"RULE THE ROOST."
[To TEE EDITOR OF THU "SrZOTLFOlt.".1 SIR,—In last week's Spectator you use the words "rule the roost." I wonder if any of your readers can explain the origin of the phrase. It occurs in a letter of Latimer's to Ridley in the form of "rule the roast." Therefore, says
• Latimer, "there is no remedy (namely now when they have the master-bowl in their hand and rule the roast) but patience. Better it is to suffer what cruelty they will put unto us, than to incur God's high indignation" (Ridley's Works, p. 115). Milton also uses the same form in his • "Defence of the People of England." He says : "Hence our ancient and famous lawyer, Bracton, in his first book, chap. viii. : There is no King in the case,' says he, where will rules the roast, and law does not take place ' " (p. 174,
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