"Master Robinton, would you be willing to assume the responsibility of the Master of the Hall and Craft?"

Until recently, the Master of the Hall was always a Benedictine monk.

In a rejected version of his answer to Bingo's question whether it would be safe to wait one day at Crickhollow for Gandalf (FR p. 117), a passage rewritten several times, Merry refers to the gate-guards getting a message through to 'my father the Master of the Hall.'

A Master of the Hall of Healers would do exactly what Priscilla was.

When the Master and Brethren of the Hall signed an oath accepting Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy, declaring him the Head of the Church of England, in 1534, the institutions religious role ended.

He was only able to implement the new form because Master Robinton had proposed it to the Masters of the Hall before his death.

'He cannot hope to continue as Master of the Hall,' Kalion spluttered.

Thus, the Master of the Hall or Master of Buckland (the two titles are used interchangeably), hereditary head of the Brandybuck family, was the effective ruler of Buckland.

The people in the Marish were friendly with the Bucklanders, and the authority of the Master of the Hall (as the head of the Brandybuck family was called) was still acknowledged by the farmers between Stock and Rushey.

Even in the daylight they would try to keep them out, I think, at any rate until they got a message through to the Master of the Hall - for they would not like the look of the Riders, and would certainly be frightened by them.