At the
east end of the hall is a table where the officials sat, those for the
Brethren being ranged along the sides. Some black-leather jacks,
candlesticks, salt-cellars, pewter dishes, and a dinner bell, all dating
from Beaufort's time, are still carefully preserved. At the opposite end
of the hall is a screen with the minstrels' gallery above, whence, on
high days and holidays, the Brethren were enlivened with music during
their feastings. The chief festivals of the year were All Saints' Day,
Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Twelfth Day, and Candlemas Day, on which
occasions the Brethren had "extraordinary commons, and on the eve of
which days they had a fire of charcoal in the Common Hall, and one jack
of six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary, to drink together by
the fire. And on the said feast-day they had a fire at dinner, and
another at supper in the said hall, and they had a sirloin of beef
roasted, weighing forty-six pounds and a half, and three large
mince-pies, and plum broth, and three joints of mutton for their supper,
and six quarts and one pint of beer extraordinary at dinner, and six
quarts and one pint of beer after dinner, by the fireside; six quarts
and a pint at supper, and the like after supper.
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