d
secretary, Fitz-Stephens [u], mentions, among other particulars, that
his apartments were every day in winter covered with clean straw or
hay, and in summer with green rushes or boughs; lest the gentlemen who
paid court to him, and who could not, by reason of their great number,
find a place at table, should soil their fine clothes by sitting on a
dirty floor [w]. A great number of knights were retained in his
service; the greatest barons were proud of being received at his
table; his house was a place of education for the sons of the chief
nobility; and the king himself frequently vouchsafed to partake of his
entertainments. As his way of life was splendid and opulent, his
amusements and occupations were gay, and partook of the cavalier
spirit, which, as he had only taken deacon's orders, he did not think
unbefitting his character. He employed himself at leisure hours in
hunting, hawking, gaming, and horsemanship; he exposed his person in
several military actions [x]; he carried over, at his own charge,
seven hundred knights to attend the king in his wars at Toulouse; in
the subsequent wars on the frontiers of Normandy he maintained, during
forty days, twelve hundred knights, and four thousand of their train
[y]; and in an embassy to France, with which he was intrusted, he
astonished that court with the number and magnificence of his retinue.
[FN [s] Fitz-Steph. p. 13. [t] Fitz-Steph. p. 15. Hist. Quad. p. 9,
14. [u] P. 15. [w] John Baldwin held the manor of Oterarsfee, in
Aylesbury, of the king by soccage, by the service of finding litter
for the king's bed, viz. in summer, grass or herbs, and two grey
geese; and in winter, straw, and three eels, thrice in the year if the
king should come thrice in the year to Aylesbury. Madox, Bar.
Anglica, p. 247. [x] Fitz-Steph. p. 23. Hist. Quad. p. 9. [y] Fitz-
Steph. p. 19, 20, 22, 23.]

Henry, besides committing all his more important business to Becket's
management, honoured him with his friendship and intimacy; and
whenever he was disposed to relax himself by sports of any kind, he
admitted his chancellor to the party [z] An instance of their
familiarity is mentioned by Fitz-Stephens, which, as it shows the
manners of the age, it may not be improper to relate. One day, as the
king and the chancellor were riding together in the streets of London,
they observed a beggar, who was shivering with cold. Would it not be
very praiseworthy, said the king, to give that