OF THE FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.
[1577, Book III., Chapter 1; 1587, Book II., Chapter 6.]
The situation of our region, lying near unto the north, doth cause the
heat of our stomachs to be of somewhat greater force: therefore our bodies
do crave a little more ample nourishment than the inhabitants of the
hotter regions are accustomed withal, whose digestive force is not
altogether so vehement, because their internal heat is not so strong as
ours, which is kept in by the coldness of the air that from time to time
(especially in winter) doth environ our bodies.
It is no marvel therefore that our tables are oftentimes more plentifully
garnished than those of other nations, and this trade hath continued with
us even since the very beginning. For, before the Romans found out and
knew the way unto our country, our predecessors fed largely upon flesh and
milk, whereof there was great abundance in this isle,[130] because they
applied their chief studies unto pasturage and feeding. After this manner
also did our Welsh Britons order themselves in their diet so long as they
lived of themselves, but after they became to be united and made equal
with the English they framed their appetites to live after our manner, so
that at this day there is very little difference between us in our diets.
In Scotland likewise they have given themselves (of late years to speak
of) unto very ample and large diet, wherein as for some respect nature
doth make them equal with us, so otherwise they far exceed us in over much
and distemperate gormandise, and so ingross their bodies that divers of
them do oft become unapt to any other purpose than to spend their times in
large tabling and belly cheer. Against this pampering of their carcasses
doth Hector Boethius in his description of the country very sharply
inveigh in the first chapter of that treatise. Henry Wardlaw also,[131]
bishop of St. Andrews, noting their vehement alteration from competent
frugality into excessive gluttony to be brought out of England with James
the First (who had been long time prisoner there under the fourth and
fifth Henries, and at his return carried divers English gentlemen into his
country with him, whom he very honourably preferred there), doth
vehemently exclaim against the same in open Parliament holden at Perth,
1433,[132] before the three estates, and so bringeth his purpose to pass
in the end, by force of his learned persuasions, that a law was presently
made there for the restraint of superfluous diet; amongst other things,
baked meats (dishes never before this man's days seen in Scotland) were
generally so provided for by virtue of this Act that it was not lawful for
any to eat of the same under the degree of a gentleman, and those only but
on high and festival days. But, alas, it was soon forgotten!
In old time these north Britons did give themselves universally to great
abstinence, and in time of wars their soldiers would often feed but once
or twice at the most in two or three days (especially if they held
themselves in secret, or could have no issue out of their bogs and
marshes, through the presence of the enemy), and in this distress they
used to eat a certain kind of confection, whereof so much as a bean would
qualify their hunger above common expectation. In woods moreover they
lived with herbs and roots, or, if these shifts served not through want of
such provision at hand, then used they to creep into the water or said
moorish plots up unto the chins, and there remain a long time, only to
qualify the heats of their stomachs by violence, which otherwise would
have wrought and been ready to oppress them for hunger and want of
sustenance. In those days likewise it was taken for a great offence over
all to eat either goose, hare, or hen, because of a certain superstitious
opinion which they had conceived of those three creatures; howbeit after
that the Romans, I say, had once found an entrance into this island it was
not long ere open shipwreck was made of this religious observation, so
that in process of time so well the north and south Britons as the Romans
gave over to make such difference in meats as they had done before.
From thenceforth also unto our days, and even in this season wherein we
live, there is no restraint of any meat either for religious sake or
public order in England, but it is lawful for every man to feed upon
whatsoever he is able to purchase, except it be upon those days whereon
eating of flesh is especially forbidden by the laws of the realm, which
order is taken only to the end our numbers of cattle may be the better
increased and that abundance of fish which the sea yieldeth more generally
received. Besides this, there is great consideration had in making this
law for the preservation of the navy and maintenance of convenient numbers
of seafaring men, both which would otherwise greatly decay if some means
were not found whereby they might be increased. But, howsoever this case
standeth, white meats, milk, butter, and cheese (which were never so dear
as in my time, and wont to be accounted of as one of the chief stays
throughout the island) are now reputed as food appertinent only to the
inferior sort, whilst such as are more wealthy do feed upon the flesh of
all kinds of cattle accustomed to be eaten, all sorts of fish taken upon
our coasts and in our fresh rivers, and such diversity of wild and tame
fowls as are either bred in our island or brought over unto us from other
countries of the main.
In number of dishes and change of meat the nobility of England (whose
cooks are for the most part musical-headed Frenchmen and strangers) do
most exceed, sith there is no day in manner that passeth over their heads
wherein they have not only beef, mutton, veal, lamb, kid, pork, cony,
capon, pig, or so many of these as the season yieldeth, but also some
portion of the red or fallow deer, beside great variety of fish and wild
fowl, and thereto sundry other delicates wherein the sweet hand of the
seafaring Portugal is not wanting: so that for a man to dine with one of
them, and to taste of every dish that standeth before him (which few used
to do, but each one feedeth upon that meat him best liketh for the time,
the beginning of every dish notwithstanding being reserved unto the
greatest personage that sitteth at the table, to whom it is drawn up still
by the waiters as order requireth, and from whom it descendeth again even
to the lower end, whereby each one may taste thereof), is rather to yield
unto a conspiracy with a great deal of meat for the speedy suppression of
natural health than the use of a necessary mean to satisfy himself with a
competent repast to sustain his body withal. But, as this large feeding is
not seen in their guests, no more is it in their own persons; for, sith
they have daily much resort unto their tables (and many times unlooked
for), and thereto retain great numbers of servants, it is very requisite
and expedient for them to be somewhat plentiful in this behalf.
The chief part likewise of their daily provision is brought in before them
(commonly in silver vessels, if they be of the degree of barons, bishops,
and upwards) and placed on their tables, whereof, when they have taken
what it pleaseth them, the rest is reserved, and afterwards sent down to
their serving men and waiters, who feed thereon in like sort with
convenient moderation, their reversion also being bestowed upon the poor
which lie ready at their gates in great numbers to receive the same. This
is spoken of the principal tables whereat the nobleman, his lady, and
guests are accustomed to sit; besides which they have a certain ordinary
allowance daily appointed for their halls, where the chief officers and
household servants (for all are not permitted by custom to wait upon their
master), and with them such inferior guests do feed as are not of calling
to associate the nobleman himself; so that, besides those aforementioned,
which are called to the principal table, there are commonly forty or three
score persons fed in those halls, to the great relief of such poor suitors
and strangers also as oft be partakers thereof and otherwise like to dine
hardly. As for drink, it is usually filled in pots, goblets, jugs, bowls
of silver, in noblemen's houses; also in fine Venice glasses of all forms;
and, for want of these elsewhere, in pots of earth of sundry colours and
moulds, whereof many are garnished with silver, or at the leastwise in
pewter, all which notwithstanding are seldom set on the table, but each
one, as necessity urgeth, calleth for a cup of such drink as him listeth
to have, so that, when he has tasted of it, he delivered the cup again to
some one of the standers by, who, making it clean by pouring out the drink
that remaineth, restoreth it to the cupboard from whence he fetched the
same. By this device (a thing brought up at the first by Mnesitheus of
Athens, in conservation of the honour of Orestes, who had not yet made
expiation for the death of his adulterous parents,[133] Ægisthus and
Clytemnestra) much idle tippling is furthermore cut off; for, if the full
pots should continually stand at the elbow or near the trencher, divers
would always be dealing with them, whereas now they drink seldom, and only
when necessity urgeth, and so avoid the note of great drinking, or often
troubling of the servitors with filling of their bowls. Nevertheless in
the noblemen's halls this order is not used, neither is any man's house
commonly under the degree of a knight or esquire of great revenues. It is
a world to see in these our days, wherein gold and silver most aboundeth,
how that our gentility, as loathing those metals (because of the
plenty)[134] do now generally choose rather the Venice glasses, both for
our wine and beer, than any of those metals or stone wherein before time
we have been accustomed to drink; but such is the nature of man generally
that it most coveteth things difficult to be attained; and such is the
estimation of this stuff that many become rich only with their new trade
unto Murana (a town near to Venice, situate on the Adriatic Sea), from
whence the very best are daily to be had, and such as for beauty do well
near match the crystal or the ancient _murrhina vasa_ whereof now no man
hath knowledge. And as this is seen in the gentility, so in the wealthy
communalty the like desire of glass is not neglected, whereby the gain
gotten by their purchase is yet much more increased to the benefit of the
merchant. The poorest also will have glass if they may; but, sith the
Venetian is somewhat too dear for them, they content themselves with such
as are made at home of fern and burned stone; but in fine all go one
way--that is, to shards at the last, so that our great expenses in
glasses (beside that they breed much strife toward such as have the charge
of them) are worst of all bestowed in mine opinion, because their pieces
do turn unto no profit. If the philosopher's stone were once found, and
one part hereof mixed with forty of molten glass, it would induce such a
metallical toughness thereunto that a fall should nothing hurt it in such
manner; yet it might peradventure bunch or batter it; nevertheless that
inconvenience were quickly to be redressed by the hammer.[135] But whither
am I slipped?
The gentlemen and merchants keep much about one rate, and each of them
contenteth himself with four, five, or six dishes, when they have but
small resort, or peradventure with one, or two, or three at the most, when
they have no strangers to accompany them at their tables. And yet their
servants have their ordinary diet assigned, beside such as is left at
their master's boards, and not appointed to be brought thither the second
time, which nevertheless is often seen, generally in venison, lamb, or
some especial dish, whereon the merchantman himself liketh to feed when it
is cold, or peradventure for sundry causes incident to the feeder is
better so than if it were warm or hot. To be short, at such times as the
merchants do make their ordinary or voluntary feasts, it is a world to see
what great provision is made of all manner of delicate meats, from every
quarter of the country, wherein, beside that they are often comparable
herein to the nobility of the land, they will seldom regard anything that
the butcher usually killeth, but reject the same as not worthy to come in
place. In such cases also jellies of all colours, mixed with a variety in
the representation of sundry flowers, herbs, trees, forms of beasts, fish,
fowls, and fruits, and thereunto marchpane wrought with no small
curiosity, tarts of divers hues, and sundry denominations, conserves of
old fruits, foreign and home-bred, suckets, codinacs, marmalades,
marchpane, sugar-bread, gingerbread, florentines, wild fowls, venison of
all sorts, and sundry outlandish confections, altogether seasoned with
sugar (which Pliny calleth _mel ex arundinibus_, a device not common nor
greatly used in old time at the table, but only in medicine, although it
grew in Arabia, India, and Sicilia), do generally bear the sway, besides
infinite devices of our own not possible for me to remember. Of the
potato, and such venerous[136] roots as are brought out of Spain,
Portugal, and the Indies to furnish up our banquets, I speak not, wherein
our mures[137] of no less force, and to be had about
Crosby-Ravenswath,[138] do now begin to have place.
But among all these, the kind of meat which is obtained with most
difficulty and costs, is commonly taken for the most delicate, and
thereupon each guest will soonest desire to feed. And as all estates do
exceed herein, I mean for strangeness and number of costly dishes, so
these forget not to use the like excess in wine, insomuch as there is no
kind to be had, neither anywhere more store of all sorts than in England,
although we have none growing with us but yearly to the proportion of
20,000 or 30,000 tun and upwards, notwithstanding the daily restraints of
the same brought over unto us, whereof at great meetings there is not some
store to be had. Neither do I mean this of small wines only, as claret,
white, red, French, etc., which amount to about fifty-six sorts, according
to the number of regions from whence they came, but also of the thirty
kinds of Italian, Grecian, Spanish, Canarian, etc., whereof vernage,
catepument, raspis, muscadell, romnie, bastard lire, osy caprie, clary,
and malmesey, are not least of all accompted of, because of their strength
and valour. For, as I have said in meat, so, the stronger the wine is, the
more it is desired, by means whereof, in old time, the best was called
_theologicum_, because it was had from the clergy and religious men, unto
whose houses many of the laity would often send for bottles filled with
the same, being sure they would neither drink nor be served of the worst,
or such as was any ways mingled or brewed by the vinterer: nay, the
merchant would have thought that his soul should have gone straightway to
the devil if he should have served them with other than the best.
Furthermore, when these have had their course which nature yieldeth,
sundry sorts of artificial stuff as ypocras and wormwood wine must in like
manner succeed in their turns, beside stale ale and strong beer, which
nevertheless bear the greatest brunt in drinking, and are of so many sorts
and ages as it pleaseth the brewer to make them.
The beer that is used at noblemen's tables in their fixed and standing
houses is commonly a year old, or peradventure of two years' tunning or
more; but this is not general. It is also brewed in March, and therefore
called March beer; but, for the household, it is usually not under a
month's age, each one coveting to have the same stale as he may, so that
it be not sour, and his bread new as is possible, so that it be not hot.
The artificer and husbandman makes greatest account of such meat as they
may soonest come by, and have it quickliest ready, except it be in London
when the companies of every trade do meet on their quarter days, at which
time they be nothing inferior to the nobility. Their food also consisteth
principally in beef, and such meat as the butcher selleth--that is to say,
mutton, veal, lamb, pork, etc., whereof he findeth great store in the
markets adjoining, beside sows, brawn, bacon, fruit, pies of fruit, fowls
of sundry sorts, cheese, butter, eggs, etc., as the other wanteth it not
at home, by his own provision which is at the best hand, and commonly
least charge. In feasting also, this latter sort, I mean the husbandmen,
do exceed after their manner, especially at bridals, purifications of
women, and such odd meetings, where it is incredible to tell what meat is
consumed and spent, each one bringing such a dish, or so many with him, as
his wife and he do consult upon, but always with this consideration, that
the lesser friend shall have the better provision. This also is commonly
seen at these banquets, that the good man of the house is not charged with
anything saving bread, drink, sauce, house-room, and fire. But the
artificers in cities and good towns do deal far otherwise; for, albeit
that some of them do suffer their jaws to go oft before their claws, and
divers of them, by making good cheer, do hinder themselves and other men,
yet the wiser sort can handle the matter well enough in these junkettings,
and therefore their frugality deserveth commendation. To conclude, both
the artificer and the husbandman are sufficiently liberal, and very
friendly at their tables; and, when they meet, they are so merry without
malice, and plain without inward Italian or French craft and subtlety,
that it would do a man good to be in company among them. Herein only are
the inferior sort somewhat to be blamed, that, being thus assembled, their
talk is now and then such as savoureth of scurrility and ribaldry, a thing
naturally incident to carters and clowns, who think themselves not to be
merry and welcome if their foolish veins in this behalf be never so little
restrained. This is moreover to be added in these meetings, that if they
happen to stumble upon a piece of venison and a cup of wine or very strong
beer or ale (which latter they commonly provide against their appointed
days), they think their cheer so great, and themselves to have fared so
well, as the Lord Mayor of London, with whom, when their bellies be full,
they will not often stick to make comparison, because that of a subject
there is no public officer of any city in Europe that may compare in port
and countenance with him during the time of his office.
I might here talk somewhat of the great silence that is used at the tables
of the honourable and wiser sort generally over all the realm (albeit that
too much deserveth no commendation, for it belongeth to guests neither to
be _muti_ nor _loquaces_), likewise of the moderate eating and drinking
that is daily seen, and finally of the regard that each one hath to keep
himself from the note of surfeiting and drunkenness (for which cause salt
meat, except beef, bacon, and pork, are not any whit esteemed, and yet
these three may not be much powdered); but, as in rehearsal thereof I
should commend the nobleman, merchant, and frugal artificer, so I could
not clear the meaner sort of husbandmen and country inhabitants of very
much babbling (except it be here and there some odd yeoman), with whom he
is thought to be the merriest that talketh of most ribaldry or the wisest
man that speaketh fastest among them, and now and then surfeiting and
drunkenness which they rather fall into for want of heed taking than
wilfully following or delighting in those errors of set mind and purpose.
It may be that divers of them living at home, with hard and pinching diet,
small drink, and some of them having scarce enough of that, are soonest
overtaken when they come into such banquets; howbeit they take it
generally as no small disgrace if they happen to be cupshotten, so that it
is a grief unto them, though now sans remedy, sith the thing is done and
past. If the friends also of the wealthier sort come to their houses from
far, they are commonly so welcome till they depart as upon the first day
of their coming; whereas in good towns and cities, as London, etc., men
oftentimes complain of little room, and, in reward of a fat capon or
plenty of beef and mutton largely bestowed upon them in the country, a cup
of wine or beer with a napkin to wipe their lips and an "You are heartily
welcome!" is thought to be a great entertainment; and therefore the old
country clerks have framed this saying in that behalf, I mean upon the
entertainment of townsmen and Londoners after the days of their abode, in
this manner:
"Primus jucundus, tollerabilis estque secundus,
Tertius est vanus, sed fetet quatriduanus."
The bread throughout the land is made of such grain as the soil yieldeth;
nevertheless the gentility commonly provide themselves sufficiently of
wheat for their own tables, whilst their household and poor neighbours in
some shires are forced to content themselves with rye, or barley, yea, and
in time of dearth, many with bread made either of beans, peas, or oats, or
of altogether and some acorns among, of which scourge the poorest do
soonest taste, sith they are least able to provide themselves of better. I
will not say that this extremity is oft so well to be seen in time of
plenty as of dearth, but, if I should, I could easily bring my trial. For,
albeit that there be much more ground eared now almost in every place than
hath been of late years, yet such a price of corn continueth in each town
and market without any just cause (except it be that landlords do get
licences to carry corn out of the land only to keep up the prices for
their own private gains and ruin of the commonwealth), that the artificer
and poor labouring man is not able to reach unto it, but is driven to
content himself with horse corn--I mean beans, peas, oats, tares, and
lentils: and therefore it is a true proverb, and never so well verified as
now, that "Hunger setteth his first foot into the horse-manger."[139] If
the world last awhile after this rate, wheat and rye will be no grain for
poor men to feed on; and some caterpillars there are that can say so much
already.
Of bread made of wheat we have sundry sorts daily brought to the table,
whereof the first and most excellent is the manchet, which we commonly
call white bread, in Latin _primarius panis_, whereof Budeus also
speaketh, in his first book _De asse_; and our good workmen deliver
commonly such proportion that of the flour of one bushel with another they
make forty cast of manchet, of which every loaf weigheth eight ounces into
the oven, and six ounces out, as I have been informed. The second is the
cheat or wheaten bread, so named because the colour thereof resembleth the
grey or yellowish wheat, being clean and well dressed, and out of this is
the coarsest of the bran (usually called gurgeons or pollard) taken. The
ravelled is a kind of cheap bread also, but it retaineth more of the
gross, and less of the pure substance of the wheat; and this, being more
slightly wrought up, is used in the halls of the nobility and gentry only,
whereas the other either is or should be baked in cities and good towns of
an appointed size (according to such price as the corn doth bear), and by
a statute provided by King John in that behalf.[140] The ravelled cheat
therefore is generally so made that out of one bushel of meal, after two
and twenty pounds of bran be sifted and taken from it (whereunto they add
the gurgeons that rise from the manchet), they make thirty cast, every
loaf weighing eighteen ounces into the oven, and sixteen ounces out; and,
beside this, they so handle the matter that to every bushel of meal they
add only two and twenty, or three and twenty, pound of water, washing also
(in some houses) their corn before it go to the mill, whereby their
manchet bread is more excellent in colour, and pleasing to the eye, than
otherwise it would be. The next sort is named brown bread, of the colour
of which we have two sorts one baked up as it cometh from the mill, so
that neither the bran nor the flour are any whit diminished; this, Celsus
called _autopirus panis_, lib. 2, and putteth it in the second place of
nourishment. The other hath little or no flour left therein at all,
howbeit he calleth it _Panem Cibarium_, and it is not only the worst and
weakest of all the other sorts, but also appointed in old time for
servants, slaves, and the inferior kind of people to feed upon. Hereunto
likewise, because it is dry and brickie in the working (for it will hardly
be made up handsomely into loaves), some add a portion of rye meal in our
time, whereby the rough dryness or dry roughness thereof is somewhat
qualified, and then it is named _miscelin_, that is, bread made of mingled
corn, albeit that divers do sow or mingle wheat and rye of set purpose at
the mill, or before it come there, and sell the same at the markets under
the aforesaid name.
In champaign countries much rye and barley bread is eaten, but especially
where wheat is scant and geson. As for the difference that is between the
summer and winter wheat, most husbandmen know it not, sith they are
neither acquainted with summer wheat nor winter barley; yet here and there
I find of both sorts, specially in the north and about Kendal, where they
call it March wheat, and also of summer rye, but in so small quantities as
that I dare not pronounce them to be greatly common among us.
Our drink, whose force and continuance is partly touched already, is made
of barley, water, and hops, sodden and mingled together, by the industry
of our brewers in a certain exact proportion. But, before our barley do
come into their hands, it sustaineth great alteration, and is converted
into malt, the making whereof I will here set down in such order as my
skill therein may extend unto (for I am scarce a good maltster), chiefly
for that foreign writers have attempted to describe the same, and the
making of our beer, wherein they have shot so far wide, as the quantity of
ground was between themselves and their mark. In the meantime bear with
me, gentle reader (I beseech thee), that lead thee from the description of
the plentiful diet of our country unto the fond report of a servile trade,
or rather from a table delicately furnished into a musty malt-house; but
such is now thy hap, wherefore I pray thee be contented.
Our malt is made all the year long in some great towns; but in
gentlemen's and yeomen's houses, who commonly make sufficient for their
own expenses only, the winter half is thought most meet for that
commodity: howbeit the malt that is made when the willow doth bud is
commonly worst of all. Nevertheless each one endeavoureth to make it of
the best barley, which is steeped in a cistern, in greater or less
quantity, by the space of three days and three nights, until it be
thoroughly soaked. This being done, the water is drained from it by little
and little, till it be quite gone. Afterward they take it out, and, laying
it upon the clean floor on a round heap, it resteth so until it be ready
to shoot at the root end, which maltsters call _combing_. When it
beginneth therefore to shoot in this manner, they say it is come, and then
forthwith they spread it abroad, first thick, and afterwards thinner and
thinner upon the said floor (as it _combeth_), and there it lieth (with
turning every day four or five times) by the space of one and twenty days
at the least, the workmen not suffering it in any wise to take any heat,
whereby the bud end should spire, that bringeth forth the blade, and by
which oversight or hurt of the stuff itself the malt would be spoiled and
turn small commodity to the brewer. When it hath gone, or been turned, so
long upon the floor, they carry it to a kiln covered with hair cloth,
where they give it gentle heats (after they have spread it there very thin
abroad) till it be dry, and in the meanwhile they turn it often, that it
may be uniformly dried. For the more it be dried (yet must it be done with
soft fire) the sweeter and better the malt is, and the longer it will
continue, whereas, if it be not dried down (as they call it), but slackly
handled, it will breed a kind of worm called a weevil, which groweth in
the flour of the corn, and in process of time will so eat out itself that
nothing shall remain of the grain but even the very rind or husk.
The best malt is tried by the hardness and colour; for, if it look fresh
with a yellow hue, and thereto will write like a piece of chalk, after you
have bitten a kernel in sunder in the midst, then you may assure yourself
that it is dried down. In some places it is dried at leisure with wood
alone or straw alone, in others with wood and straw together; but, of all,
the straw-dried is the most excellent. For the wood-dried malt when it is
brewed, beside that the drink is higher of colour, it doth hurt and annoy
the head of him that is not used thereto, because of the smoke. Such also
as use both indifferently do bark, cleave, and dry their wood in an oven,
thereby to remove all moisture that should procure the fume; and this malt
is in the second place, and, with the same likewise, that which is made
with dried furze, broom, etc.: whereas, if they also be occupied green,
they are in manner so prejudicial to the corn as is the moist wood. And
thus much of our malts, in brewing whereof some grind the same somewhat
grossly, and, in seething well the liquor that shall be put into it, they
add to every nine quarters of malt one of headcorn (which consisteth of
sundry grain, as wheat and oats ground). But what have I to do with this
matter, or rather so great a quantity, wherewith I am not acquainted?
Nevertheless, sith I have taken occasion to speak of brewing, I will
exemplify in such a proportion as I am best skilled in, because it is the
usual rate for mine own family, and once in a month practised by my wife
and her maid-servants, who proceed withal after this manner, as she hath
oft informed me.
Having therefore ground eight bushels of good malt upon our quern, where
the toll is saved, she addeth unto it half a bushel of wheat meal, and so
much of oats small ground, and so tempereth or mixeth them with the malt
that you cannot easily discern the one from the other; otherwise these
latter would clunter, fall into lumps, and thereby become unprofitable.
The first liquor (which is full eighty gallons, according to the
proportion of our furnace) she maketh boiling hot, and then poureth it
softly into the malt, where it resteth (but without stirring) until her
second liquor be almost ready to boil. This done, she letteth her mash run
till the malt be left without liquor, or at the leastwise the greatest
part of the moisture, which she perceiveth by the stay and soft issue
thereof; and by this time her second liquor in the furnace is ready to
seethe, which is put also to the malt, as the first woort also again into
the furnace, whereunto she addeth two pounds of the best English hops,
and so letteth them seethe together by the space of two hours in summer or
an hour and a half in winter, whereby it getteth an excellent colour, and
continuance without impeachment or any superfluous tartness. But, before
she putteth her first woort into the furnace, or mingleth it with the
hops, she taketh out a vessel full, of eight or nine gallons, which she
shutteth up close, and suffereth no air to come into it till it become
yellow, and this she reserveth by itself unto further use, as shall appear
hereafter, calling it _brackwoort_ or _charwoort_, and, as she saith, it
addeth also to the colour of the drink, whereby it yieldeth not unto amber
or fine gold in hue unto the eye. By this time also her second woort is
let run; and, the first being taken out of the furnace, and placed to
cool, she returneth the middle woort unto the furnace, where it is
stricken over, or from whence it is taken again, when it beginneth to
boil, and mashed the second time, whilst the third liquor is heat (for
there are three liquors), and this last put into the furnace, when the
second is mashed again. When she hath mashed also the last liquor (and set
the second to cool by the first), she letteth it run, and then seetheth it
again with a pound and a half of new hops, or peradventure two pounds, as
she seeth cause by the goodness or baseness of the hops, and, when it hath
sodden, in summer two hours, and in winter an hour and a half, she
striketh it also, and reserveth it unto mixture with the rest when time
doth serve therefore. Finally, when she setteth her drink together, she
addeth to her brackwoort or charwoort half an ounce of arras, and half a
quarter of an ounce of bayberries, finely powdered, and then, putting the
same into her woort, with a handful of wheat flour, she proceedeth in such
usual order as common brewing requireth. Some, instead of arras and bays,
add so much long pepper only, but, in her opinion and my liking, it is not
so good as the first, and hereof we make three hogsheads of good beer,
such (I mean) as is meet for poor men as I am to live withal, whose small
maintenance (for what great thing is forty pounds a year, _computatis
computandis_, able to perform?) may endure no deeper cut, the charges
whereof groweth in this manner. I value my malt at ten shillings, my wood
at four shillings (which I buy), my hops at twenty pence, the spice at
twopence, servants' wages two shillings sixpence, with meat and drink, and
the wearing of my vessel at twenty pence, so that for my twenty shillings
I have ten score gallons of beer or more, notwithstanding the loss in
seething, which some, being loth to forego, do not observe the time, and
therefore speed thereafter in their success, and worthily. The continuance
of the drink is always determined after the quantity of the hops, so that
being well _hopt_ it lasteth longer. For it feedeth upon the hop, and
holdeth out so long as the force of the same continueth, which being
extinguished, the drink must be spent, or else it dieth and becometh of no
value.
In this trade also our brewers observe very diligently the nature of the
water, which they daily occupy, and soil through which it passeth, for all
waters are not of like goodness, sith the fattest standing water is always
the best; for, although the waters that run by chalk or cledgy soils be
good, and next unto the Thames water, which is the most excellent, yet the
water that standeth in either of these is the best for us that dwell in
the country, as whereon the sun lieth longest, and fattest fish is bred.
But, of all other, the fenny and marsh is the worst, and the clearest
spring water next unto it. In this business therefore the skilful workman
doth redeem the iniquity of that element, by changing of his proportions,
which trouble in ale (sometime our only, but now taken with many for old
and sick men's drink) is never seen nor heard of. Howbeit, as the beer
well sodden in the brewing, and stale, is clear and well coloured as
muscadel or malvesey,[141] or rather yellow as the gold noble, as our
pot-knights call it, so our ale, which is not at all or very little
sodden, and without hops, is more thick, fulsome, and of no such
continuance, which are three notable things to be considered in that
liquor. But what for that? Certes I know some ale-knights so much addicted
thereunto that they will not cease from morrow until even to visit the
same, cleansing house after house, till they defile themselves, and either
fall quite under the board, or else, not daring to stir from their stools,
sit still pinking with their narrow eyes, as half sleeping, till the fume
of their adversary be digested that he may go to it afresh. Such slights
also have the ale-wives for the utterance of this drink that they will mix
it with rosen and salt; but if you heat a knife red-hot, and quench it in
the ale so near the bottom of the pot as you can put it, you shall see the
rosen come forth hanging on the knife. As for the force of salt, it is
well known by the effect, for the more the drinker tippleth, the more he
may, and so doth he carry off a dry drunken noll to bed with him, except
his luck be the better. But to my purpose.
In some places of England there is a kind of drink made of apples which
they call cider or pomage, but that of pears is called perry, and both are
ground and pressed in presses made for the nonce. Certes these two are
very common in Sussex, Kent, Worcester, and other steeds where these sorts
of fruits do abound, howbeit they are not their only drink at all times,
but referred unto the delicate sorts of drink, as metheglin is in Wales,
whereof the Welshmen make no less account (and not without cause, if it be
well handled) than the Greeks did of their ambrosia or nectar, which for
the pleasantness thereof was supposed to be such as the gods themselves
did delight in. There is a kind of swish-swash made also in Essex, and
divers other places, with honeycombs and water, which the homely country
wives, putting some pepper and a little other spice among, call mead, very
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 chalk from cheese. Truly it is nothing else but the washing
of the combs, when the honey is wrung out, and one of the best things that
I know belonging thereto is that they spend but little labour, and less
cost, in making of the same, and therefore no great loss if it were never
occupied. Hitherto of the diet of my countrymen, and somewhat more at
large peradventure than many men will like of, wherefore I think good now
to finish this tractation, and so will I, when I have added a few other
things incident unto that which goeth before, whereby the whole process of
the same shall fully be delivered, and my promise to my friend[142] in
this behalf performed.
Heretofore there hath been much more time spent in eating and drinking
than commonly is in these days; for whereas of old we had breakfasts in
the forenoon, beverages or nunchions[143] after dinner, and thereto rear
suppers generally when it was time to go to rest (a toy brought into
England by hardy Canutus, and a custom whereof Athenæus[144] also
speaketh, lib. 1, albeit Hippocrates speaks but of twice at the most, lib.
2, _De rat vict. in feb ac_). Now, these odd repasts--thanked be God!--are
very well left, and each one in manner (except here and there some young,
hungry stomach that cannot fast till dinner-time) contenteth himself with
dinner and supper only. The Normans, misliking the gormandise of Canutus,
ordained after their arrival that no table should be covered above once in
the day, which Huntingdon[145] imputeth to their avarice; but in the end,
either waxing weary of their own frugality, or suffering the cockle of old
custom to overgrow the good corn of their new constitution, they fell to
such liberty that in often-feeding they surmounted Canutus surnamed the
Hardy. For, whereas he covered his table but three or four times in the
day, these spread their cloths five or six times, and in such wise as I
before rehearsed. They brought in also the custom of long and stately
sitting at meat, whereby their feasts resembled those ancient pontifical
banquets whereof Macrobius speaketh (lib. 3, cap. 13), and Pliny (lib. 10,
cap. 10), and which for sumptuousness of fare, long sitting, and curiosity
shewed in the same, exceeded all other men's feasting; which fondness is
not yet left with us, notwithstanding that it proveth very beneficial for
the physicians, who most abound where most excess and misgovernment of our
bodies do appear, although it be a great expense of time, and worthy of
reprehension. For the nobility, gentlemen, and merchantmen, especially at
great meetings, do sit commonly till two or three of the clock at
afternoon, so that with many it is a hard matter to rise from the table to
go to evening prayer, and return from thence to come time enough to
supper.[146]
* * * * *
With us the nobility, gentry, and students do ordinarily go to dinner at
eleven before noon, and to supper at five, or between five and six at
afternoon. The merchants dine and sup seldom before twelve at noon, and
six at night, especially in London. The husbandmen dine also at high noon
as they call it, and sup at seven or eight; but out of the term in our
universities the scholars dine at ten. As for the poorest sort they
generally dine and sup when they may, so that to talk of their order of
repast it were but a needless matter. I might here take occasion also to
set down the variety used by antiquity in their beginnings of their diets,
wherein almost every nation had a several fashion, some beginning of
custom (as we do in summer time) with salads at supper, and some ending
with lettuce,[147] some making their entry[148] with eggs, and shutting up
their tables with mulberries, as we do with fruit and conceits of all
sorts. Divers (as the old Romans) began with a few crops of rue, as the
Venetians did with the fish called gobius; the Belgæs with butter, or (as
we do yet also) with butter and eggs upon fish days. But whereas we
commonly begin with the most gross food, and end with the most delicate,
the Scot, thinking much to leave the best for his menial servants, maketh
his entrance at the best, so that he is sure thereby to leave the worst.
We use also our wines by degrees, so that the hostess cometh last to the
table: but to stand upon such toys would spend much time, and turn to
small profit. Wherefore I will deal with other things more necessary for
this turn.