Bannatyne Club > Excerpta e libris domicilii Jacobi Quinti regis Scotorum, MDXXV-MDXXXIII [1525-1533]

VII
Ten of these are preserved in tlie General Register House at
Edinburgh. The earliest of the series, embracing part of the
years 1525-6, is in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates,
and the volume recording the expenses of the year 1538-9, is in
the possession of the Earl of Aberdeen, and has been the subject
of some observations l)y Sir Henry Elhs, pubhshed in the 22d
volume of the Archaeologia.
It has long been considered by those conversant with the
records and antiquities of Scotland, that much curious informa-
tion might be afForded by publishing this series of accounts ; but
the great sameness of detail which Sir Henry EUis remarks,
and -which runs through the whole record, has suggested this
attempt to give in a condensed shape, and without the endless
repetitions of the original, somewhat of its historical informa-
tion, with whatever is curious or important as inustrating- the
manners of the period.
The following sheets consist of extracts from the first four
volumes of the Record. In making the selection, those accounts
have been preferred which served to convey historical informa-
tion, by pointing out the movements of the Court or otherwise,
or which exhibited the greatest variety of articles of domestic
use, and shewed their prices. In the body of the work, each
extract consists of the expenditure of at least a whole da}'^,
and occasionally perhaps too much detail is allowed, with a view
to inchide the whole expenses of some Court Festival. Where
insulated entries occurred of some interest, or such as served
to mark only the movements of the King or the Court, they
have been placed in the Appendix.