Good cheer : the romance of food and feasting / by Frederick W. Hackwood.

  • Frederick William Hackwood
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Good cheer : the romance of food and feasting / by Frederick W. Hackwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    I ( J hall, whose ancient kitchens suggest centuries of 1 boundless hospitality. j I “ The first time (says Pennant) that Guildhall was used on festive i occasions was by Sir John Shaw, goldsmith, knighted in the field of Bosworth.—After building the essentials of good kitchens and other offices, in the year 1500, this gentleman gave here the mayor’s feast, | which before had been usually done in Grocer’s Hall. The bills of i fare at length grew to such excess, that, in the time of Philip and I Mary, a sumptuary law was made, to restrain the expense both of || provisions and liveries ; but the city did not long observe it, for in f 1544 they thought proper to renew the order of council, by way of | reminding their fellow-citizens of their relapse into luxury. “ In the enthronisation feast of Archbishop Wareham, on March 9, 1504, the first course was preceded by ‘ a warner, conveyed upon a rounde boorde of viii. panes, with viii. toures embattled and made with flowres, standynge on every towre a bedil in his habite, with his staffe; and in the same boorde, first the kyng syttinge in his parliament, with his lordes about hym, in their robes; and Saiat Wylliam, like an archbishop, sytting on the ryght hand of the kyng ; then the Chaunceller of Oxforde, with other doctors about hym, presented the said Lord Wylliam, kneelyng, in a doctor’s habite, unto the kyng, with his commend of vertue and cunnynge, &c. And on the third boorde of the same warner, the Holy Ghoste appeared with bright beames, proceeding from hym of the gyftes of grace towarde the sayde lorde of the feaste.‘ This was a specimen of the ancient sotelties, and was given at a Lenten feast of the most luxurious kind. The sotelties were suited to the occasion, and of an historical or legendary nature, contrived ‘ with great cunnynge.’ ” A “ warner ” was a preliminary course—a prelude to another dish. “To these scenes of luxury and gluttony, let me oppose [continues Pennant] the simple fare at a feast of the Wax-chandlers, on October the 28th, 1478. These were a flourishing company in the days of old, when gratitude to saints called so frequently for lights. How many thousands of wax-candles were consumed on these occasions, and what quantities the expiatory offerings of private persons, non can enumerate. Candle-mass day wasted its thousands, and these all blessed by the priests, and adjured in solemn terms. ‘ I adjure thee, O waxen creature, that thou repel the devil and his sprights.’