Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/367

 and Sentijnents. nAy CHAPTER XVI. OLD ENGLISH COOKERY. HISTORY OF " GOURMANDISE." ENGLISH COOKERY OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES, BILLS OF FARE. GREAT FEASTS. I HAVE Ipoken of the ceremonious forms of the fervice of the mediaeval table, but we are jull now arrived at the period when we begin to have full information on the compofition of the culinary dillies in which our anceliors indulged, and it will perhaps be well to give a brief fummary of that information as illullrative both of the period we have now been confidering, and of that which follows. There is a part of the human frame, not very noble in itfelf, which, neverthelefs, many people are faid to worfliip, and which has even exer- cifed at times a confiderable influence over man's deftinies. Gaftrolatry, indeed, is a worihip which, at one time or other, has prevailed in different forms over all parts of the world — its hiftory takes an extenfive range, and is not altogether without interefl. One of the firft obje6ts of fearch in a man who has juft rifen from lavage life to civilization is rather naturally refinement in his food, and this delire more than keeps pace with the advance of general refinement, until cookery becomes one of the moft important of fecial inftitutions. During all periods of which we read in hiftory, great public afts, of whatever kind, even to the confecration of a church, have been accompanied with feafting ; and the fame rule holds good throughout all the ditferent phafes of our focial relations. The materials for the hiftory of eating are, indeed, abundant, and the field is extenfive. William of Malmelbury, as we have feen before, tells us that the Anglo-Saxons indulged in great feafting, and lived in very mean houfes ; whereas the Normans eat with moderation, but built for themfelves magnificent manfions. Various allufions in old writers leave little room for