'Nay,
sir,' says Armorer; 'by God, you must do it on your knees!' So
he did, and then all the company; and having done it, all fell
acrying for joy, being all maudlin and kissing one another, the
king the Duke of York, the Duke of York the king; and in such a
maudlin pickle as never people were."
Throughout this reign the uttermost hospitality and
good-fellowship abounded. Scarce a day passed that some noble
house did not throw open its doors to a brilliant throng of
guests; few nights grew to dawn that the vicinities of St.
James's and Covent Garden were not made brilliant by the torches
of those accompanying revellers to their homes. The fashionable
hour for dinner was three of the clock, and for greater
satisfaction of guests it now became the mode to entertain them
after that meal with performances of mountebanks and musicians,
Various diaries inform us of this custom. When my Lord Arlington
had bidden his friends to a feast, he subsequently diverted them
by the tricks of a fellow who swallowed a knife in a horn sheath,
together with several pebbles, which he made rattle in his
stomach, and produced again, to the wonder and amusement of all
who beheld him. [At a great dinner given by this nobleman,
Evelyn, who was present, tells us that Lord Stafford, the
unfortunate nobleman afterwards executed on Tower Hill, "rose
from the table in some disorder, because there were roses stuck
about the fruite when the descert was set on the table; such an
antipathie it seems he had to them, as once Lady St.
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