Page:Sussex Archaeological Collections, volume 6.djvu/74

 £8. 17s. 5¾d. (, and the presents consisted of bread, 3 eels, 1 trout, 3 large pikes, 3 bream, 4 mullets, — a fish dinner for the Friday; but the day was not passed in gloom, for there is an entry of "20s. paid to Nicolas the Harper, minstrel of Sir Ralph de Camoys, coming to the king, in the suite of the Lady de Camoys, and playing before the said lord king, as a gift by his own hands."

Ralph de Camois, son of John and Margaret (whose strange history is notorious), had lands in free warren at Hampton et Wolbedyng, Trotton, and other places in Sussex, and was frequently summoned to parliament. His wife's name was Elizabeth, and perhaps she is purposely described as the "wife of Sir Ralph" in the Record, in order to distinguish her from the disreputable wife of John, who was however dead.

The king was fond of music, and his trumpeters even accompanied him when he went in 1301 to bury the heart of the Earl of Cornwall at Ashridge. He was fond also of games of chance, and there are several items in the household accounts for "tabulæ ebumeæ, disci argentei," &c. — Sometimes "the fool of the Count de Savoy" was brought in to amuse the prince and rewarded.

The entry of Saturday, September 8th, is imperfect; the MS. being torn, the name of the place remains only as. . . eford, and the expense there at £10. 6s. ¾d. This was probably Dureford Abbey near Petersfield, which lay not far out of his route to Porchester Castle, where he arrived on Sunday, Sept. 9th, and at which place he continued till October 9th.

A parliament which had been summoned to meet on Oct. 20, sat twenty-one days, to Nov. 10, and it may illustrate the mode of travelling at this time to mention that the knights of Cornwall, when claiming their expenses of attending, state that they had been seven days going to it, and seven days on their return, spending 2s. 6d. a day.

The anxieties of the king soon increased. A parliament met in June 1325, and he had reason soon after to apprehend an invasion, in consequence of the dispute with France. Orders were issued accordingly, and on June 18, Henry de Chardon, Thomas de Feversham, and William de Robertsbridge