(in the article relating to that apartment) the king is to be apparelled by the "GENTLEMEN of the PRIVY CHAMBER.'

In that room, against the time of the king's rifing, were appointed to attend him six gentlemen of the privy chamber, Two gentlemen ubers, FOUR grooms, the page, and the barber, which laft was to come furnished with water, cloths, bafon, knives, "combs, fciffars, &c. for trimming and dreffing the KING'S "head and beard." Both thefe circumftances might however very well fubfift at the fame time; for the KING might be dreffed but loosely in the bed-chamber by the ESQUIRE of his BODY, and proceed to the more finifhed and ornamental part of his dress in the privy chamber.

Ar dinner there was another office to be performed by the ESQUIRE; for the above-cited ordinances of king Henry VII. tell us that one of the ESQUIRES of the BODY is to be "ready, and obedient at dinner and fupper, to serve the King of "his pottage at fuch time as he fhall be commanded by the

fewer and gentleman ufher." Whether the ESQUIRE ferved the king of any thing more than merely the pottage at dinner and Supper, does not appear but in the afternoon (on certain feftivals at least) when there was a VOYDE* the ESQUIRE ferved the KING with the cup when no greater eftate was prefent.

* A voyde was a small refection of Spices (a term at that time including all forts of sweets of the confectionary kind), and rich wines frequently taken by the KING and QUEEN after even-fong, which on great feftivals was attended with much ftate. I have no better guefs at the meaning of the word than that it is a transfer of the term from the utenfil to the ceremony, a vyder being a kind of tray, ftill in ufe, under that denomination, for the purpose of moving glaffes, &c. from one room to another. Time feems to have contracted the word a little, though its meaning has been enlarged fo far as to imply the whole cerehony. After which there was a VOYDE" occurs frequently in accounts of anTHOUGH

C 2

THOUGH We have now left the KING in his privy chamber, and in the hands of the fervants of that apartment, yet we must not entirely difmifs the ESQUIRE; for Sir H. Spelman fays, that when the KING went out, the office of the EsQUIRE was to follow him and carry the cloak *.

THUS much for the office of the ESQUIRE of the BODY by day; but the principal, most effential, and most honorable part. of his duty was at night; for when the KING retired to bed, the ESQUIRE had the concentrated power of the gentlemen ushers, the vice chamberlain, and lord chamberlain, in himself, having the abfolute command of the house both above and below stairs. At this period (the reign of king Henry VIII.) and till the close of the last century, the royal apartments, from the bed chamber to the guard chamber inclufively, were occupied in the night by one or more of the fervants belonging to each chamber refpectively. The principal officer, then called the GENTLE

cient high feftivals. But what most favours this derivation is a paffage in Sir George Buck's Account of the Coronation of K. Richard III. "Laftly," fays he, "after dinner came the lord mayor of London and the Sheriffs with a VOYDER.' [Life of K. Richard III.] The lord mayor of London is chief butler on a coronation, and ferves the king with a cup of wine, and this formerly might be a branch of that office. The only veftiges of a voyde remaining at present are preferved in the ceremony of the MAUNDY, performed in his majefty's chapel at White-Hall when after evening prayers (the business of the day being finished) the officers belonging to the Almonry retire to the Veftry, where they are served, by the proper officers refpectively, with Rofe water to wash their hands, and for their refreshment with Rolls of Bread, and Sack.

* Die, principem foris progredientem, fubfequitur (fc. Armiger ad corpus) pallium ejus ferens in cafulâ. [Spelman's Gloff. in voce Armiger.] The efquire attended the king in progreffes probably for this as well as other purposes. [See Leland's Collectanea, edit. ult. Vol. IV. p. 191.] This branch of the efquire's office has now devolved upon the Page of Honour, who, at Reviews, carries the KING's cloak, or in more modern language his furtout, on horseback placed before him in a port-manteau of blue velvet richly guarded with gold lace.

MAN (now the LORD) of the bed chamber, flept on a pallet-bed in the fame room with the KING, and in the ante-room, between the privy chamber and the bed chamber, (in the reign of king Charles II. at least) flept the GROOM of the bed chamber *. In the privy chamber next adjoining flept Two of the fix GENTLE MEN of the PRIVY CHAMBER in waiting, and in the prefence chamber the ESQUIRE of the BODY, on a pallet-bed, upon the haut pas, under the cloth of eftate, while one of the PAGES of the prefence chamber slept in the fame room, without the verge of the canopy, not far from the door. All these temporary beds were put up at night, and displaced in the morning, by the officers of a particular branch of the wardrobe called the wardrobe of beds. Beyond all these in the guard room was the watch, confifting of a certain number of the yeomen of the guard.

AFTER Supper, previous to the KING's retiring to his Bed Chamber, the proper Officers were to fee all things furnished for the Night, fome for the KING's Bed Chamber, and others for the KING'S Cup-board, which was fometimes in the Privy Chamber, and sometimes in the Prefence Chamber, at the Royal Pleafure, and furnished with Refections for the KING'S Refreshment if called for. After this the Officers of the Day retired, and committed all to the Charge of the ESQUIRE of the BODY. This Domestick Ceremony was called THE ORDER of ALLNIGHT; the Nature of which I fhall now give at large from an account preferved in the LORD CHAMBERLAIN'S OFFICE +. The Writer who was himself an ESQUIRE of the BODY to two fucceffive KINGS goes circumftantially through the whole of

* Ordinances of King Charles II.

+ Communicated to me by the late George Wilmot, Efq. when first clerk in that office.

the

the ESQUIRE's Business of the Night; from whence it will appear that, even fo lately as the middle of last Century, the Office was of fo confidential a Nature, that no Dispatch, Letter, or Meffage, could be communicated to the KING in the Night, but what was brought to the ESQUIRE on Duty, and by him carried in propriâ personá to the KING.

I HAVE taken the liberty to add fuch notes as appear neceffary for the information of those who are unacquainted with the establishment of the Royal Houfhold.

The

The ORDER of ALL-NIGHT,

As defcribed by FERDINANDO MARSHAM

ESQUIRE of the BODY

To K. CHARLES I. and K. CHARLES II*.

HE ORDER of ALL-NIGHT for the KING was

"Tanciently as followeth.

"The Gentleman-Ufher, Daily Waiter +, having the Charge "of constant Attendance upon his Majefty until 9 o'Clock at Night, called to the Yeoman Usher ‡ attending at the Guard "Chamber Door for Ten Yeomen to attend him to go for ALL"NIGHT for the King. The Gentleman Usher went bare-headed, " and the Yeoman [Uber] to the Pantry for bread-to the But

* Mr. Marsham was a collateral Anceftor of the Right Honourable Lord" ROMNEY, being the younger Brother of the firft Sir John Marfham, Baronet, as appears by comparing Wood's Athenæ Oxonienfes with the Peerages. I find him an Efquire of the Body to King Charles II. in a Prefent State of the Year 1674 [penes me]; and it appears by his own account that he had ferved K. Charles I. in the fame capacity.

"

In the Prefence Chamber, which is fituated next without the Privy Chamber, are four Gentlemen Ufhers, Daily Waiters, who at prefent officiate Monthly by turns. The Superior of these is the Gentleman Ufher of the Black Rod, whofe attendance on the King is difpenfed with on account of his Parliamentary Duty, he being the Gentleman Ufher appropriated to the Houfe of Peers. He is likewite Gentleman Ufher of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER.

Thefe, eight in Number, are now a Branch of the Yeomen of the Guard, and are the loweft Order of Uthers.

"tery