KING HAL’S HOUSEKEEPING.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1051, 9 June 1882, Page 4

KING HAL’S HOUSEKEEPING.

Ktns Henry VIII seems to have had some trouble with his household as well as with his wives, if we may judge by the regulations for the former which have been unearthed by the London Land and Water. “ His Highness,” as the king is called, begins by strictly forbidding the practice, apparently common among his attendants, of stealing furniture and other property from houses “ where he goes to visit.” Coal, being an expensive article was only to be burned in the royal apartments ; and straw would also appear to have been scarce, since grooms are prohihted from stealing that belonging to His Highness. Great care was to be taken of those precious articles, the “ pewter spoons the king even had regard for the wooden ones used in tho kitchen, which were on no account to bo broken. Breakage by servants, indeed, seems to have greatly troubled the burly monarch, and he therefore placed his ban on “ romping with the maids on the stairs, by which dishes ami other things were often broken.” Nothing is said, however, about cats, and we may therefore assume that in the days of bluff King Hal, Mary Jane had not invented her favorite excuse. Adulteration appears to have been as common as now, for while the brewers supplying the royal household were warned “not to put any brimstone in their beer,” the bakers were threatened with stocks if they dared to use either alum or flour made from rye, oats, or bran. In some other respects tho palace arrangements seemed to have dissatisfied His Highness, the barber having it intimated to him that he must bo more “cleanly, for fear of danger o the royal person.” while the master cooks were not to employ “ such scullions as to go about naked, or lie all night before the kitchen fire.”