[16] An old cookery book of the sixteenth century in the possession of the author contains the following “crafte to make Ypocras”: “Take a quarter of red wyne, an unce of synamon, and half an unce of gynger: a quarter of an unce of greynes and of longe pepper, wythe half a pound of sugar: broie all these not too smalle, and then putte them in a bagg of wullen clothe (made therefore) with the wyne, and lette it hange over a vessel tylle the wyne be runne thorow. It is presumed that the wyne should be poured in boiling hot, else it would gain little of the spicy flavour.”
[17] Dorset, when he became Duke of Suffolk, incurred the censure of the Reformers under Edward VI for his sinful encouragement of players and other like “vagabonds.”
[18] In Lent and Advent, and during Passion and Rogation weeks, meat was only served once a week.
[19] Sir Thomas Carden’s account for sums disbursed for the household expenses of Anne of Cleves in 1552 gives us a curious insight into the manner and expense of lighting a gentlewoman’s house in the middle of the sixteenth century. Anne was residing at a manor at Dartford, and Sir Thomas supplied her with “35 lb. of wax lights, sixes and fours to the lb. at 1s. per lb.; 100 prickets [or candles to be stuck on an iron spike] at 6d. per lb.; staff torches 1s. 4d. per doz., and of white lights, 18 doz. at 9s. per doz.”—Losely MSS, edited by A. J. Kempe.
[20] This detestable game is still a favourite in parts of Cuba, but generally with a goose substituted for the duck. The writer saw it “played” there in 1879.
[21] The fact that this house was the Dorsets’ usual town residence is proved by the Marquess’s distinctly stating that Seymour, when he fetched away Jane Grey, came to him “immediately” after Henry VIII’s death “at my house in Westminster.”
[22] Coaches, properly so called, were introduced into England in 1601.
[23] “The gentlewomen in cloak and safeguards.”—Stage directions to the Merry Devil of Edmonton.
[24] Strype’s Memorials.
[25] Queen Katherine Parr was buried in the chapel at Sudeley Castle, which fell into ruins late in the seventeenth century. The monument having become much dilapidated, the then Vicar of Sudeley (1786) had the curiosity to open it and examine the condition of the body, which was found to be in a perfect state of preservation. The corpse measured 5 ft. 3 in.; the coffin, 5 ft. 10 in., the width being 1 ft. 4 in. in the broadest part, and the depth 1 ft. 5½ in. The Queen must therefore have had a very slight figure. The body was fully dressed in a Court costume of the period of cloth of gold and velvet; there were untanned leather shoes upon the feet. The profusion of light golden hair was quite remarkable. Of course several locks of it were snipped off and preserved as relics, one of them being still exhibited at Sudeley. Another lock of Katherine Parr’s hair was in the possession of Lord Bennet, who showed it to the author. It was very bright in colour and exceedingly curly. In 1805 the remains of Katherine Parr were again disturbed, and it was then discovered that an ivy berry had fallen into a fissure of the skull, taken root, and twined round the head a verdant coronet. For the last time the remains were touched in 1842, when they were removed with reverential care by Messrs. William and John Dent, who had become possessors of Sudeley Castle, and placed in a handsome monument, having above it a noble figure of the Queen, which is still one of the chief ornaments of the exquisitely restored chapel of the ancient castle—a veritable treasure-house of Tudor relics—now so pleasantly associated with the Dent family. For these notes on the remains of Katherine Parr the writer is personally indebted to the late Miss Elizabeth Strickland, who so long survived her sister Agnes, and to an interesting pamphlet on Sudeley Castle by Dr. Richard Garnett.