[238] Gautier, ii. 158. Strutt, 195, quotes from Cott. MS. Nero, c. viii a payment of Edw. III ‘ministrallo facienti ministralsiam suam coram imagine Beatae Mariae in Veltam, rege praesente.’ Chaucer’s pilgrims had no professional minstrels, but the miller did as well:
‘He was a janglere and a goliardeys, ...
... A baggepype wel koude he blowe and sowne,
And therwithal he broghte us out of towne.’
It was in the absence of regular minstrels that the pilgrims fell to telling one another stories.
[239] Gautier, ii. 160. Richard Swinfield, bishop of Hereford, more than once rewarded minstrels on his episcopal rounds (J. Webb, Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, C. S. i. 152, 155). The bishops of Durham in 1355, Norwich in 1362, and Winchester in 1374, 1422, and 1481 had ‘minstrels of honour,’ like any secular noble (see Appendix E, &c.). Even the austere Robert Grosseteste had his private harper, if we may credit Mannyng, 150:
‘He louede moche to here the harpe;
For mannys wyt hyt makyth sharpe.
Next hys chaumbre, besyde hys stody,
Hys harpers chaumbre was fast therby.’