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How Much Was That Again?
Jun. 4th, 2008 10:06 am From the Loseley MSS (page 96) - examples of payment to English craftsmen working on the various 'banquiting houses of Bowes' (green branch built, open air banquet halls constructed for special outdoor feasts):
In all, the cost of the Hall constructed at the Queen’s palace at Whitehall was £1745. This was a round structure, 332 feet in circumference with a canvas roof that had been painted with clouds, stars and sunbeams and then heavily decorated with foliage and various fruits (“pomegranates, oranges, pompions, cucumbers, grapes”) and gilded work which must have evoked the feeling of looking up at the sky through an enchanted forest setting. This cost was enormous in that day and age, and was spent in an effort to prepare the reception for an Ambassador of France.
I want a fantasy forest tent in my palace backyard too!
“Carpenters at one penny the hour, bricklayers ditto, labourers a halfpenny the hour, plasterers eleven pence the day, painters seven pence and six pence the day”
In all, the cost of the Hall constructed at the Queen’s palace at Whitehall was £1745. This was a round structure, 332 feet in circumference with a canvas roof that had been painted with clouds, stars and sunbeams and then heavily decorated with foliage and various fruits (“pomegranates, oranges, pompions, cucumbers, grapes”) and gilded work which must have evoked the feeling of looking up at the sky through an enchanted forest setting. This cost was enormous in that day and age, and was spent in an effort to prepare the reception for an Ambassador of France.
I want a fantasy forest tent in my palace backyard too!
