; but in the end, either waxing
weary of their own frugality, or suffering the cockle of old custom
to overgrow the good corn of their new constitution, they fell to
such liberty that in often-feeding they surmounted Canutus surnamed
the Hardy. For, whereas he covered his table but three or four times
in the day, these spread their cloths five or six times, and in such
wise as I before rehearsed. They brought in also the custom of long
and stately sitting at meat, whereby their feasts resembled those
ancient pontifical banquets whereof Macrobius speaketh (lib. 3, cap.
13), and Pliny (lib. 10, cap. 10), and which for sumptuousness of
fare, long sitting, and curiosity shewed in the same, exceeded all
other men's feasting; which fondness is not yet left with us,
notwithstanding that it proveth very beneficial for the physicians,
who most abound where most excess and misgovernment of our bodies do
appear, although it be a great expense of time, and worthy of
reprehension. For the nobility, gentlemen, and merchantmen,
especially at great meetings, do sit commonly till two or three of
the clock at afternoon, so that with many it is a hard matter to rise
from the table to go to evening prayer, and return from thence to
come time enough to supper.[7]...

[6] This word is not obsolete. South coast countrymen still
eat _nuntions_ and not _luncheons_.--W.

[7] Here follows a disquisition upon the table practices of
the ancients.--W.

With us the nobility, gentry, and students do ordinarily go to dinner
at eleven before noon, and to supper at five, or between five and six
at afternoon. The merchants dine and sup seldom before twelve at noon,
and six at night, especially in London. The husbandmen dine also at
high noon as they call it, and sup at seven or eight; but out of the
term in our universities the scholars dine at ten. As for the poorest
sort they generally dine and sup when they may, so that to talk of
their order of repast it were but a needless matter. I might here take
occasion also to set down the variety used by antiquity in their
beginnings of their diets, wherein almost every nation had a several
fashion, some beginning of custom (as we do in summer time) with
salads at supper, and some ending with lettuce, some making their
entry with eggs, and shutting up their tables with mulberries, as we
do with fruit and conceits of all sorts. Divers (as the old Romans)
began with a few crops of rue,