A numerous train of yeomen, called in the language of the times
retainers, who yearly received a livery coat and a small pension for
their attendance on such solemn occasions, appeared in cassocks of blue,
bearing upon their arms the cognizance of the house of Boteler as a badge
of their adherence. They were the tallest men of their hands that the
neighbouring villages could supply, with every man his good buckler on
his shoulder, and a bright burnished broadsword dangling from his
leathern belt. On this occasion they acted as rangers for beating up the
thickets and rousing the game. These attendants filled up the court of
the castle, spacious as it was. On the green without, you might have seen
the motley assemblage of peasantry convened by report of the splendid
hunting, including most of our old acquaintances from Tewin, as well as
the jolly partakers of good cheer at Hob Filcher's. Gregory the jester,
it may well be guessed, had no great mind to exhibit himself in public
after his recent disaster; but Oswald the steward, a great formalist in
whatever concerned the public exhibition of his master's household state,
had positively enjoined his attendance.
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