Our viands

Nevertheless, our forefathers were as highly appreciative of spices as we are, and those who could afford them, used them perhaps more than we do. We learn from Chambers's ' Book of Days ' that the arrival of a ship laden with spices 1 was an event of such importance, and perhaps rarity, that the King usually hastened to satisfy his wants before the cargo was landed. Thus, in the reign of Henry III., the bailiffs of Sandwich were commanded to detain, upon their coming into port, two great ships laden with spices and precious merchandise which were exported from Bayonne, and not to allow anything to be sold until the King had had his choice of their contents.' At that time vegetables were scarce, but pot-herbs, such as parsley, mint, purslane, fennel, smallage, thyme, and hyssop, are mentioned, and also lettuce, celery, beetroot, and small white onions ; some CONDIMENTS 161 of which were eaten raw, with olive oil and spices. Thus we find that salads were in use in the fifteenth century, but are somewhat surprised to find olive oil mentioned, as even to the present day it is very little used in England, except among those who have travelled much on the Continent. The spices known, in the reign of Henry III. were of course those of the East Indies — cinnamon, nutmeg (with its outer network, known as mace), cloves, pepper, and ginger ; and to these must be added the most important of all condiments, which has come to be regarded, not as a luxury, but a necessity — that is, sugar, which Strabo tells us was found in the East Indies by Nearchus, Admiral of Alexander the Great, 325 B.C. Pliny speaks of sugar as an article of merchandise brought from Arabia and India used only as medicine. He describes it as ' honey collected from canes, gum-like at first in appearance, but which becomes whitish and brittle when dry.' There is a passage in Isaiah which runs, ' Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money,' which would seem to prove that the sugar-cane was an article of commerce in Judea also at an early date ; the sweet cane is likewise mentioned by Jeremiah, who speaks of it as coming from a far country. Paulus ^Egineta, writing in the seventh century, calls sugar the Indian salt, being in form and colour like common salt, but in taste and sweet- ness like honey, and recommends that a piece should be kept in the mouth to moisten it during fevers. Eleven camels laden with sugar were captured by the Crusaders in mo, and shortly after this time the cane was grown as a curiosity in Spain and Southern Italy. The date of its introduction into England seems L 1 62 OUR VIANDS uncertain, but in 1546 a manuscript letter to Lord Cobham speaks of * twenty-five sugar loaves at six shillings a loaf, which is eightpence a pound,' the penny at that time being worth much more than at present ; and the diary of a lady of Herefordshire at the time of the Civil War, October 29, 1640, has the following entry — ' For a pound of shugger to send Mrs. Eaton when her son Fitz-Wm. lay on his death- bed, 20</.' If we compare this with the importation of sugar at the present day, and the price per pound, we shall realise the enormous growth in the consumption of this condiment since its cultivation in the West Indies.