cost, and of which we shall only select the prominent articles, are arranged in departments, as Pannery, Buttery, Poultry, Butchery, and others.

Provisions for an Election Feast of the Brewers, A.D. 1425.

This department enumerates the sorts of bread mentioned in the former feast, with the addition of "wassel, cocket," and the "panis melliti," or spice-bread.

BUTTERY.

"A hogshede of red Gascony wyne❞

A kilderkin of penny ale

The other ales mentioned are the same as in the former feast.

liiis. iiijd.

12d.

In the "Bochery," we find, amongst other meats, mention of "ij. joynts of beef," with "certeyn ribbes,” and “viij. fillets of vell," besides "j. surloyn of befe;" the whole amounting to 18s. 10d. The prominent item in this department is

"For ij. bores achete de Joh'ne Bray, bocher, xs."

The remaining items include “40 marrow-bones with marrow, 5s.; 2 rounds of beef, and 2 fillets of pork, 10s.; 5 pieces of "suet of Chepe cestasavoir, neate's tullough, xvijd.” and 3 gallons and a half of "fresch grese,” at 16d. per gallon. For the

SPICERY

and kitchen there were collected, amongst other articles, 94lb. of "poudre de pepir, iijs.; ijlb.de sugre blanch, ijs.;” together with saffron, ginger, cloves, mace, honey, figs, almonds, dates, "reysons de Corince, cynamon, nottemeg, flower de Ryse, and Sanders;" and also costards, wardens, and other sorts of fruit; oatmeal, vinegar, verjuice, onions and garlick; twelve gallons of cream, and eight gallons of milk. Most of which articles, it will be seen, were used in making preparations of pastry, and in seasoning the various dishes.

The auxiliaries of tables, crockery, and pewter ware, rushes for the floor, napery or table linen, and costs of conveyance,

are not the least interesting of the entries on this occasion, both as elucidating old customs, and for their odd mixture of French and English. We copy them literally as written:

For dressing, the cook received 23s.; six "turnbroches," at 3d. a piece, 1s. 6d. And the like sum of 3d. a piece was given to four assistants, who were borrowed from a tavern on "Fysche-strete end." The fuel for firing consisted of 100 faggots, which, including carriage, cost 4s. 4d., and 4 quarters of "see cole," at 8d. per quarter. For the musicals and theatricals was paid 5l. 10s. as per the following entry: "A lez players et ij. harpers, et as dautres minstralx Kyngeston & Gromles, cs. xdi.”

The whole cost of the feast was 381. 4s. 2d., a very large sum, considering that money was then of five times its present value, and which sufficiently testifies its magnitude and importance.

Many curious hints may be gathered from these accounts, as to the style of living, food, and cookery of former times; not to mention the general information they contain on other points:

The companies, it appears, from their wealth and abundant entertainments, had in these early days become sources of attraction to those who loved the good things of life. We do not indeed find sovereigns feasting with them, as afterwards, but their entertainments were graced by the company of the nobility and upper clergy. At the first dinner noticed, this company are said to have had the prior and the provincial of the Austin friars amongst their guests; and at the above one, the neighbouring prior of Elsing Spital, Henry Somere, baron of the Exchequer, and his "six attendants," and the two aldermen, Gedney and Estfelde. Their other feasts, as was the case with the rest of the companies, were similarly, or rather, more splendidly attended.

The kinds and prices of the food provided, its mode of dressing, serving at table, and other particulars, contain much worthy of remark. Many articles then esteemed luxuries would now be styled "gross feeding." In regard to poultry,

it is proved, by instances in the Archæologia, that our ancestors absolutely ate carrion; even "fat swan," that ancient civic dainty, for which the citizens had their annual "swan hoppings;" or cygnet, another article of request formerly, would now not be thought any thing of; though the former, it is said, may be fed in a certain way, to make it very tolerable. Porpoise, from the French porc-poisson, sea-hog, (the animal uniting the warm blood of the hog with the cold flesh of the fish,) has been discarded from the table for centuries. It is however mentioned, together with "congers, porpusses, and seals," amongst the dinner fish on fish-days, in the ordinances for the royal household at Eltham palace, in 1526; and in another account, in the Archæologia, relative to the same subject, it is ordered, respecting the size of the porpoise, that when it is too big for a horse-load, a further allowance shall be made to the purveyor for carriage: lampreys are now esteemed unwholesome. In return for these repulsive articles, the "made dishes" at these dinners were several of them absolutely epicurean, and afford no contemptible specimens of ancient cookery. We may instance their "Leche-Lombard," mortrewes, doucettes with little parneux, fritters, payn puff, and others; a slight account of which will be sufficient to give us an idea of these old-fashioned dainties.

Leche Lombard, the principal dish in the first course of the brewers' feast in 1422, we are told by Randle Holme, was "a kind of jelly, made of cream, isinglas, sugar, and almonds, with other compounds;" but in the recipe for this article in the Form of Cury, p. 36, No. 65, it is composed of "pork pounded in a mortar with eggs, raisins, dates, sugar, salt, pepper, spices, milk of almonds, and red wine; the whole boiled in a bladder." The addition to the name of this leche, of Lumbard, identifies it as a native of Lombardy, in contradistinction to the sorts named damask, Florentine, comfort, baked, partrich, &c. all of which were differently prepared. "Mottrews" (white) was a rich stew or soup, commonly made of pork and poultry, pounded in a mortar and strained; whence the word is written, by Skynner and Tyrrwhit, mortress or mortreuse, as expressive of that preparation. The mortrews, white or black, is

G

ordered in the Form of Cury, p. 29, No. 46, to be compounded with blanched almonds and the milk and white flour of rice. Doucettes with little parneux, fritters, and payne-puff, formed side-dishes and garnish to these larger articles. The first were little sweetmeats and confections, and small rich preparations of bread, like pastry, for garnish; as were likewise fritters, still in general use, and derived from the French friture, a frying. The "frytours of pasternake,” or pastry, are, in the Form of Cury, those made of apples; besides which, there were "frytours of meylke, and frytours of erbes (herbs.) Payn puff is explained by Phillips to be "a certain mess proper for side-dishes," so called, as being made of bread stuffed with several sorts of forces and ragouts. In the Form of Cury, p. 89, No. 196, it is directed to be made of marrow, yolkes of eggs, dates minced, raisins, and salt, in a delicate paste, moulded of an orbicular form.

These explanations give us the reason of several latter purchases we read of here for the kitchen, as the "forty marrowbones with marrow;" the fillets of pork and veal; the "neats-tallow," or veal suet, called also suet of Cheap; the varieties of their spice; their almonds, flour of rice, eggs, honey, sugar, and particularly of the large quantities of cream and milk which were provided.

A few further notices will be necessary to complete our ideas as to the cookery and mode of setting out the hall, as recorded in these entries.

Melted fat, or lard, appears to have been used in most cases where we now use butter. They received it in a liquid state, by the "potel," or gallon, and called it “fresh grease.” Three gallons of this liquid we have seen was bought at the above dinner, at sixpence per gallon. In the preceding account of a breakfast of the wardens, there is mention of "one disch of botor." It must, however, have been a great dainty, as it did not supercede "kychin gresse," or dripping, for breakfast, till between the reigns of Edward VI. and Elizabeth. Honey, in like manner, supplied the use of sugar in the middle ages, which latter was a great rarity. Furmenty, the furmentaria of Du Cange, was a favorite dish with our ancestors, and was made by boiling wheat in milk. In setting out the hall, we find it was the custom for the

principal dish of the first course to consist of some animal, to which the addition "standard" was applied, meaning that it was set upright. "Cony standard," noticed at the first. dinner, was a large roasted rabbit set upright; and, in other feasts, mention is made of swan "standard."

66

'Aromatizing" (as Wiseman terms it, in his Surgery,) the hall with the precious Indian wood called "sanders,” was a piece of voluptuousness which we may infer was practised on these occasions, from the mention made of that article in the preceding list of spiceries. It is an article also which we find enumerated, in conjunction with "Brasil wood," amongst the imports of the Grocers' Company, in 1454. Both notices shew it to have been used for similar purposes of fumigation at these dates, and we may well conceive how much it must have enlivened the enjoyments of the table in such large parties.

Amidst so many attractions which these ancient feasts held out, it was not one of the least to have the company of females at them. This curious, we had almost said indecorous custom, but which must at the same time have greatly heightened the hilarity, occurred in consequence of the companies consisting, as we have seen, of brothers and sisters; and which practice they seem, on their reconstitution, to have borrowed from the religious gilds. Not only did widows, wives, and single women, who were members, join the joyous throng, but, from the grocers' ordinances of 1348, we find the "bretherne" could introduce their fair acquaintance, on paying for their admission; and that not, as in modern times, to gaze in galleries, the mere spectators of good living, but as participants. There is an amusing simplicity in the ordinances alluded to of the grocers on these points: they enjoin, that every one of the fraternity, from thenceforward, having a wife or companion, (compagnon,) shall come to the feast, and bring with him a damsel, if he pleases, (ameyne avec luy une demoiselle si luy plest;) if they cannot come, from the reasons hereafter named, that is to say, sick, or big with child, and near delivery, (malade, ou grosse danfant et pres sa deliverance,) they are then, and not otherwise, to be excused. Every man, it is added, shall pay for his wife 20d.