YEOMEN of the guard were anciently two hundred and fifty men of the best rank under gentry, and of larger stature than ordinary, each being required to be six feet high.
At present there are but one hundred yeomen in constant duty, and seventy more not in duty; and as any of the hundred dies, his place is supplied out of the seventy.
They go dressed after the manner of king Henry VIII's time. They formerly had diet as well as wages when in waiting, but this was taken off in the reign of queen Anne.