The slight increase of cost observable in course of time is mainly due to charges for lodgings. The want of accommodation at Hampton Court in the winter of 1603-4 obliged the officers to rent rooms at Kingston for a month at a cost of £4.[345] In 1607 a far more serious problem was presented by the impending loss of St. John's. This had remained in Crown hands throughout Elizabeth's time, although on 31 October 1601 we find John Chamberlain writing to Dudley Carleton, 'The Quene sells land still and the house of St. Johns is at sale'.[346] James, however, after leasing the Gatehouse for life to Sir Roger Wilbraham in 1604, carried out his predecessor's intention by selling the greater part of the Priory to Ralph Freeman on 9 May 1607.[347] Presumably the premises which had been assigned to the Revels were not covered by this sale, for of these the King made a gift in the same year to his cousin Esmé Stuart, eighth Lord Aubigny.[348] The Revels therefore had to be dispossessed. But the Office had to be housed somewhere; and the officers were all entitled to official residences under the terms of their patents. It was doubtless in connexion with this transaction that the following memorandum, which is preserved amongst Sir Julius Caesar's papers and endorsed 'Mr. Tilney's writinge touching his Office', was drawn up.[349]
The Office of the Revells Is noted to be one of the Kinges Maiestes standinge Offices, as are the Jewellhowsse, the wardropp, the Ordinance, the Armorye, and the Tentes with the like Allowances everie wayes that any of them haue.
Which Office of the Revells Consistethe of a wardropp and other severall Roomes for Artifficers to worke in (viz. Taylors, Imbrotherers, Properti makers, Paynters, wyerdrawers and Carpenters), togeather with a Convenient place for the Rehearshalls and settinge forthe of Playes and other Shewes for those Services.
In which Office the Master of the Office hath ever hadd a dwellinge Howsse for him self and his Famelie, and the other Officers ar to haue eyther dwellinge Howsses Assigned unto them by the Master (for so goeth the wordes of ther Pattentes) or else a Rente for the same as thei had before they Came unto St. Johnes.
For by ther Pattents, which be all eyther new graunted or Confirmed by the Kinges Maiestie, They ar Allowed as the Master Is to haue eache of them a dwellinge Howsse with garden and Stable for Terme of ther lyues, as ther Predicessors hadd (viz. within St. Johnes), which Cannot well be taken from vs without good Consideration for the same: or the lyke Allowance for Howssroome.
Elye Howsse Is possessed agayne by the Byshopp as I doe heare.
But Sir Thomas Knevitt hath vnder neathe his keepershipp of Whitehaull, dyvers howsses, as Hawnces and Baptistas with ij or iij howsses more Appertayninge ther vnto, near vnto the olde Pallas In westminster which I doe doubte be all rented out by him for Terme of his lyeffe.
The difficulty was met by a plan which had served before in the history of the Revels. The officers were allowed to provide their own lodgings, and to charge £15 each for the purpose in the Office account. A similar allowance (£20) was made to the Master for the provision of an office.[350] The actual removal, so far as the office was concerned, took place in the spring of 1608. The accounts show expenses 'in providing a place for th'office of the Revells' between 10 February and the middle of April, and there is independent evidence that on the 10th of March, it was located next door to the Whitefriars theatre.[351] Tilney's personal allowance first appears in the account for 1608-9, and is made retrospective to Michaelmas 1607. Perhaps the Clerk and Yeoman were not disturbed quite so soon. Their allowances first appear in 1610-11, and are retrospective to Hallowmas 1608.[352] It may be assumed that the Comptroller's lodging was treated as a charge on the Tents. On Tilney's death, Buck was allowed £30 to cover both the Office and his own lodging, and the payment antedated to Michaelmas 1608. He protested that he had in fact to pay a rent of £50, and although Salisbury probably turned a deaf ear, his appeal was allowed when his Howard connexions, Suffolk and Northampton, became Treasury Commissioners in 1612, and the allowance was finally fixed at £50.[353] It should be added that Buck also secured in 1612-13, and very likely in other years, a quite distinct allowance of £16, under a warrant from the Lord Chamberlain to the Treasurer of the Chamber, as compensation for the absence of a lodging for him at a crowded Court during the winter revels season.[354] The Office cannot have stayed long in the Whitefriars, for on 24 August 1612 Buck dedicated a treatise on The Third University in England to Sir Edward Coke 'from his Majesties office of the Revels, upon St. Peter's Hill'.[355] This is an account of the seats of learning in London, and was printed by Howes as an appendix to the 1615 edition of Stowe's Annales. Chapter 47 is Of the Art of Revels, and is worth quoting:
'I might add herunto for a corollary of this discourse the Art of Revels which requireth knowledge in Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Philosophy, History, Music, Mathematics, and in other Arts (and all more than I understand I confess) and hath a settled place within this City. But because I have described it and discoursed thereof at large in a particular commentary, according to my talent, I will surcease to speak any more thereof: blazing only the Arms belonging to it; which are Gules, a cross argent, and in the first corner of the scutcheon, a Mercury's petasus argent, and a lion gules in chief or.'[356]
It is matter for deep regret that Buck's 'particular commentary' is lost. He made other contributions to letters, writing commendatory verses to Thomas Watson's ΕΚΑΤΟΜΠΑΘΙΑ (c. 1582) and to Camden's Britannia (1607), and a poem called ΔΑΦΝΙΣ ΠΟΛΥΣΤΕΦΑΝΟΣ (1605).[357] His History of the Life and Reigne of Richard III was published posthumously in 1607.[358]