Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/107

 and Sentiments. 87 the cooks formed with them a very important part of the houfehold. According to the Bayeux tapeftry, duke William brought with him from Normandy a complete kitchen eftablifhment, and a compartment of that interefting monument, of which we here give a diminifhed copy, fhows that when he landed he found no difficulty in providing a dinner. On the left two cooks are boiling the meat — for this Hill was the general way of cooking it, as it was ufually eaten falted. Above them, on a Ihelf, are fowls, and other forts of fmall viands, fpitted ready for roafting. Another cook is engaged at a portable ftove, preparing fmall cakes, parties, &c., which he takes from the ftove with a fingularly formed fork to place them on the dilli. Others are carrying to the table the roafted meats, on the fpits. It will be obferved that having no "board" with them to form a table, the Norman knights make ufe of their fliields inftead. The reader of the life of Herevvard will remember the fcene in which the hero in difguife is taken into king WiUiam's kitchen, to entertain the cooks. After dinner the wine and ale were diftributed freely, and the refult was a violent quarrel between the cooks and Hereward 5 the former ufed the tridents and forks for weapons {cum tridentibus etfurcis), while he took the fpit from the fire {defoco haftile) as a ftill more formidable the Attendants weapon of defence. In the early Chanfon de Roland, Charlemagne is defcribed alio carrying his [cooks with him to the war, as William the Conqueror