This sentence is probably derived from the following passage in Chamberlayne’s book, but in the French version it has suffered some alteration in the process of transition:-“The magnificent and abundant plenty of the king’s tables bath caused amazement in foreigners; when they have been informed that in King Charles I’s reign, before the troubles when his Majesty had the purveyance, there were daily in his court eighty-six tables well furnished each meal, whereof the king’s table had twenty-eight dishes, the queen’s twenty-four; four other tables, sixteen dishes each; three other, ten dishes each; twelve other had seven dishes each; seventeen other tables had each of them five dishes; three other had four each; thirty-two other tables had each three dishes; and thirteen other had each two dishes;-in all about five hundred dishes each meal, with bread, beer, wine, and all other things necessary. All which was provided most by the several purveyors, who, by summons legally and regularly authorised, did receive those provisions at a moderate price such as had been formally agreed upon in the several counties of England.”

The next sentence has been allowed to stand as in the original, but it is probably based on the following from Chamberlayne:-“The king’s court or house where the king resideth, is accounted a place so sacred that if any man presume to strike another within the palace where the king’s royal person resideth, and by such stroke only draw blood, his right hand shall be stricken off, and he committed to perpetual imprisonment and fined.”-TRANSLATOR.