April 3

Upon this damp April morning, Sir Alwyn de Brattleby gathered the tenant farmers of the lower marches to resolve a bitterness generations in the making. The spring floods had encroached upon the parish of St. Peter’s, and the dispute over drainage rights had led to the shedding of blood near the millpond. Sir Alwyn, wearing a heavy mantle of Lincoln green, stood upon a limestone outcrop to oversee the signing of the Fen Compact. This document mandated the shared maintenance of the dykes and established the office of the Water-Bailiff, ensuring that no man could starve his neighbor by diverting the flow of the Witham.

The ceremony was nearly upended when the rival D’Eyncourt family sent a party of armed men to protest the boundary lines. However, Lady Beatrice de Brattleby, famed for her icy resolve, stepped forward with the Baronial seal, reminding the interlopers that the King’s peace was particularly fragile during the planting season. The D’Eyncourts retreated under her gaze, and by vespers, the document was bound in calfskin and locked within the chapel crypt. It remains the foundation of our local land laws, a testament to the House's role as arbiters of the sodden earth.

A Peer of the Realm must treat his lineage records with a reverence second only to the Holy Scriptures. When handling documents dating before the Tudor period, the hands must be washed in rosemary water and dried thoroughly to remove all oils. One never touches the ink directly; rather, use a pointer of polished bone or silver to track the lines of descent. This prevents the gradual erosion of the illumination and preserves the vibrancy of the lapis lazuli and vermilion pigments for the centuries to follow.

Should a visitor of equal rank request to view the Brattleby pedigree, it is the duty of the Chaplain or the Seneschal to unroll the scroll upon a velvet-covered table. The Baron himself should stand at the head of the table, narrating the deeds of his ancestors with humility but unwavering accuracy. To allow a document to curl or to expose it to the direct light of a midday sun is a sign of a decaying house. Discipline in the scriptorium reflects the order of the soul.

Prepare the fish by scaling and gutting it thoroughly, then stuffing the cavity with a mixture of hyssop, breadcrumbs, and honey. The pike must be trussed into a circle, tails biting mouths, to represent the eternal nature of the soul during the Lenten season. Roast it slowly over a fire of seasoned applewood, basting it frequently with a reduction of verjuice and saffron to lend the skin a golden, translucent sheen.

For the sauce, the lampreys are to be simmered in a copper pot with mace and cloves until they have surrendered their essence into a thick, dark liquor. This jus is strained through a fine woolen cloth and poured over the roasted pike just as it is carried into the Great Hall. The resulting dish is both pungent and sweet, a delicacy favored by the third Baron during his audiences with the Bishop of Lincoln.