The payments
will seem remarkably small, even allowing for the great difference in
the value of money then and now. What that difference may be, I am
not prepared to say; and I will venture here to put it as a "Query,"
to be answered by some competent person who may read this "Note." I
have seen it stated by more than one writer, that the difference in
the value of money at the end of Elizabeth's reign was at least five
times, i.e. that one pound then would go as far as five pounds now;
but I am not aware of the _data_ upon which the calculation was made.
I apprehend, besides, that the difference was greater in 1582, to
which what follows applies, than afterwards, and I should be glad to
have the matter cleared up. The subsequent account is indorsed in the
hand-writing of Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer, in these words:--"1582.
The payment of the Ladies of the Privy Chamber;" but it applies also
to the gentlemen.
_Wages paid to the Privy Chamber by the Year._
The Bedchamber: L s.
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