FOOD AND DRINK
The manner and times of taking food under the Tudors may be summed up
as follows:—
For breakfast, those who made a meal before dinner at all, took,
in the country, pottage, and, in town, “muskadel and eggs,” or
bread-and-butter with a draught of small ale. The Princess Mary, in
1533, used to eat so much meat for breakfast that she terrified her
physicians. It does not appear, however, that the workpeople took
anything at all unless it were a draught of small ale before their
dinner at ten. The hour of dinner varied during the century from ten
till twelve. For children there was “nuntion” or luncheon before dinner
and a “bever” or slight repast between dinner and supper. Venner
recommends no breakfast at all, but to wait for dinner. If, however,
one cannot wait, then he advises poached eggs, with salt, pepper,
a little vinegar, bread-and-butter and claret. When Cosmo, Duke of
Tuscany, came to the country he visited Colonel John Nevill, and had
breakfast with him, drinking Italian wine.
The dinners were plentiful and varied. A salad was served first, then
the beef and mutton; next fowls, and fish; game followed, woodcock
being the most plentiful; and pastry and sweets came last. Honey was
poured over the meat. The most important part of the meal, however, was
the “banquet” or dessert which followed: at this part of the dinner an
amazing quantity of sweetmeats was taken; for this every one adjourned
to another room in winter; to the garden in summer.
In the winter fresh meat was not always to be had: most people laid in
large quantities of beef in October and November, which they salted.
The markets, however, made up for the absence of fresh meat by the
abundance of all kinds of birds which were brought into London; they
were trapped, or shot with sling and stone, in the marshes along the
lower reaches of the Thames. Pork could be had all the year round.
Fresh fish was generally plentiful, but it was sometimes dear. At such
times the people fell back upon stockfish, which was often bad and
the cause of much disease. Herrings were brought by sea from Yarmouth
in barrels, and partly salted, as they are at this day. They were a
favourite form of food, and were made into pasties highly spiced.
The food of the sixteenth century was more stimulating than our own:
the only drink was fermented and alcoholic, even the small beer which
was the national beverage; there was no tea or coffee; vast quantities
of wine were taken; there were nearly a hundred different kinds, more
than half being French. Wine of Bordeaux was sold at 8d. the gallon;
Spanish wine at 1s. In drinking sack, the cup was half filled with
sugar. Indeed, sugar or honey was taken with everything: with roast
meat, with wine, and in the form of sweetmeats; so that the teeth of
most people were black in consequence.
A diet so stimulating could not fail to produce its effects in causing
the people to be more easily moved to wrath, to love, to pity, to
jealousy—than a diet composed of tea and coffee. There can be no doubt
whatever that all classes of men and women were far readier with hand
and tongue than at present; swifter to wrath; more prone to sudden
outbursts; more quick with dagger or sword.
Their tables were set out on trestles for the dinner and removed after
dinner. People sat on stools; the floor was strewn with rushes; the
tables, not the floors, were covered with rich carpets.
A piece of the table furniture which has long since disappeared was
the Roundel. It is supposed to have been used for fruit. A set of
Roundels, not quite perfect, is described in _Archæologia_ (vol.
xxxix.). They are circular and of wood, the upper side perfectly plain;
the lower side is partly covered with black paint or dye and partly
white. A legend, in rhyme, runs round the outer edge, and within is a
figure with a number. The figure and letters are gilt. In this example
nine trenchers out of the twelve represent the Courtier, the Country
gentleman, the Lawyer, and so forth—characters of the time, the verses
being taken from a book called _The XII. Wonders of the World_.
It is pleasing to learn from Harrison of the reform introduced in his
own time by the revival of the custom of taking vegetables of all kinds
and plentifully. He says:—
“Such herbes, fruits, and roots also as grow yeerlie out of the ground,
of seed, have been verie plentifull in this land, in the time of the
first Edward, and after his daies; but in processe of time they grew
also to be neglected, so that from Henrie the fourth till the latter
end of Henrie the seventh, and beginning of Henrie the eight, there was
little or no use of them in England, but they remained either unknowne,
or supposed as food more meet for hogs and savage beasts to feed upon
than mankind. Whereas in my time their use is not onlie resumed among
the poore commons, I mean of melons, pompions, gourds, cucumbers,
radishes, skirets, parsneps, carrets, cabbages, nauewes, turneps, and
all kinds of salad herbs, but also fed upon as deintie dishes at the
tables of delicate merchants, gentlemen, and the nobilitie, who make
their provision yearlie for new seeds out of strange countries, from
whence they have them aboundantlie.” (Holinshed’s _Chronicles_.)
The Flemings commenced the first market-gardens. Lettuce was served as
a separate dish, and eaten at supper before meat. Capers were usually
eaten boiled with oil and vinegar, as a salad. Eschalots were used to
smear the plate before putting meat on it. Carrots had been introduced
by the Flemings. Rhubarb, then called Patience, came from China about
1573. The common people ate turnip-leaves as a salad, and roasted the
root in wood-ashes. Watercress was believed to restore the bloom to
young ladies’ cheeks.
They used mustard and horse-radish; they took anchovies with wine;
they took olives with wine; they had boiled oysters; boiled radishes,
artichokes raw or boiled; they poured honey or spread sugar over their
beef and mutton; they served pork in many ways, but if roasted, then
with green sauce of sorrel; salmon they stuck with cloves; they ate
porpoises; turkeys were roasted with cloves; peacocks they roasted
while they were still under a year old; pigeons they stuffed with sour
grapes or unripe gooseberries; rabbits were cheap and plentiful; pies
of all kinds were very popular. They made salad out of barberries in
pickle or with lettuces as in modern fashion. In the ordinaries and
taverns there were no wine-glasses: people drank out of green pots made
of white clay. They took supper at six; this was a smaller meal than
dinner, but yet a plentiful meal. In a word, the Elizabethan Englishman
lived much as the modern Frenchman lives: he took two meals a day and
no more. In the principal ordinaries and inns musicians attended; even
in the cheaper ones a viol de gamba was kept for everybody who could
play; men dined for choice at the ordinary, which was a great deal
cheaper than the tavern; it was not customary for the ladies to appear
at taverns. An inn was known by its painted lattice; all kinds of
wine could be had at most taverns, but foreign wines were sold to the
general public by apothecaries. Waiters wore aprons. In private houses,
but not at ordinaries and taverns, the silver fork had been introduced.
“The laudable use of forks,
Brought into custom here, as they are in Italy,
To th’ sparing o’ napkins.”
And in Ben Jonson’s _Volpone_,
“Then must you learn the use
And handling of your silver fork at meals.”
I have found inventories of household goods as late as the end of
the seventeenth century without any mention of forks. I am inclined,
therefore, to believe that they came into use very slowly, and that
the old fashion of eating with a knife, fingers, and bread, lasted in
country houses at least until the end of the seventeenth century. It
is a survival of the old manner of eating which makes the lower class
“eat with their knives.” Let me add that in my own recollection the
practice has almost entirely disappeared. Forty years ago one could not
take dinner at a tavern or an eating-house without seeing some of the
company helping themselves with their knives.
[Illustration: Tittle-Tattle; Or, the several Branches of Gossipping.
From a satirical print in the British Museum.]
Here is the bill of a dinner given to the Lord Treasurer, the
Chancellor, the Lord Chief Baron, and others not named, on 4th June
1573:—
_s._ _d._
Imprimis Bread, ale, and beer 13 4
Item Two sorloines of beef 10 0
„ Four gees 7 0
„ Four joyntes of veale 6 8
„ Six capons 13 8
„ Three quarters of lambe 4 0
„ A dozen of chickens 5 0
„ A dozen of rabbites 4 8
„ Half a dozen quayles 6 8
„ For butter 4 0
„ For eggs 1 0
„ For vinegar, vergis barberius and mustard 1 0
„ For spices 1 0
„ For fruite 6 0
„ For rose water and swete water 0 8
„ For scrill and parsley 0 6
„ For White Wine 1 4
„ For flowers and strong herbes 0 6
„ For sacke 1 0
„ For fier 5 0
„ For cook’s wages 6 0
„ For boote hier 1 4
„ For occupying plate, naperie and other necessaries 5 0
Unfortunately these bills never contain the whole. It is of course
impossible to believe that one shilling and fourpence represents the
whole of the wine consumed on this occasion.
Ben Jonson thus ridicules the care and thought expended upon feasting:—
“A master-cook! why, he’s the man of men
For a professor! he designs, he draws,
He paints, he carves, he builds, he fortifies,
Makes citadels of curious fowl and fish,
Some he dry-dishes, some moats round with broths:
Mounts marrow-bones, cuts fifty-angled custards,
Rears bulwark pies, and for his outer works
He raiseth ramparts of immortal crust;
And teacheth all the tactics at one dinner:
What ranks, what files, to put his dishes in:
The whole art military. Then he knows
The influence of the stars upon his meats,
And all their seasons, tempers, qualities,
And so to fit his relishes and sauces.
He had nature in a pot, ’bove all the chymists,
Or airy brethren of the Rosie-cross.
He is an architect, an engineer,
A soldier, a physician, a philosopher,
A general mathematician.”
And again in his dream of luxurious living:—
“We will be brave, Puff, now we have the med’cine.
My meat shall all come in, in Indian shells,
Dishes of agate set in gold, and studded
With emeralds, sapphires, hyacinths, and rubies.
The tongues of carps, dormice, and camels’ heels,
Boil’d in the spirit of sol, and dissolv’d pearl,
Apicius’ diet, ’gainst the epilepsy;
And I will eat these broths with spoons of amber,
Headed with diamond and carbuncle.
My foot-boy shall eat pheasants, calver’d salmons,
Knots, godwits, lampreys: I myself will have
The beards of barbels served instead of salads.”
_The Alchemist._
And this for a more sober supper, yet not without its points of
excellence:—
“Yet shall you have to rectify your palate,
An olive, capers, or some better salad
Ushering the mutton; with a short legg’d hen,
If we can get her full of eggs, and then,
Limons, and wine for sauce; to these, a coney
Is not to be despar’d of for our money;
And though fowl now be scarce, yet there are clerks,
The sky not falling, think we may have larks,
I’ll tell you of more, and lie, so you will come:
Of partridge, pheasant, woodcock, of which some
May yet be there; and godwit if we can:
Knat, rail, and ruf too, howsoe’er, my man
Shall read a piece of Virgil, Tacitus,
Livy, or of some better book to us,
Of which we’ll speak our minds, amidst our meat;
And I’ll profess no verses to repeat.
To this, if aught appear, which I not know of,
That will the pastry, not my paper, show of.
Digestive cheese, and fruit there sure will be;
But that which most doth take my muse and me,
Is a pure cup of rich Canary wine,
Which is the Mermaid’s now, but shall be mine:
Of which had Horace or Anacreon tasted,
Their lives, as do their lines, till now had lasted.
Tobacco, nectar, or the Thespian spring,
Are all but Luther’s beer to this I sing.”
The greatest attention was paid to the service of the table: not only,
for instance, must the carving be performed in manner peculiar to each
kind of creature, but each creature had its own verb signifying its
carving. The terms used for carving are curious and now completely
forgotten:—
“Breke that deer; lesche that brawn; rere that goose; lyfte that
swanne; sauce that capon; spoil that hen; fruche that chekyn; unbrace
that mallard; unlace that conye; desmembre that heron; display that
crane; dysfygure that pecocke; unjoint that byterrne; untache that
curlewe; allay that desande; wynge that patryche; wynge that quail;
mynce that plover; thye that pygyon; border that pastie; thye that
woodcocke; thye all maner of small birds; tymbre that fyre; tyere that
egge; chyne that samon; strynge that lampreye; splatte that pyke; sauce
that plaice; sauce that tench; splay that breme; syde that haddock;
tuske that berbell; culpon that trout; fyne that cheven; transene that
ele; traunche that sturgeon; under-traunch that porpus; tayme that
crabbe; barbe that lobster. Here endeth the goodlye termes of kervynge.”
The way in which the table was to be served was presented, in general
terms, as follows:—
“Slow be the servers in serving, alwaye,
But swift be they after, taking meate away;
A special custom used is them amonge,
No good dishe to suffer on borde to be longe.
If the dishe be pleasante, whether fleshe or fishe,
Ten hande at once swarme in the dishe;
And if it be fleshe, ten knives shalt thou see
Mangling the fleshe, and in the platter flee;
Put there thy hands in peryl without fayle
Without a gauntlet or a glove of mayle.”
_Antiquary’s Portfolio_, p. 130.
And next in minute detail. Thus including the reception of a guest. Let
us first remember that the plates were commonly of bread, but sometimes
of wood. When they were of bread, the loaves were first carefully
pared; then the butler placed the salt-cellar before the principal
guest, and in front of the salt-cellar, upon the carving knives, he
was to place the bread. But before Grace this was to be removed, and
replaced in thick slices one upon the other.
“Thenne the karver or sewer most asserve every disshe in his degree
after order, and course of service, as folowith:—
First, mustard and brawne, swete wine served thereto.
Potage.
Befe and moton, swan or geese.
Grete pies, capon or fesaunt, leche or fretours.
Thenne if potage be chaungebill after tyme and season of the yere,
as falleth, as here is rehersid: by exampel for befe and moton ye
shall take
Pestelles, or chynys of porke, or els
Tonge of befe, or
Tonge of the harte powdered,
Befe stewed,
Chekyns boylyd and bacon.
Then against the secunde cours be redy, and come into the place,
the kerver must avoyde and take upp the service of the first cours,
begynnynge at the lowest mete forst, and all broke cromys, bonys,
and trenchours, before the secunde cours and service be served.
Thenne the secunde cours shall be served in manner and forme as
ensample thereof, hereafter folowyng:—
Potage-pigge Lamme stewed
Conye Kidde roosted
Crane Veneson roosted
Heronseue Heronseue
Bitoure Bitoure
Egrete Pigeons
Curlewe Rabetts
Wodecock A bake meat
Petrigge Stokke dovys stewed
Plover Cony
Snytys Mallard
Qualys Gelys
Fretours Wodecock
Leche Great byrdys
After the secunde cours served, kerved, and spente, it must be
sene cuppys to be filled, trenchours to be voyded, thenne by goode
avysement the tabill must be take uppe in manner as folowith:
first, when tyme foloweth, the panter or boteler muste gader
uppe the sponys: after that done by leyser, the sewer or carver
shall begyne at the lowest ende, and in order take upp the lowest
messe, after the syde tabill be avoyded and take upp: and thenne
to procede to the principal tabill, and there honestly and clenly
avoyde and withdrawe all the service of the high tabill: therto the
kerver must be redy, and redely have avoyded togeder in all the
broke brede, trenchours, comys lying upon the tabill, levyng none
other thyng, save the salte selar, hole brede (if any be lefte),
and cuppys. After this done by good deliberacion and avysement,
the kerver shall take the service of the principall messe in
order and rule, begynnynge at the lowest and so procede in rule
unto the laste. And thereuppon the kerver to have redy a voyder,
and to avoyde all men’s trenchours, broke brede in another clene
disshe voyder, and cromys, which with the kervyng knyf shall be
avoyded from the tabill, and thus procede untill the table be
voyded. Thenne the kerver shall go into the cuppibord, and redresse
and ordeyne wafers into toweyles of raynes (table-cloth) or fine
napkyns, which moste be cowched fayre and honestly uppon the
tabill, and thenne serve the principall messe first, and thorowe
the tabill, i or ij if it so require. Therto moste be servid swete
wine: and in feriall tyme, serve cheese, scraped with sugar and
sauge levis, or else that it be fayre kerved hole: or frute as the
season of the year geveth, strawberys, chevys, peyres, appelis: and
in wynter, wardens, costardys roste, rosted on fisshe days with
blanche powder, and so serve it forth.
Thenne after wafers and frute spended, all manner of thynge shall
be take uppe, and avoyded, except the principall salte seler,
hole brede, and kervyng knyves, the which shall be redressed in
manner and fourme as they were first sette on the table: the which
principall servitours of the panter or botery, havynge his towaile,
shall take upp and bear it into his office, in lykewise as he first
brought it unto the tabill. Thenne the principall servitours, as
kerver and sewer, most have redy a longe towayle applied double
to be cowched uppon the principall ende of the tabill: and that
towelle must be justely drawn thorowe the tabill unto the lower
ende: and if servitours to awayte thereuppon, that it be mustly
cowchd and spred: after that done, there must be ordeyned basyns
and ewers, with water hot or colde as tyme of the yere requireth,
and to be sette upon the tabill, and to stonde unto the grace be
said: and incontynent after grace saide, the servitours to be redy
to awayte and attende to give water: first, to the principall
messe, and after that to the seconde: incontynent after this done,
the towayle and tabillclothis muste be drawen, cowched and sprad,
and so by littill space taken uppe in the myddis of the tabill, and
so to be delyvered to the office of the pantery or botery.
Thenne uprysing, servitours must attende to avoyde tabills,
trestellis, formys, and stoolys, and to redresse bankers and
quyssyons: then the butler shall avoyde the cupborde, begynnynge at
the loweste, procede in rule to the hyeste, and bere it into his
office. Thenne after mete, it most be awayted and well entended by
servitours, if drinke be asked: and if ther be knyght or lady, or
grete gentilwoman, they shall be servid upon knee with brede and
wyne.
Thenne it mot be sene if strangers shall be broght to chamber,
and that the chamber be clenly apparelled and dressed accordyng
to the tyme of yere: as in winter tyme fyre: in sommer tyme the
bedde covered with pylowes and bed shetys, in case they wolle
rest: and after this done, they moste have cheer of _neweltees_
in the chamber, as juncates, cherys, pepyns, and such neweltees
as the tyme of yere requereth, and swete wynes, Ypocrasse, Tyre,
Mustadell, bastard beruage, of the beste that may be had to the
honour and laude of the principall of the house.”
After the dinner was eaten what remained was taken down for the
servants, and whatever was left over when these had finished was
bestowed upon the poor who sat outside the doors waiting their turn.
The drink was served in silver cups and bowls, or else in goblets of
Venetian glass from Murano; the poorer sort had pots of earthenware
bound or set in silver and perhaps pewter. As a rule not more than two
or three dishes were served at a gentleman’s table where there was no
company. This, however, was not the case when a feast was provided,
or by the merchants for themselves. Then such meat as is killed and
provided by the butcher was rejected as not worthy of the occasion.
“In such cases also geliffes of all colours mixed with a varietie
in the representation of sundrie floures, herbs, trees, formes of
beasts, fish, foules, and fruits, and thereunto marchpaine wrought
with no small curiositie, tarts of diverse hewes and sundrie
denominations, conserves of old fruites forren and home bred,
suckets, codinacs, marmilats, marchpaine, sugerbread, gingerbread,
florentines, wild foule, venison of all sorts, and sundrie
outlandish confections, altogither seasoned with suger (which
Plinie calleth Mel ex arundinibus, a devise not common nor greatlie
used in old time at the table, but onlie in medicine, although
it grew in Arabia, India and Sicilia), doo generally beare the
swaie, besides infinite devises of our owne not possible for me to
remember.” (Holinshed, vol. i. p. 167.)
Every kind of wine was served at these banquets, _e.g._ the fifty-six
various kinds of “small wines” as Claret, White, Red, French, etc.;
but also of the thirty kinds of Italian, German, Spanish, Canary, etc.
And besides these here were the artificial drinks such as Hypocras and
Wormwood wine, besides ale and beer.
The craftsman lived in great plenty: his diet was commonly beef,
mutton, veal and pork; besides which he had brawn, bacon, pies of
fruit, fowls, cheese, butter and eggs. At weddings, purifications,
and so forth, the friends contributed each a dish of some kind, and
the feasting that went on was incredible. At table the custom among
the gentry and better sort was to observe great silence during the
dinner, and on no account to show any sign of being the worse for the
wine they had taken. Enough grain was grown in the country to supply
it with bread; a good deal of bread was made of oats and rye; in times
of dearth beans, peas, and lentils were ground up. Of home-made drinks
besides ale and beer there were cider, perry, and, especially among the
Welsh, mead or metheglin.
“There is a kind of swish swash made also in Essex, and diverse
other places, with honicombs and water, which the homelie countrie
wives, putting some pepper and a little other spice among, call
mead, verie good in mine opinion for such as love to be loose
bodied at large, or a little eased of the cough, otherwise it
differeth so much from the true metheglin, as chalke from cheese.
Truelie it is nothing else but the washing of the combes, when
the honie is wroong out, and one of the best things that I know
belonging thereto is, that they spend but little labour and lesse
cost in making of the same, and therefore no great losse if it were
never occupied.” (Holinshed, vol. i. p. 170.)
An oyster feast in the morning seems unusual and unexpected in a
town of working men. We may read, however, how, on 30th July 1557,
a company of citizens met in the cellar of Master Smyth and Master
Gytton in Amber Lane, at eight o’clock in the morning. They devoured
between them half a bushel of oysters, sitting upon hogsheads by
candlelight; the oysters were accompanied by onions—was there no bread,
or bread-and-butter? Only onions? And they drank with their oysters
and onions copious bowls of red ale, claret, muscadel, and malmsey.
It hardly seems a good beginning of the day so far as concerns work.
In these degenerate days a repast of oysters and onions, with ale and
muscadel, claret and malmsey, would prove a fatal feast indeed.
[Illustration:
_Walker & Cockerell._
MARRIAGE FEAST OF SIR H. UNTON
A detail from a painting in the National Portrait Gallery, London.]
Here is a note on an Elizabethan ordinary:—
“It seemed that all who came thither had clocks in their bellies,
for they all strucke into the dyning-roome much at aboute the
very minute of feeding. Our traveller had all the eyes (that
came in) throwne upon him (as being a stranger), and he as much
tooke especiall notice of them. In obseruing of whom and of the
place, he found that an ordinary was the onely Rendeuouz for the
most ingenious, most terse, most trauaild and most phantastick
gallant: the very Exchange for newes out of all countries; the
only booke-sellers’ shop for conference of the best editions,
that if a woman (to be a Lady) would cast away herselfe upon a
knight, there a man should heare a catalogue of most of the richest
London widowes; and last that it was a schoole where they were all
fellowes of one forme, and that a country gentleman was of as great
comming as the proudest justice that sat there on the bench aboue
him; for hee that had the graine of the table with his bencher payd
no more then he that placed himselfe beneath the salt.
The bolder hauing cleered the table, cardes and dice are served
up to the boord; they that are full of coyne draw; they that haue
little stand by and give ayme; the shuffle and cut on one side,
the bones rattle on the other; long have they not plaide, but
oathes fly up and downe the roome like haile-shot; if the poore
dumb dice be but a little out of the square line of white, the
pox and a thousand plagues breake their neckes out at a window.”
(_Antiquary_, vol. xv.)
The following is contemporary evidence. It is taken from the
_Antiquarian Repertory_ (vol. iv. p. 512), 1558:—
“The people of London consume great quantities of beer, double and
single [strong and small], and do not drink it out of glasses, but
from earthen pots with silver handles and covers, and this even in
houses of persons of middling fortunes; for as to the poor, the
covers of their pots are only pewter, and in some places, such as
villages, their pots for beer are made only of wood.
They eat much whiter bread than that commonly made in France,
altho’ it was in my time as cheap as it is sold there. With their
beer they have a custom of eating very soft saffron cakes, in which
there are likewise raisins, which give a relish to the beer, of
which there was formerly at Rye some as good as I ever drank. The
houses of the people of this country are as well furnished as any
in the world. Likewise, in this country you will scarcely find any
nobleman, some of whose relations have not been beheaded.”
A few more notes on food. They drank brewis, that is, the pot liquor
with bread in it; they were fond of pigs’ faces washed and dressed
by the housewife; they bought tripe in Eastcheap, and poultry in
Gracechurch Street; they drank wines with strange names: Pedro Ximenes,
Charnico, Eleatica. The clerks took their dinner at the cooks’ shops
by messes of so many; the portion of the whole mess was served in a
dish and one divided the food, after which they helped themselves by
seniority; a yeoman’s fare was bread, beef, and beer. The poor man was
served from the basket which stood in the hall and received broken
meats. The Sheriffs sent such baskets and other food to the prisons.
The citizens’ proverbial Sunday dinner was neck of beef.