Page:Hubert W. Peet - 112 Days' Hard Labour, Being Some Reflections On the First of My Sentences as a Conscientious Objector - 1917.pdf/6



Prison Diet

The Food Controller has not yet interfered with the diet. The “A” menu is practically nothing but bread and porridge. It is served for the first seven days, but during the rest of the time I was on “B” diet, which is as follows:— Breakfast.—A pint of gruel and 8 oz. of bread. Supper.—The same quantity of bread and a pint of porridge. Dinner.—6 oz. of bread and nominally 8 oz. of potatoes, but, owing to war shortage, rice or haricots are sometimes substituted for part of the latter. In addition is served on Sunday 4 oz. of cold preserved meat, i.e., a small slice of pressed beef. On Monday, 10 oz. of haricots with 2 oz. of crude fat bacon (“beans in candle grease”). On Tuesday and Friday, 1 pint of soup—usually thick and good, and meat has been found in it. On Wednesday and Saturday, 10 oz. of suet pudding made with brown flour—good if received still hot; and on Thursday, 4 oz. of cooked meat without bone, but not without fat or gristle. As a rule the porridge could not be bettered, and the wholemeal bread though close is thoroughly good. One would welcome the opportunity of tasting it with butter. The only condiment is salt, sugar not being tasted in the ordinary way till “C” diet is reached, after a four months’ imprisonment, when cocoa is served. At Wandsworth prison a drink called “tea” was given to those who did a certain amount of work in excess of the minimum task. It, however, disappeared from my breakfast table after Ash Wednesday, according to rumour, either in consequence of the Chaplain’s sermon on fasting in Lent or as a war economy! Personally, I found I kept in the best health if I ate about two-thirds of my food, but most prisoners, I think, were always ready for a little more had it been obtainable.

Habitat

A prison cell is about 7 feet wide, 11 feet 6 inches long, and 9 feet high. Its furniture consists of stool, table (sometimes fixed by the frosted window through which light is received at night, and sometimes movable), a plank bed, with mattress, two sheets, two blankets, rug and pillow; mug, spoon, tin knife (which bends if used on a crust); slate and slate pencil; and a set of pots, pans and brush. At Wormwood Scrubs the floor is of boards, but in the older prison my cold feet were a perpetual reminder that I was living on tiles. In such a winter as we have been having this fact was perhaps the greatest physical hardship of imprisonment, bearing in mind that often I was only absent from the cell for half-an-hour out of the twenty-four. Those who wish to reproduce the test are advised to try working, sleeping and eating in their scullery.

The clothing consists of grey cloth collarless suit, liberally sprinkled with broad arrows; underclothing—the latter is always clean, but there is only one size for everybody, and a button a garment is liberal fare—stockings and shoes. Usually, little capes are available for extra warmth during exercise in cold weather.