasted, while a number of cooks and scullions were congregated
round them. At a large table in the centre of the kitchen were seated
some half-dozen yeomen of the guard, together with the clerk of the
kitchen, the chief bargeman, and the royal cutler, or bladesmith, as he
was termed.
These worthies were doing ample justice to a chine of beef, a wild-boar
pie, a couple of fat capons, a peacock pasty, a mess of pickled
lobsters, and other excellent and inviting dishes with which the board
was loaded. Neither did they neglect to wash down the viands with
copious draughts of ale and mead from great pots and flagons placed
beside them. Behind this party stood Giovanni Joungevello, an Italian
minstrel, much in favour with Anne Boleyn, and Domingo Lamellino, or
Lamelyn--as he was familiarly termed--a Lombard, who pretended to
some knowledge of chirurgery, astrology, and alchemy, and who was a
constant attendant on Henry.
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