and frequently figured on the battle-field, and took their share in events
which make up the history of the country. The story of their lives, with
its lights and shades, reads like a romance; but it is outside the purpose
of our paper to linger over its romantic episodes. It may be stated that
the fourth Earl was Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire, and by direction of King
Henry VII., he had to make known to the inhabitants of his county the
reasons for a most objectionable tax for the purpose of engaging in a war
with Bretagne. This gave rise to a bitter feeling against him, the people
erroneously believing that the tax was levied at his instigation. In 1489,
a mob broke into his house at Cockledge, near Thirsk, murdering him and
several of his servants. The Earl had been a generous man, and was much
beloved, and his untimely death was deeply deplored. He was buried in
Beverley Minster, and 14,000 people attended his funeral, which was
conducted in a magnificent manner, at a cost of L1,037 6s. 8d., equalling
some L10,000 in our current coin. Skelton, the poet laureate, in an elegy,
lamented his "dolourous death." The lines commence:--
"I wayle, I wepe, I sobbe, I sigh ful sore
The dedely fate, the dolefulle destenny
Of him that is gone, alas! without restore
Of the blode royall, descending nobelly,
Whose Lordshipe doutles was slayne lamentably."
His son, the fifth Earl, who was born at Leconfield Castle in the year
1457, was a man of aesthetic tastes, and a patron of learning. He is
described as being "vain and excessively fond of pomp and display." When
the Princess Margaret journeyed to Scotland to marry the King, the Earl
escorted her through Yorkshire. According to an old account, he was "well
horst, upon a fayre courser, with a cloth to the ground of cramsyn
velvett, all borded of orfavery, his armes very riche in many places uppon
his saddle and harnys, and his sterrops gilt. With him was many noble
Knights, all arrayed in his sayd Livery of Velvett with some goldsmith's
work, great chaynes, and war wel mounted; a Herault, bearing his cotte and
other gentylmen in such wayes array'd of his said Livery, sum in Velvett,
others in Damask, Chamlett, etc., well mounted to the number of 300
Horsys." The Princess made her public entry into Edinburgh riding on a
pillion behind the King.
The Earl had three castles, and lived at them alternately, and, as he had
only sufficient furniture for one, it was removed from one house to the
other when he changed residences. Seventeen carts and one waggon were
employed to convey it.
This Percy's taste for poetry prompted him to have painted on the walls
and ceilings of his castles moral lessons in verse. The following may be
quoted as a specimen:--
"Punyshe moderatly, and discretly correct,
As well to mercy, as to justice havynge a respect;
So shall ye have meryte for the punyshment,
And cause the offender to be sory and penitent.
If ye be movede with anger or hastynes,
Pause in youre mynde and your yre repress:
Defer vengeance unto your anger asswagede be;
So shall ye mynyster justice, and do dewe equyte."
We have another proof of his love of poetry preserved in the British
Museum, in the form of a beautiful manuscript engrossed on vellum, richly
emblazoned, and superbly illuminated. It includes specimens of the best
poetry then produced, and a metrical account of the Percy family, by one
of the Earl's chaplains, named Peares. This interesting work was prepared
under his directions.
In the year 1512, he commenced the compilation of what we now call the
"Northumberland Household Book," and it contains regulations and other
details respecting his castles at Wressel and Leckonfield. From this
curious work we obtain an interesting picture of the home life of a
nobleman in Tudor times. We find that the Earl lived in state and
splendour little inferior to that of the King. The household was
conducted on the same plan as that of the reigning monarch, and the
warrants were made out in the same form and style. "As the King had his
Privy Council and great council of Parliament to assist him in enacting
statutes and regulations for the public weal," says a writer who has made
a study of this subject, "so the Earl of Northumberland had his council,
composed of his principal officers, by whose advice and assistance he
established this code of economic laws; as the King had his lords and
grooms of the bed-chamber, who waited in their respective turns, so the
Earl of Northumberland was attended by the constables and bailiffs of his
several castles, who entered into waiting in regular succession." We
further find that all the leading officers of his household were men of
gentle birth, and consisted of "controller, clerk of the kitchen,
chamberlain, treasurer, secretary, clerk of the signet, survisor, heralds,
ushers, almoner, a schoolmaster for teaching grammar, minstrels, eleven
priests, presided over by a doctor of divinity or dean of the chapel, and
a band of choristers, composed of eleven singing men and six singing
boys." The head officials sat at a table called the Knight's Board. Every
day were expected to sit down to dinner 166 officers and domestic
servants and fifty-seven visitors. The amount annually spent in
house-keeping was L1,118 17s. 8d., representing in our money about
L10,000.
The number of daily meals was four, and consisted of breakfast taken at
seven, dinner at ten, supper at four o'clock, and livery served in the
bedroom between eight and nine, before retiring to rest. The lord sat at
the head of the table in state. The oaken table, long and clumsy, stood in
the great hall, and the guests were ranged according to their station on
long, hard, and comfortless benches. The massive family silver salt cellar
was placed in the middle of the table, and persons of rank sat above it,
and those of an inferior position below it. There was a great display of
pewter dishes and wooden cups, and plenty of food and liquor was on the
table. But elegance did not prevail: forks had not been introduced, and
fingers were used to convey food to the mouth.
The allowances at the meals were most liberal. One perceives there was
much wine and beer consumed in those days. Take, for example, that at
breakfast. On flesh days it included "for my lord and lady a loaf of bread
on trenchers, two manchets (loaves of fine meal), a quart of wine, half a
chine of mutton, or a chine of beef boiled." The fare of the two elder
children, "my Lord Percy, and Mr. Thomas Percy," consisted of "half a loaf
of household bread, a manchet, one pottle of beer (two quarts!), a
chicken, or else three mutton bones boiled." It will be noticed that wine
was not served to the two young noblemen. The fare of the two little
children is thus described: "Breakfasts for the nurcery, for my lady
Margaret and Mr. Yngram Percy, a manchet, one quart of beer, three mutton
bones boiled." My ladies' gentlewomen were served with "a pottle of beer,
three mutton bones boiled, or else a piece of beef boiled." The breakfast
on fish days was as follows:--"For my lord and my lady, a loaf of bread on
trenchers, two manchets, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, two pieces of
salt-fish, six baked herrings, or a dish of sprats; for the two elder
sons, half a loaf of household bread, a manchet, a pottle of beer, a dish
of butter, a piece of salt-fish, a dish of sprats, or three white (fresh)
herrings; for the two children in the nursery, a manchet, a quart of beer,
a dish of butter, a piece of salt-fish, a dish of sprats, or three white
herrings; and for my lady's gentlewomen, a loaf of bread, a pottle of
beer, a piece of salt-fish, or three white herrings." It will be observed
that the family dined two to a plate or mess, this being the usual
practice in the Middle Ages. The other meals were quite, if not more
substantial than that of breakfast. The liveries, as we have previously
stated, were consumed in the bed-chamber just before retiring to rest, and
the Earl and Countess had placed on their table, "two manchets, a loaf of
household bread, a gallon of beer, and a quart of wine." The wine was
warmed and mixed with spices. After reading the preceding bills of fare,
we are not surprised to learn that at this period the English people were
regarded as the greatest eaters in Europe.
In the "Northumberland Household Book" is a long and interesting list of
articles and their prices, which were expected to last a year. It will not
be without interest to reproduce a few of the more important items, as
follow:--Wheat 236-1/2 quarters at 6s. 8d. The market price today is very
different. Malt, as might be expected from the quantity of beer brewed, is
a rather large total, being 249 quarters, I bushel, and the price 4s. per
quarter; hops, 656 lbs., at 13s. 4d. per 120 lbs.; fat oxen, 109, at 13s.
4d. each; lean oxen, 24, at 8s. each; to be fed in his lordship's
pastures; sheep, 787, fat and lean, at 1s. 8d. each, one with another;
porks (pigs), 25, at 2s. each; calves, 28, at 1s. 8d. each; lambs, 60, of
which 10, at 1s. each, to serve from Christmas to Shrovetide, and 50, at
10d. each, to serve from Easter to Midsummer. The list of fish is large,
and includes 160 stock-fish at 2-1/2d. each for the Lent season;
salt-fish, 1,122, at 4d. each; white herrings, 9 barrels, at 10s. the
barrel; red herrings, 10 cades (each cade containing 500), at 6s. 8d. the
cade; sprats, 5 cades (each cade containing 1,000), at 2s. the cade; salt
salmon, 200, at 6d. each; salt sturgeon, 3 firkins, at 10s. each firkin;
salt eels, 5 cags, at 4s. each. Thirty-six gallons of oil, at 11-1/2d. per
gallon, were provided for frying the fish. Salt is entered twice--bay
salt, 10 quarters, at 4s. the quarter; and white salt, 6-1/2 quarters, at
4s. the quarter; vinegar, 40 gallons, at 4d. the gallon. The quantity of
mustard, ready-made, is large, being 180 gallons, at 2-1/4d. per gallon.
In old Christmas carols there are frequent allusions to mustard. During
the Commonwealth, it was threatened to stop Christmastide festivals by Act
of Parliament, and this caused the tallow-chandlers to loudly complain,
for they could not sell their mustard on account of the diminished
consumption of brawn. In the familiar old carol, sung annually at Queen's
College, Oxford, is a line:--
"The boar's head with mustard."
In a carol sung before Prince Henry, at St. John's College, Oxford, in
1607, is a couplet:--
"Let this boar's head and mustard
Stand for pig, goose, and custard."
Under the heading of spices are enumerated:--Pepper, 50 lbs., raisons of
currants, 200 lbs., prunes, 151-1/2 lbs., ginger, 21-1/2 lbs., mace, 6
lbs., cloves, 3-1/2 lbs., sugar, 200-1/4 lbs., cinnamon, 17 lbs., 3-1/2
quarters almonds, 152 lbs., dates, 30 lbs., nutmegs, 1-1/4 lbs., grains of
Paradise, 7 lbs., turnfole, 10-1/2 lbs., saunders, 10 lbs., powder of
annes, 3-1/4 lbs., rice, 19 lbs., comfits, 19-1/2 lbs., galagals, 1/2 lb.,
long pepper, 1/2 lb., blanch powder, 2 lbs. The amount of the foregoing is
L25 19s. 7d. The list of wine embraces--Gascony wine, 10 tuns, 2
hogsheads, at L4 14s. 4d. per tun, viz., red, 3 tuns, claret, 5 tuns, and
white, 2 tuns, 2 hogsheads. There was also provided 90 gallons of
verjuice, at 3d. per gallon; this was a sour juice of unripe grapes,
apples, or crabs. A barrel and a half of honey was provided at a cost of
33s. The foregoing are the chief items of food and drink for the annual
consumption in a Tudor household.
The fuel consisted of sea coal, 80 chaldrons, charcoal, 20 quarters, and
4,140 faggots for brewing and baking. Sixty-four loads of wood had also to
be provided, for the coal could not be burnt without it. The coal must
have been poor.
The expenses provide for the players at Christmas, and they appear to have
acted 20 plays at 1s. 8d. per play. We find a bearward attended at
Christmas for making sport with his beasts, and in the "Household Book" he
is referred to amongst those receiving payments as follows:--
"Furst, my Lorde usith and accustomyth to gyff yerely the Kynge or the
Queene's _barwarde_, if they have one, when they custome to come unto
him, yerely--vj_s._ viij_d._"
"Item, my Lorde usith and accustomyth to gyfe yerly, when his
Lordshipe is at home, to his _barward_, when he comyth to my Lorde in
Christmas with his Lordshippe's beests, for makynge of his Lordship
pastyme, the said xi days--xx_s._"
At this period, bear-baiting was a popular amusement. Sunday was a great
day for the pastime. It was on the last Sunday of April, 1520, that part
of the chancel of St. Mary's Church, Beverley, fell, killing a number of
people. According to a popular tradition, a bear was being baited, and
mass was being sung at the same time, but at the latter only fifty-five
attended and all were killed, whereas at the former about a thousand were
present. Hence the origin of the Yorkshire saying, "It is better to be at
the baiting of a bear than the singing of a mass." An expert horseman was
also employed in connection with the household. He had not to be afraid of
a fence, and it was his duty to attend my Lord when hunting.
Bread and Baking in Bygone Days.
The earliest form of bread consisted of grain soaked in water, then
pressed, and afterwards dried by means of the sun or fire. Another early
kind of bread took the form of porridge or pudding, consisting of flour
mixed with water and boiled. Next came the method of kneading dough, and
the result was tough and unleavened bread.
In Saxon times women made bread, and the modern title "lady" is softened
from the Saxon _hlaf-dige_, meaning the distributor of bread. We learn
from contemporary pictures that Anglo-Saxon bread consisted of round
cakes, not unlike the Roman loaves of which we get representations in the
pictures at Pompeii, and not unlike our Good-Friday cross-buns, which we
are told come down to us from our Saxon forefathers.
In connection with monasteries were bake-houses, and the work here would
be done by the conversi or lay brothers. The holy bread in the mass was
baked in the convents and churches by the priests or monks with much
ceremony. Ovens were sometimes connected with old churches.
Some of the monks in Saxon times do not appear to have fared well. We find
it recorded that in the eighth century those at the Abbey of St. Edmund
had to partake of barley bread because the income of the house was not
sufficent to provide wheaten-bread twice or thrice daily.
Towards the close of the thirteenth century the chief bakers who supplied
London with bread lived at Stratford-le-Bow, Essex, doubtless on account
of being near Epping Forest, where they could obtain cheap firewood. At a
later period some were located at Bromley-by-Bow. The bread was brought to
London in carts, and exposed for sale in Bread Street. The bakers attended
daily excepting on Sundays and great festivals. It was no uncommon
circumstance to seize the bread on its way to town for being of light
weight, or made of unsound materials. It was not until the year 1302 that
London bakers were permitted to sell bread in shops.
A Royal Charter was granted in 1307 to the London Bakers' Company. The
charter, we are told, "empowered the company to correct offences
concerning the trade, to make laws and ordinances, to levy fines and
penalties for non-observance thereof; and within the city and suburbs, and
twelve miles round, to view, search, prove, and weigh all bread sold; and
in case of finding it unwholesome, or not of due assize, to distribute it
to the poor of the parish where it was found, and to impose fines, and
levy the same by distress and sale of offenders' goods." When reform
became the order of the day the power of the Bakers' Company passed away.
There are various old-time statutes of the assize of bread in London. The
earliest dates back to the days of Henry II. Another belongs to the reign
of Henry III.; it regulated the price of bread according to the value of
corn. A baker breaking the law was fined, and if his offence was serious
he was placed in the pillory. These statutes were extended under Edward
VI., Charles II., and Queen Anne.
In 1266 bakers were commanded not to impress their bread with the sign of
the cross, _Agnus Dei_, or the name of Jesus Christ.
The lot of the baker in bygone times was a very hard one. He could not
sell where he liked, and the price of his bread was regulated by those in
authority. Pike, in his "History of Crime in England," says, "Turn where
he might, the traveller in London in 1348 could hardly fail to light upon
some group, which would tell him the character of the people he had to
see. Here, perhaps, a baker with a loaf hung round his neck, was being
jeered, and pelted in the pillory, because he had given short weight, or
because, when men had asked him for bread, he had given them not a stone,
but a lump of iron enclosed by a crust."
At this period women were largely employed in the bakehouse. Women in
mediaeval times performed much of the rougher kind of labour. Mr. Pike
tells a tragic tale to illustrate the heartless character of bakehouse
women in bygone times:--"At Middleton, in Derbyshire, there lived a man
whose wife bore a name well known to readers of mediaeval romances, Isolda
or Isoult. As he lay one night asleep in his bed, this female Othello took
him by the neck and strangled him. As soon as he was dead, she carried the
body to an oven which adjourned their chamber, and piled up a fire to
destroy the traces of her guilt. But, though she had so far shown the
energy and power of a man, her courage seems to have failed her at the
last moment. She took to flight, and her crime was discovered."
In the olden time, it was the practice of females to deliver bread from
house to house in London. The bakers gave them thirteen articles for
twelve, and the odd article appears to have been the legitimate profit
which they were entitled to receive in return for their work. From this
old custom we obtain the baker's dozen of thirteen. Bakers were not
permitted to give credit to women retailers if they were known to be in
debt to others. It was also against the law to receive back unsold bread
if cold. The latter regulation would make the saleswomen energetic in
their labours.
In many places the ducking-stool was employed to punish offending bakers.
The old records of Beverley contain references to this subject. "During
the Middle Ages," it is stated on good authority, "scarcely any spectacle
was so pleasing to the people of Central Europe as that of the public
punishment of the cheating baker. The penalties inflicted on swindling
bakers included confiscation of property, deprivation of civil and other
rights, banishment from the town for certain periods, bodily punishment,
the pillory, and the gibbet. If a baker was found guilty of an offence
against the law, he was arrested and kept in safe custody till the gibbet
was ready for him. It was erected as nearly as possible in the middle of
the town, the beam projecting over a stagnant pool; at the end of the beam
was a pulley, over which ran a rope fastened to a basket large enough to
hold a man. The baker was forced into the basket, which was drawn up to
the beam; there he hung over the muddy pool, the butt of the jeers and
missiles of a jubilant crowd. The only way to escape was to jump into the
dirty water and run through the crowd to his home, and if he did not take
the jump willingly, he was sometimes helped out of the basket by means of
a pole. In some towns a large cage was used instead of a basket, and,
instead of taking a jump, the culprit was lowered into the filthy pool and
drawn up again several times until the town authorities thought he had had
enough." In some parts of Turkey it was, until recently, the rule to
punish a baker who did not give full weight by nailing his ear to the
doorpost. If he were out when the officers of justice arrived his son or
his servant was punished in his stead, as the authorities were very much
averse from making their men do the journey twice.
The Court Leet records of many of our old English towns include items of
interest bearing on this subject. At Manchester, at the Court Leet held
October 1, 1561, it was resolved that no person or persons be permitted to
make for sale any kind of bread in which butter is mixed, under a fine of
10s. Later, the use of suet was forbidden. In 1595, we are told that "the
Court Leet Jury of Manchester ordered that no person was to be allowed to
use butter or suet in cakes or bread; fine, 20s. No baker or other person
to be allowed to bake said cakes, &c.; fine, 20s. No person to be allowed
to sell the same; fine, 20s." Next year, on September 30, we gather from
the records that "eight officers were appointed to see that no flesh meat
was eaten on Fridays and Saturdays, and twelve for the overseeing of them
that put butter, cream, or suet in their cakes." We learn from the history
of Worcester that an order was made in 1641 that the bakers were not to
make spice bread or short cakes, "inasmuch as it enhaunced the price of
butter."
A rather curious regulation in bygone times was the one which enforced the
baker of white bread not to make brown, and the baker of brown bread not
to make white.
Very heavy fines used to be inflicted on persons selling short weight of
bread. "A baker was convicted yesterday," says the _Times_ of July 8th,
1795, "at the Public Office, Whitechapel, of making bread to the amount of
307 ounces deficient in weight, and fined a penalty of L64 7s." In the
same journal, three days later, we read, "A baker was yesterday convicted
in the penalty of L106 5s. on 420 ounces of bread, deficient in weight."
The market records, week after week, in 1795, as a rule, record an
increased price of grain, and by the middle of the year the matter had
become serious. The members of the Privy Council gave the subject careful
consideration, and strongly recommended that families should refrain from
having puddings, pies, and other articles made of flour. With the
following paragraph from the _Times_ of July 22nd, 1795, we close our
notes on bread in bygone days:--"His Majesty has given orders for the
bread used in his household to be made of meal and rye mixed. No other
sort is to be permitted to be baked, and the Royal Family eat bread of the
same quality as their servants do."
Arise, Mistress, Arise!
In the olden time in many places in the provinces it was the practice on
Christmas-day morning to permit the servants and apprentices to remain in
bed, and for the mistress to get up and attend to the household duties.
The bellman at Bewdley used to go round the town, and after ringing his
bell and saying, "Good-morning, masters, mistresses, and all, I wish you a
merry Christmas," he sang the following:
"Arise, mistress, arise,
And make your tarts and pies,
And let your maids lie still;
For if they should rise and spoil your pies,
You'd take it very ill.
Whilst you are sleeping in your bed,
I the cold wintry nights must tread
Past twelve o'clock, &c."
Bewdley was famous for its ringers and singers, and its town crier was a
man of note. An old couplet says:
"For ringers, singers, and a crier
Bewdley excelled all Worcestershire."
In Lancashire was heard the following, proclaimed in the towns and
villages:
"Get up old wives,
And bake your pies,
'Tis Christmas-day in the morning;
The bells shall ring,
The birds shall sing,
'Tis Christmas-day in the morning."
At Morley, near Leeds, a man was formerly paid for blowing a horn at 5
a.m. to make known the time for commencing, and at 8 p.m. the hour for
giving up work. His blast was heard daily except on Sundays. On
Christmas-day morning he blew his horn and sang:
"Dames arise and bake your pies,
And let your maids lie still;
For they have risen all the year,
Sore against their will."
The Turnspit.
One of the most menial positions in an ancient feudal household was that
of turnspit. A person too old or too young for more important duties
usually performed the work. John Lydgate, the monk of Bury, who was born
in 1375, and died in 1460, gives us a picture of the turnspit as
follows:--
"His mouth wel wet, his sleeves right thredbare,
A turnbroche, a boy for hagge of ware,
With louring face noddynge and slumberyng."
Says Aubrey that these servants "did lick the dripping for their pains."
In the reign of Edward III., the manor of Finchingfield was held by Sir
John Compes, by the service of turning the spit at His Majesty's
coronation. This certainly appears a humble position for a knight to fill
in "the gallant days of chivalry."
The spits or "broches" were often made of silver, and were usually carried
to the table with the fish, fowl, or joint roasted upon them.
The humble turnspit was not overlooked by the guests in the days of old,
when largess was bestowed. We gather from "Howard's Household Book" that
Lord Howard gave four old turnspits a penny each. When Mary Tudor dined at
Havering, she rewarded the turnbroches with sixteen-pence.