plovers, and larks There were wines ; but
the writer only particularises them as white
and red. The haunch of venison was then
an ordinary dish, as well as kid. They seem
to have sometimes roasted and sometimes
boiled them. Not only the pheasant and
partridge appear, but the quail, — which is at
present scarcer in this country, though so
plentiful abroad, — the duck, and the mallard.
In connection with venison, it is worth
while to draw attention to a passage in the
“ Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII.,”
where, under date of August 8, 1505, a
woman receives 3s. 4 d. for clarifying deer
suet for the King. This was not for culinary
but for medicinal purposes, as it was then,
and much later, employed as an ointment.
Both William I. and his son the Red King
maintained, as Warner shews us, a splendid
table ; and we have particulars of the princely
scale on which an Abbot of Canterbury
celebrated his installation in 1309. The
archbishops of those times, if they exercised
inordinate authority, at any rate dispensed
in a magnificent manner among the poor
Royal Feasts and Savage Pomp. 45,
and infirm a large portion of their revenues.
They stood in the place of corporations and
Poor Law Guardians. Their very vices
were not without a certain fascinating gran-
deur ; and the pleasures of the table in which
our Plantagenet rulers outstripped even their
precursors, the earlier sovereigns of that line,
were enhanced and multiplied by the Cru-
sades, by the commencing spirit of discovery,
and by the foreign intermarriages, which
became so frequent.
A far more thorough conquest than that
which the day of Hastings signalised was
accomplished by an army of a more pacific
kind, which crossed the Channel piecemeal,
bringing in their hands, not bows and swords,
but new dishes and new wines. These in-
vaders of our soil were doubtless welcomed
as benefactors by the proud nobles of the
Courts of Edward II. and Richard II., as well
as by Royalty itself; and the descriptions
which have been preserved of the banquets
held on special occasions in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, and even of the ordinary
style of living of some, make our City feasts
yj.6 Royal Feasts and Savage Pomp
of to-day shrink into insignificance. But we
must always remember that the extravagant
luxury and hospitality of the old time were
germane and proper to it, component parts
of the social framework.
It is to be remarked that some of the most
disturbed and disastrous epochs in our
annals are those to which we have to go for
records of the greatest exploits in gastronomy
and lavish expenditure of public money on
comparatively unprofitable objects. During
the period from the accession of Rufus to
the death of Henry III., and again under the
rule of Richard II., the taste for magnificent
parade and sumptuous entertainments almost
reached its climax. The notion of improving
the condition of the poor had not yet dawned
on the mind of the governing class ; to make
the artizan and the operative self-supporting
and self-respectful was a movement not
merely unformulated, but a conception be-
yond the parturient faculty of a member of
the Jacquerie. The king, prince, bishop,
noble, of unawakened England met their
■constituents at dinner in a fashion once or
Royal Feasts and Savage Pomp. 47
Page 14
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
plovers, and larks There were wines ; but the writer only particularises them as white and red. The haunch of venison was then an ordinary dish, as well as kid. They seem to have sometimes roasted and sometimes boiled them. Not only the pheasant and partridge appear, but the quail, — which is at present scarcer in this country, though so plentiful abroad, — the duck, and the mallard.
In connection with venison, it is worth while to draw attention to a passage in the “ Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII.,” where, under date of August 8, 1505, a woman receives 3s. 4 d. for clarifying deer suet for the King. This was not for culinary but for medicinal purposes, as it was then, and much later, employed as an ointment.
Both William I. and his son the Red King maintained, as Warner shews us, a splendid table ; and we have particulars of the princely scale on which an Abbot of Canterbury celebrated his installation in 1309. The archbishops of those times, if they exercised inordinate authority, at any rate dispensed in a magnificent manner among the poor
Royal Feasts and Savage Pomp. 45,
and infirm a large portion of their revenues. They stood in the place of corporations and Poor Law Guardians. Their very vices were not without a certain fascinating grandeur ; and the pleasures of the table in which our Plantagenet rulers outstripped even their precursors, the earlier sovereigns of that line, were enhanced and multiplied by the Crusades, by the commencing spirit of discovery, and by the foreign intermarriages, which became so frequent.
A far more thorough conquest than that which the day of Hastings signalised was accomplished by an army of a more pacific kind, which crossed the Channel piecemeal, bringing in their hands, not bows and swords, but new dishes and new wines. These invaders of our soil were doubtless welcomed as benefactors by the proud nobles of the Courts of Edward II. and Richard II., as well as by Royalty itself; and the descriptions which have been preservedd of the banquets held on special occasions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and even of the ordinary style of living of some, make our City feasts
yj.6 Royal Feasts and Savage Pomp
of to-day shrink into insignificance. But we must always remember that the extravagant luxury and hospitality of the old time were germane and proper to it, component parts of the social framework.
It is to be remarked that some of the most disturbed and disastrous epochs in our annals are those to which we have to go for records of the greatest exploits in gastronomy and lavish expenditure of public money on comparatively unprofitable objects. During the period from the accession of Rufus to the death of Henry III., and again under the rule of Richard II., the taste for magnificent parade and sumptuous entertainments almost reached its climax. The notion of improving the condition of the poor had not yet dawned on the mind of the governing class ; to make the artizan and the operative self-supporting and self-respectful was a movement not merely unformulated, but a conception beyond the parturient faculty of a member of the Jacquerie. The king, prince, bishop, noble, of unawakened England met their ■constituents at dinner in a fashion once or
Royal Feasts and Savage Pomp. 47