Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/121

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Hume, in Ms History of the Reign of James I., refers to an anecdote related in the preface to Waller's works. Hume's manner of telling this anecdote shows how little he knew of what he was writing about. Hume says: "When Waller was young, he had the curiosity to go to Court; and he stood in the circle and saw James dine; where, among other company, there sat sat at table two bishops, Neile and Andrews." The words in the work referred to are not "sat at table" but "stood behind his Majesty's chair." Hume seems to have altered the words of his authority to suit his own view of his Majesty and his Majesty's Court. I cannot say on what particular occasion a subject was first admitted to the honour of sitting at dinner with a king or queen of England, but from the day when Bishops Neile and Andrews stood behind the chair of James I. to the day when William Fitz-Osberne, Earl of Hereford, who as dapifer or steward of the royal household, had the charge of the King's table, served William I. with the flesh of a crane only half roasted, and the King became so angry that he lifted up his fist and would have struck Fitz-Osberne, had not his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent, warded off the blow, no subject, however high in rank, was