One of the characters in the “ Canterbury Tales” — the Cook of London — was, in fact the keeper of a cook’s-shop ; and in the Pro logue to the Tale, with which his name is associated, the charming story of “ Gamelin,” the poet makes the Reeve charge his com- panion with not very creditable behaviour towards his customers. So our host trusts that his relation will be entertaining and good : — “ For many a pasty hast thou let blood, And many a Jack of Dover* hast thou sold, That hath been twice hot and twice cold. Of many a pilgrim hast thou Christ’s curse — For thy parsley fare they yet the worse: That they have eaten with the stubble goose, For in thy shop is many a fly loose.” But these restaurants were not long con- fined to one locality. From a very early date, owing perhaps to its proximity to the Tower and the Thames, East Cheap was famed for its houses of entertainment. The * A sole. Meals . 247 Dagger in Cheap is mentioned in *4 A Hun- dred Merry Tales,” 1526. The Boar is historical. It was naturally at the East-end, in London proper, that the flood-tide, as it were, of tavern life set in, among the sea- farers, in the heart of industrial activity ; and the anecdotes and glimpses which we enjoy show, just what might have been guessed, that these houses often became scenes of riotous excess and debauch. Lydgate’s ballad of “ London Lickpenny” helps one to imagine what such resorts must have been in the first part of the fifteenth century. It is almost permissible to infer that the street contained, in addition to the regular inns, an assortment of open counters, where the commodities on sale were cried aloud for the benefit of the passer-by ; for he says : — “When I hied me into East Cheap : One cries ribs of beef, and many a pie : Pewter pots they clattered on a heap ; There was harp, fife, and sautry.” The mention of pewter is noteworthy, be- cause the Earl of Northumberland ate his 248 Meals. dinner off wood in 1572. Pewter plates had not long been given up when I joined the Inner Temple in 1861. There is a still more interesting allusion in the interlude of the “ World and the Child,” 1522, where Folly is made to say : — “ Yea, and we shall be right welcome, I dare well say, In East Cheap for to dine ; And then we will with Lombards at passage play, And at the Pope’s Head sweet wine assay.” The places of resort in this rollicking locality could furnish, long before The Boar made the acquaintance of Falstaff, every species of delicacy and bonne bouche to their constituents, and the revelry was apt some- times to extend to an unseasonable hour. In an early naval song we meet with the lines : u He that will in East Cheap eat a goose so fat, With harp, pipe, and song, Must lie in Newgate on a mat, Be the night never so long.” Meals. 249 And these establishments infallibly contributed their quota or more to the prisons in the vicinity.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

One of the characters in the “ Canterbury Tales” — the Cook of London — was, in fact the keeper of a cook’s-shop ; and in the Pro logue to the Tale, with which his name is associated, the charming story of “ Gamelin,” the poet makes the Reeve charge his companion with not very creditable behaviour towards his customers. So our host trusts that his relation will be entertaining and good : — “ For many a pasty hast thou let blood, And many a Jack of Dover* hast thou sold, That hath been twice hot and twice cold. Of many a pilgrim hast thou Christ’s curse — For thy parsley fare they yet the worse: That they have eaten with the stubble goose, For in thy shop is many a fly loose.” But these restaurants were not long confined to one locality. From a very early date, owing perhaps to its proximity to the Tower and the Thames, East Cheap was famed for its houses of entertainment. The * A sole. Meals . Dagger in Cheap is mentionedin "A Hundred Merry Tales,"” 1526. The Boar is historical. It was naturally at the East-end, in London proper, that the flood-tide, as it were, of tavern life set in, among the seafarers, in the heart of industrial activity ; and the anecdotes and glimpses which we enjoy show, just what might have been guessed, that these houses often became scenes of riotous excess and debauch. Lydgate’s ballad of “ London Lickpenny” helps one to imagine what such resorts must have been in the first part of the fifteenth century. It is almost permissible to infer that the street contained, in addition to the regular inns, an assortment of open counters, where the commodities on sale were cried aloud for the benefit of the passer-by ; for he says : — “When I hied me into East Cheap : One cries ribs of beef, and many a pie : Pewter pots they clattered on a heap ; There was harp, fife, and sautry.” The mention of pewter is noteworthy, because the Earl of Northumberland ate his Meals. dinner off wood in 1572. Pewter plates had not long been given up when I joined the Inner Temple in 1861. There is a still more interesting allusion in the interlude of the “ World and the Child,” 1522, where Folly is made to say : — “ Yea, and we shall be right welcome, I dare well say, In East Cheap for to dine ; And then we will with Lombards at passage play, And at the Pope’s Head sweet wine assay.” The places of resort in this rollicking locality could furnish, long before The Boar made the acquaintance of Falstaff, every species of delicacy and bonne bouche to their constituents, and the revelry was apt sometimes to extend to an unseasonable hour. In an early naval song we meet with the lines : u He that will in East Cheap eat a goose so fat, With harp, pipe, and song, Must lie in Newgate on a mat, Be the night never so long.” Meals. And these establishments infallibly contributed their quota or more to the prisons in the vicinity.

Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine