Moreover its furniture was
permanent, not brought in for royal guests and then taken away. The
richness and beauty of its tapestries, state beds, decorations, and
other belongings was beyond anything in any royal palace of that time.
The duke's household included five hundred gentlemen in rich suits of
Genoese velvet, each wearing a massive gold chain passing three times
round the neck and hanging low in front; they attended the guests in
divisions, one hundred at a time.
The feasting was luxurious, and many of its choice dishes were supplied
by the estate. There were rare fruits and herbs in the gardens, and a
great variety of game-birds and animals in the park and the forest. But
there were also imported delicacies--Windsor beans, Genoa artichokes,
Barbary cucumbers and Milan parsley. The first course consisted of Medoc
oysters, followed by a light soup. The fish course included the royal
sturgeon, the dorado or sword-fish, the turbot. Then came heron, cooked
in the fashion of the day, with sugar, spice and orange-juice; olives,
capers and sour fruits; pheasants, red-legged partridges, and the
favorite roast, sucking-pig parboiled and then roasted with a stuffing
of chopped meats, herbs, raisins and damson plums. There were salads of
fruit,--such as the King's favorite of oranges, lemons and sugar with
sweet herbs,--or of herbs, such as parsley and mint with pepper,
cinnamon and vinegar.
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