MEALS—BRITISH, ANGLO-ROMAN, AND SAXON.

he Britons, we learn, made their table on the ground, on which they spread the skins of wolves and dogs. The guests sat round, the food was placed before them, and each took his part. They were waited upon by the youth of both sexes. They who had not skins were contented with a little hay, which was laid under them; they ate very little bread, but much meat, boiled, or broiled upon coals, or roasted upon spits, before fires kindled as gipsies do in these days. The best living appears to have been in South Britain, where venison, oxen, sheep, and goats were eaten; and ale or mead was the common drink. The whole family attended upon the visitors, and the master and mistress went round, and did not eat anything till their guests had finished their meal.

The Romans made little use of cattle as food; and the fattening of cattle for this specific purpose was unknown to them. Neither can we find evidence that beef and mutton were eaten by the Roman people generally. Pliny mentions the use of beef, roasted, or in the shape of broth, as a medicine, but not as food. Plautus speaks of beef and mutton as sold in the markets; but, amidst the immense variety of fish, flesh, and fowl, we hear little of the above meats in the Roman larder. Fish and game, poultry, venison, and pork, are often mentioned as elements of a luxurious banquet; but undoubtedly the common food of all classes was vegetable, flavoured with lard or bacon. Among the Romans the hare was held in great estimation. Alexander Severus had a hare daily served at his table; yet Cæsar says that in his time the Britons did not eat the flesh of hare.

"The Romans, after their colonization of Britain, must have enjoyed its great supplies of fish; with them its fine oysters were celebrities. They were fattened in pits and ponds by the Romans, who obtained the finest oysters from Ruterpiæ, now Sandwich, in Kent. The Roman epicures iced their oysters before eating them; the ladies used the calcined shell as a cosmetic and depilatory. Apicius is said to have supplied Trajan with fresh oysters at all seasons of the year. The Romans, according to Pliny, made Ostrearii, or loaves of bread baked with oysters. There is one secret we may well desire to learn from the Romans; namely, the manner of preserving oysters alive in any journey, however long or distant. The possession of this secret is the more extraordinary, as it is well known that a shower of rain will kill oysters subjected to its influence, or the smallest grain of quick-lime destroy their vitality."[19] Pliny records that one gentleman, Asinius Celer, gave 8,000 nummi (between 64l. and 65l. sterling) for one mullet, such as may now be bought in good seasons in London for sixpence! How the Anglo-Roman epicure must have enjoyed the mullet from our western coast! The lamprey was also with the Romans a pet fish: it is now rare. The celebrated Roman garum must here have been made in perfection. A Roman supper is thus described by the officer of the household of Theodosius:—"For the first course there were sea-hedgehogs, raw oysters, and asparagus; for the second, a fat fowl, with another plate of oysters and shell-fish; several species of dates, fig-peckers, roebuck, and wild boar, fowls encrusted with paste, and the purple shell-fish, then esteemed so great a delicacy. The third course was composed of a wild-boar's head, of ducks, of a compôte of river-birds, of leverets, roast-fowls, Ancona-cakes, called panes picandi," which must have somewhat resembled Yorkshire pudding. The old Romans had their fancy bread as well as the moderns, as loaves baked with oysters, cakes like our rolls, and others. A sort, of nearly the same quality as our middle sort of wheaten bread, was sold, according to the calculation of antiquaries, at 3s. 2d. the peck-loaf, present money.

Before the arrival of the Romans, mead, that is, honey diluted with water, and fermented, was probably the only strong liquor known to the Britons; and it continued to be their favourite drink long after they had become acquainted with other liquors. Its manufacture was an important art; for the mead-maker was the eleventh person in dignity in the courts of the ancient princes of Wales, and took precedence of the physician.

Of Saxon living we have many details. The Saxons were noted for their hospitality. On the arrival of a stranger he was welcomed, and water was brought him to wash his hands; his feet were also washed in warm water. A curious law was enforced at this period respecting host and guest; if any one entertained a guest in his house three days, and the guest committed any crime during that period, his host was either to bring him to justice, or answer for it himself; and by another law, a guest, after two nights' residence, was considered one of the family, and his entertainer was to be responsible for all his actions.

The meal now assumed more regularity; the parties sat at large square tables, on long benches, according to rank; and by a subsequent law of Canute, a person sitting out of his proper place, was to be pelted from it with bones, at the discretion of the company, without the privilege of taking offence! The mistress of the house sat at the head of the table, upon a raised platform, beneath a canopy, and helped the provisions to the guests; whence came the modern title of lady, being softened from the Saxon lief-dien, or the server of bread. The tables were covered with fine cloths, some very costly; a cup of horn, silver, silver-gilt, or gold, was presented to each person; other vessels were of wood, inlaid with gold; dishes, bowls, and basins were of silver, gold, and brass, engraven; the benches and seats were carved and covered with embroidery; and some of the tables were of silver. All tables were square at this period; they were displaced by the old oaken table, of long boards upon tressels.

The food of the period consisted of meat and vegetables, and the tables were plentifully but plainly supplied. There were oxen, sheep, fowls, deer, goats, and hares, but hogs yielded a principal part of the provision. On this account, swine were allowed by charter to run and feed in the royal forests. All sorts of fish now taken, were eaten at the above time; herrings were preferred. The porpoise, now no longer eaten, was then preferred. Bread was made of barley; wheaten bread was a delicacy. Baking was understood, as well as cookery; and if a person ate anything half-dressed, ignorantly, he was to fast three days; and four, if he knew it. Roasted meat was a luxury; but boiling was general, and broiling and stewing were in use. Honey was used in most of the meals of this period, on which account, added to that of sugar not being brought to England until the fifteenth century, the wild honey found in the English woods became an article of importance in the forest charter. Fruit, beans, and herbs were commonly eaten; the only vegetable was kale-wort; peppered broths and soups, and a kind of bouilli, were esteemed; buttermilk or whey was used in the monasteries; and salt was employed in great quantities, both for preserving and seasoning all sorts of provisions.

In representations of Anglo-Saxon feasts, the men and women are seated apart at table; a person is cutting a piece of meat off the spit into a plate, held underneath by a servant; and cakes of bread, with oblong, square, and round dishes are on the table. Festivals were given to people on religious accounts; they kept it up the whole day on state occasions, and the feast was accompanied with music. The company sat on forms, the chief visitors seated in the middle, and the next in rank on the right and left. A dish on the table was set apart for alms for the poor; and when our Anglo-Saxon kings dined, the poor sat in the streets, expecting the broken victuals. At private parties, two persons eating out of the same dish was a peculiar mark of friendship. Forks were not invented, and our ancestors made use of their fingers; but, for the sake of cleanliness, each person was provided with a small silver ewer containing water, and two flowered napkins, of the finest linen. The dessert consisted of grapes, figs, nuts, apples, pears, and almonds.

In early baking the use of ovens was unknown; and when the lady had kneaded the dough, it was toasted either upon a warm hearth, or bake-stone, as it was called, when later it was made of some metal. In Wales, bread is, or was, lately baked upon an iron plate, called a griddle. The earliest bakers were probably the monks, since bakehouses were commonly appended to monasteries; and the host, or consecrated bread, was baked by the monks with great ceremony. In a charge to the clergy, date 994, we find:—"And we charge you that the oblation (i.e. the bread in the Eucharist), which ye offer to God in that holy mystery, be either baked by yourselves, or your servants in your presence." Bakehouses were also appended to the churches; for, on taking down some part of the church at Crickhowell, county Brecon, a small room with an oven in it was discovered, which had long been shut up. Although the monks were early bakers, they do not appear to have fared much more sumptuously than the people on bread; for the Anglo-Saxon monks of the Abbey of St. Edmund, in the eighth century, ate barley bread, because the income of the establishment would not admit of the feeding twice or thrice a day on wheaten bread.

Elecampane, now known as the sweetmeat of childhood, was esteemed for ages in the domestic herbal. The leaves are aromatic and bitter, but the root is much more so. The former were used by the Romans as pot-herbs; and appear to have been held in no mean repute in after times, from the monkish line,—"Elena campana reddit præcordia sana." When preserved, it is still eaten as a cordial by Eastern nations; and the root is used in England to flavour the small sugar-cakes, which bear its name. It is tonic and stimulant.

Of the manufacture of Ale and Beer we have a record of the fifth century, directing it to be made without hops, instead of which various bitters were used. Ale is next mentioned in the laws of Ina, King of Wessex, who ascended, the throne about the year 680. It was the favourite drink of the Saxons and Danes; and so attentive were the Saxons to its quality, that in their time it was a custom in the city of Chester to place any person who brewed bad ale in a ducking-chair, to be plunged into a pool of muddy water, or be fined 4s. In the Saxon Dialogues, in the Cotton Library, a boy, in answer to the question, what he drank, replies, "Ale, if I have it; or water, if I have it not." He adds, that wine is the drink of the elders and the wise. Ale was sold to the people at this time, in houses of entertainment; but a priest was forbidden by law to eat or drink at places where ale was sold. About the middle of the eleventh century, ale was one of the articles of a royal banquet provided for Edward the Confessor. At this time the best ale could be bought for 8d. the gallon. This was spiced, and double the price of common ale, and mead was double the price of spiced ale. One of the vessels out of which ale was drunk was the Saxon nap, now the neap, or nip, out of which we drink Burton ale. The Saxons had also cups of wood, ornamented with gold, besides the peg tankards introduced by King Edgar, to check excessive drinking. In Northamptonshire—a famous ale county—a small public-house is to this day called an ale-hus, the original Saxon hus being retained.[20]

As the monasteries were in ancient times reputed for ale, which the monks brewed for themselves with such remarkable care, so colleges, which rose upon the Dissolution, became famous for ale, and their celebrity continues to this day. Warton, poet-laureate in 1748, has left a panegyric on Oxford ale (which he dearly loved), and thus apostrophises:—

They who recollect the ale of Magdalen and Queen's will acknowledge that Oxford well maintains its character for our national drink.

The brewers were formerly women, and those who sold the ale were ale-wives, one of whom, "Eleanor Rumming, the famous ale-wife of England," is commemorated by another poet-laureate, Skelton. Of her ale-house, at Leatherhead, there are some remains, and she lives in the rude woodcut portrait (1571), with this inscription:—

"When Skelton wore the laurel crown, My ale put all the ale-wives down."

The introduction of foreign wines by the Normans did not altogether supersede the wines of our own country. The vine had been cultivated here long before. Vines are mentioned in the laws of Alfred, and Edgar makes a gift of a vineyard, with the vine-dressers. In a Saxon Calendar, preserved in the British Museum, there is a series of rude drawings representing the different operations of the rural economy of the year; that prefixed to February showing husbandmen pruning what are supposed to be vines. At the time of the Norman Conquest, new plantations appear to have been made in the village of Westminster; at Chenetone, in Middlesex; at Ware, in Hertfordshire, and other places. Of ancient wine-cellars we find some curious particulars, and drinking-glasses have been found in Roman-British barrows.

The Danes, in their visits to this country, added much to the gross hospitalities, against the consequences of which Saxon laws were enacted. They were accustomed to sing and play on the harp in turn; and to be entertained by the gleemen, ale-poets, dancers, harpers, jugglers, and tumblers, who frequented the earliest taverns, called guest-houses, ale-shops, wine-houses, &c. And it may be regarded as indicative of the reckless manners of the times, that the last of the Danish kings of England died suddenly at a marriage-feast; his death being imputed by some to poison, but, with more likelihood of truth, to his being then intoxicated.

We have now reached the period at which the Danes arrived in this country; but they so neglected the arts essential to life as to have little claim upon our respect. Their neglect of husbandry was great. The other arts were abandoned to the women, who spun wool for their clothing. Rude carving with the knife seems to have been the principal and natural talent of the Danes. Their houses were mostly erected near a spring, a wood, or an open field, at a distance from any others. The best of their dwellings were only thick, heavy pillars, united by boards, and covered with turf; though there sometimes existed a pride in having them of great extent, and with lofty towers.

In a late volume of the Gentleman's Magazine, we find this interesting page of research upon the names of provisions, which throw some light upon the mode of living among the higher and lower classes of our population. "Bread, with the common productions of the garden, such as pease, beans, eggs, and some other articles which might be produced in the cottage-garden or yard, retain their Saxon names, and evidently formed the chief nourishment of the Saxon portion of the population. Of meat, though the word is Saxon, they ate probably little; for it is one of the most curious circumstances connected with the English language, that while the living animals are called by Anglo-Saxon names, as oxen, calves, sheep, pigs, deer, the flesh of those animals when prepared for the table is called by names which are all Anglo-Norman—beef, veal, mutton, pork, venison. The butcher who killed them is himself known by an Anglo Norman name. Even fowls when killed receive the Norman name of poultry. This can only be explained by the circumstance that the Saxon population in general was only acquainted with the living animals, while their flesh was carried off to the castle and table of the Norman possessors of the land, who gave it names taken from their own language. Fresh meat, salted, was hoarded up in immense quantities in the Norman castles, and was distributed lavishly to the household and idle followers of the feudal possessors. Almost the only meat obtained by the peasantry, unless, if we believe old popular songs, by stealth, was bacon, and that also is still called by an Anglo-Norman name."