acted to
the jingling of morris-dancers and other profanities. These fooleries
put the king into such good humour, that he was more witty in his
speech than ordinary. Some of these sayings have been recorded, and
amongst the rest, _that well-known quibble which has been the origin of
an absurd mistake, still current through the county, respecting the
sirloin_. The occasion, as far as we have been able to gather, was
thus. Whilst he sat at meat, casting his eyes upon a noble _surloin_ at
the lower end of the table, he cried out, 'Bring hither that _surloin_,
sirrah, for 'tis worthy a more honourable post, being, as I may say,
not _sur_-loin, but _sir_-loin, the noblest joint of all;' which
ridiculous and desperate pun raised the wisdom and reputation of
England's Solomon to the highest."--_Traditions_, vol. ii. pp. 190-1.

Most probably Mr. Roby's view of the matter is substantially correct; for
although _tradition_ never fails to preserve the remembrance of
transactions too trivial, or perhaps too indistinct for sober history to
narrate, the _existence_ of a tradition does not necessarily _prove_, or
even _require_, that the myth should have had its foundation in fact.

Had the circumstance really taken place as tradition prescribes, it would
probably have obtained a greater permanency than oral recital; for during
the festivities at Hoghton Tower, on the occasion of the visit of the
"merrie monarch", there was present a gentleman after Captain Cuttle's own
heart, who would most assuredly have made a note of it. This was Nicholas
Assheton, Esq., of Downham, whose _Journal_, as Dr. Whitaker well observes,
furnishes an invaluable record of "our ancestors of the parish of Whalley,
not merely in the universal circumstances of birth, marriage, and death,
but acting and suffering in their individual characters; their businesses,
sports, bickerings, carousings, and, such as it was, religion." This worthy
chronicler thus describes the King's visit:--

"August 15. (1617). The king came to Preston; ther, at the crosse, Mr.
Breares, the lawyer, made a speche, and the corporn presented him with
a bowle; and then the king went to a banquet in the town-hall, and soe
away to Houghton: ther a speche made. Hunted, and killed a stagg. Wee
attend on the lords' table.

"August 16, Houghton. The king hunting: a great companie: killed affore
dinner a brace of stagg