In the great houses of the nobility and gentry, minstrels' music was the usual seasoning of food. It is true, wrote Mons. J. J. Jusserand, in "English Wayfaring Life of the Fourteenth Century," that "the voices of the singers were at times interrupted by the crunching of the bones, which the dogs were gnawing under the tables, or by the sharp cry of some ill-bred falcon; for many lords kept these favorite birds on perches behind them."
We learn from the same authority that in the great dining-halls of the castles of the wealthy, galleries were placed for the accommodation of the minstrels, above the door of entrance, and opposite to the dais upon which stood the master's table.
FOOTNOTES:
[173:1] Boston Transcript, March 10, 1900.
[173:2] George Rawlinson, History of Ancient Egypt, vol. ii, p. 49.
[174:1] J. G. Millingen, M.D., Curiosities of Medical Experience.
[175:1] London, 1749.
[176:1] Boston Sunday Herald, May 2, 1909.
[176:2] George J. Romanes, Animal Intelligence.