Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/442

 42 2 Hijlory of Do??ieJiic Manners Percy" (the two elder children), half a loaf of houfehold bread, a man- chet, one pottle of beer (two quarts — they were not yet allowed wine), a chicken, or elfe three mutton bones boiled 3 " breakfafts for the nurcery, for my lady Margaret and Mr. Ingram Percy" (who in fa6t were mere children), a manchet, one quart of beer, and three mutton bones boiled ; for my lady's gentlewomen, a loaf of houfehold bread, a pottle of beer, and three mutton bones boiled, or elfe a piece of beef boiled. It will be feen here that the family dined two to a plate, or mefs, as was the ufual cuftom in the middle ages. On filli-days, the breakfaft allowances were as follows : for my lord and my lady, a loaf of bread in trenchers, two i-nanchets, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, two pieces of fait filli, fix baked herrings, or a dilli of fpratsj for the two elder fons, half a loaf of houfehold bread, a manchet, a pottle of beer, a difli of butter, a piece of fait fifh, a dilli of fprats, or three white (frelh) herrings; for the two children in the nurfery, a manchet, a quart of beer, a diih of butter, a piece of fait filh, a dilh of fprats, or three white herrings ; and for my lady's gentlewomen, a loaf of bread, a pottle of beer, a piece of fait filli, or three white herrings. We fliall be inclined, in comparing it with our modern ftyle of living, to confider this as a very fubftantial meal to begin the day with. According to the old moral and fatirical writers, excelfive greedinefs in eating had become one of the prevailing vices of this age. Barclay, in his " Eclogues," gives a ftrange pi6ture of the bad regulations of the tables at the courts of great people, in the time of Henry VII. He defcribes the tables as ferved in great confufion, and even as covered with dirty table-cloths. The food he reprefents as being bad in itfelf, and often ill-cooked. Everybody, he fays, was obliged to eat in a hurry, unlets he would lofe his chance of eating at all, and they ferved the worft dilhes firlt, fo that when you had fatiated yourfelf with food wdiich was hardly palatable, the dainties made their appearance. This led people to eat more than they wanted. When an attra6tive difli did make its appearance, it led literally to a fcramble among the guefts : — But if it fortune, as Jeldome doth befall. That at beginning come dijhes befi of all.