Note 19 — Chapter II · BIRTH AND EDUCATION

Sir Thomas Carden’s account for sums disbursed for the household expenses of Anne of Cleves in 1552 gives us a curious insight into the manner and expense of lighting a gentlewoman’s house in the middle of the sixteenth century. Anne was residing at a manor at Dartford, and Sir Thomas supplied her with “35 lb. of wax lights, sixes and fours to the lb. at 1s. per lb.; 100 prickets [or candles to be stuck on an iron spike] at 6d. per lb.; staff torches 1s. 4d. per doz., and of white lights, 18 doz. at 9s. per doz.”—Losely MSS, edited by A. J. Kempe.