England in the Days of Old Part 7

A n.o.bleman's Household in Tudor Times

The Earls of Northumberland, members of the Percy family, for a long period were a power in the north of England. Their pedigree has been traced back to Mainfred, a Danish chieftain who rendered great service to Rollo in the Conquest of Normandy. William de Perci, of Perci, near Villedieu, landed on the English sh.o.r.e with Duke William, and for valour at the battle of Hastings he was rewarded with extensive grants of land in Yorkshire.

In their northern strongholds this n.o.ble family lived in stately style, and frequently figured on the battle-field, and took their share in events which make up the history of the country. The story of their lives, with its lights and shades, reads like a romance; but it is outside the purpose of our paper to linger over its romantic episodes. It may be stated that the fourth Earl was Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire, and by direction of King Henry VII., he had to make known to the inhabitants of his county the reasons for a most objectionable tax for the purpose of engaging in a war with Bretagne. This gave rise to a bitter feeling against him, the people erroneously believing that the tax was levied at his instigation. In 1489, a mob broke into his house at c.o.c.kledge, near Thirsk, murdering him and several of his servants. The Earl had been a generous man, and was much beloved, and his untimely death was deeply deplored. He was buried in Beverley Minster, and 14,000 people attended his funeral, which was conducted in a magnificent manner, at a cost of 1,037 6s. 8d., equalling some 10,000 in our current coin. Skelton, the poet laureate, in an elegy, lamented his "dolourous death." The lines commence:--

"I wayle, I wepe, I sobbe, I sigh ful sore The dedely fate, the dolefulle destenny Of him that is gone, alas! without restore Of the blode royall, descending n.o.belly, Whose Lordshipe doutles was slayne lamentably."

His son, the fifth Earl, who was born at Leconfield Castle in the year 1457, was a man of aesthetic tastes, and a patron of learning. He is described as being "vain and excessively fond of pomp and display." When the Princess Margaret journeyed to Scotland to marry the King, the Earl escorted her through Yorkshire. According to an old account, he was "well horst, upon a fayre courser, with a cloth to the ground of cramsyn velvett, all borded of orfavery, his armes very riche in many places uppon his saddle and harnys, and his sterrops gilt. With him was many n.o.ble Knights, all arrayed in his sayd Livery of Velvett with some goldsmith's work, great chaynes, and war wel mounted; a Herault, bearing his cotte and other gentylmen in such wayes array'd of his said Livery, sum in Velvett, others in Damask, Chamlett, etc., well mounted to the number of 300 Horsys." The Princess made her public entry into Edinburgh riding on a pillion behind the King.

The Earl had three castles, and lived at them alternately, and, as he had only sufficient furniture for one, it was removed from one house to the other when he changed residences. Seventeen carts and one waggon were employed to convey it.

This Percy's taste for poetry prompted him to have painted on the walls and ceilings of his castles moral lessons in verse. The following may be quoted as a specimen:--

"Punyshe moderatly, and discretly correct, As well to mercy, as to justice havynge a respect; So shall ye have meryte for the punyshment, And cause the offender to be sory and penitent.

If ye be movede with anger or hastynes, Pause in youre mynde and your yre repress: Defer vengeance unto your anger a.s.swagede be; So shall ye mynyster justice, and do dewe equyte."

We have another proof of his love of poetry preserved in the British Museum, in the form of a beautiful ma.n.u.script engrossed on vellum, richly emblazoned, and superbly illuminated. It includes specimens of the best poetry then produced, and a metrical account of the Percy family, by one of the Earl's chaplains, named Peares. This interesting work was prepared under his directions.

In the year 1512, he commenced the compilation of what we now call the "Northumberland Household Book," and it contains regulations and other details respecting his castles at Wressel and Leckonfield. From this curious work we obtain an interesting picture of the home life of a n.o.bleman in Tudor times. We find that the Earl lived in state and splendour little inferior to that of the King. The household was conducted on the same plan as that of the reigning monarch, and the warrants were made out in the same form and style. "As the King had his Privy Council and great council of Parliament to a.s.sist him in enacting statutes and regulations for the public weal," says a writer who has made a study of this subject, "so the Earl of Northumberland had his council, composed of his princ.i.p.al officers, by whose advice and a.s.sistance he established this code of economic laws; as the King had his lords and grooms of the bed-chamber, who waited in their respective turns, so the Earl of Northumberland was attended by the constables and bailiffs of his several castles, who entered into waiting in regular succession." We further find that all the leading officers of his household were men of gentle birth, and consisted of "controller, clerk of the kitchen, chamberlain, treasurer, secretary, clerk of the signet, survisor, heralds, ushers, almoner, a schoolmaster for teaching grammar, minstrels, eleven priests, presided over by a doctor of divinity or dean of the chapel, and a band of choristers, composed of eleven singing men and six singing boys." The head officials sat at a table called the Knight's Board. Every day were expected to sit down to dinner 166 officers and domestic servants and fifty-seven visitors. The amount annually spent in house-keeping was 1,118 17s. 8d., representing in our money about 10,000.

The number of daily meals was four, and consisted of breakfast taken at seven, dinner at ten, supper at four o'clock, and livery served in the bedroom between eight and nine, before retiring to rest. The lord sat at the head of the table in state. The oaken table, long and clumsy, stood in the great hall, and the guests were ranged according to their station on long, hard, and comfortless benches. The ma.s.sive family silver salt cellar was placed in the middle of the table, and persons of rank sat above it, and those of an inferior position below it. There was a great display of pewter dishes and wooden cups, and plenty of food and liquor was on the table. But elegance did not prevail: forks had not been introduced, and fingers were used to convey food to the mouth.

The allowances at the meals were most liberal. One perceives there was much wine and beer consumed in those days. Take, for example, that at breakfast. On flesh days it included "for my lord and lady a loaf of bread on trenchers, two manchets (loaves of fine meal), a quart of wine, half a chine of mutton, or a chine of beef boiled." The fare of the two elder children, "my Lord Percy, and Mr. Thomas Percy," consisted of "half a loaf of household bread, a manchet, one pottle of beer (two quarts!), a chicken, or else three mutton bones boiled." It will be noticed that wine was not served to the two young n.o.blemen. The fare of the two little children is thus described: "Breakfasts for the nurcery, for my lady Margaret and Mr. Yngram Percy, a manchet, one quart of beer, three mutton bones boiled." My ladies' gentlewomen were served with "a pottle of beer, three mutton bones boiled, or else a piece of beef boiled." The breakfast on fish days was as follows:--"For my lord and my lady, a loaf of bread on trenchers, two manchets, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, two pieces of salt-fish, six baked herrings, or a dish of sprats; for the two elder sons, half a loaf of household bread, a manchet, a pottle of beer, a dish of b.u.t.ter, a piece of salt-fish, a dish of sprats, or three white (fresh) herrings; for the two children in the nursery, a manchet, a quart of beer, a dish of b.u.t.ter, a piece of salt-fish, a dish of sprats, or three white herrings; and for my lady's gentlewomen, a loaf of bread, a pottle of beer, a piece of salt-fish, or three white herrings." It will be observed that the family dined two to a plate or mess, this being the usual practice in the Middle Ages. The other meals were quite, if not more substantial than that of breakfast. The liveries, as we have previously stated, were consumed in the bed-chamber just before retiring to rest, and the Earl and Countess had placed on their table, "two manchets, a loaf of household bread, a gallon of beer, and a quart of wine." The wine was warmed and mixed with spices. After reading the preceding bills of fare, we are not surprised to learn that at this period the English people were regarded as the greatest eaters in Europe.

In the "Northumberland Household Book" is a long and interesting list of articles and their prices, which were expected to last a year. It will not be without interest to reproduce a few of the more important items, as follow:--Wheat 236-1/2 quarters at 6s. 8d. The market price today is very different. Malt, as might be expected from the quant.i.ty of beer brewed, is a rather large total, being 249 quarters, I bushel, and the price 4s. per quarter; hops, 656 lbs., at 13s. 4d. per 120 lbs.; fat oxen, 109, at 13s.

4d. each; lean oxen, 24, at 8s. each; to be fed in his lordship's pastures; sheep, 787, fat and lean, at 1s. 8d. each, one with another; porks (pigs), 25, at 2s. each; calves, 28, at 1s. 8d. each; lambs, 60, of which 10, at 1s. each, to serve from Christmas to Shrovetide, and 50, at 10d. each, to serve from Easter to Midsummer. The list of fish is large, and includes 160 stock-fish at 2-1/2d. each for the Lent season; salt-fish, 1,122, at 4d. each; white herrings, 9 barrels, at 10s. the barrel; red herrings, 10 cades (each cade containing 500), at 6s. 8d. the cade; sprats, 5 cades (each cade containing 1,000), at 2s. the cade; salt salmon, 200, at 6d. each; salt sturgeon, 3 firkins, at 10s. each firkin; salt eels, 5 cags, at 4s. each. Thirty-six gallons of oil, at 11-1/2d. per gallon, were provided for frying the fish. Salt is entered twice--bay salt, 10 quarters, at 4s. the quarter; and white salt, 6-1/2 quarters, at 4s. the quarter; vinegar, 40 gallons, at 4d. the gallon. The quant.i.ty of mustard, ready-made, is large, being 180 gallons, at 2-1/4d. per gallon.

In old Christmas carols there are frequent allusions to mustard. During the Commonwealth, it was threatened to stop Christmastide festivals by Act of Parliament, and this caused the tallow-chandlers to loudly complain, for they could not sell their mustard on account of the diminished consumption of brawn. In the familiar old carol, sung annually at Queen's College, Oxford, is a line:--

"The boar's head with mustard."

In a carol sung before Prince Henry, at St. John's College, Oxford, in 1607, is a couplet:--

"Let this boar's head and mustard Stand for pig, goose, and custard."

Under the heading of spices are enumerated:--Pepper, 50 lbs., raisons of currants, 200 lbs., prunes, 151-1/2 lbs., ginger, 21-1/2 lbs., mace, 6 lbs., cloves, 3-1/2 lbs., sugar, 200-1/4 lbs., cinnamon, 17 lbs., 3-1/2 quarters almonds, 152 lbs., dates, 30 lbs., nutmegs, 1-1/4 lbs., grains of Paradise, 7 lbs., turnfole, 10-1/2 lbs., saunders, 10 lbs., powder of annes, 3-1/4 lbs., rice, 19 lbs., comfits, 19-1/2 lbs., galagals, 1/2 lb., long pepper, 1/2 lb., blanch powder, 2 lbs. The amount of the foregoing is 25 19s. 7d. The list of wine embraces--Gascony wine, 10 tuns, 2 hogsheads, at 4 14s. 4d. per tun, viz., red, 3 tuns, claret, 5 tuns, and white, 2 tuns, 2 hogsheads. There was also provided 90 gallons of verjuice, at 3d. per gallon; this was a sour juice of unripe grapes, apples, or crabs. A barrel and a half of honey was provided at a cost of 33s. The foregoing are the chief items of food and drink for the annual consumption in a Tudor household.

The fuel consisted of sea coal, 80 chaldrons, charcoal, 20 quarters, and 4,140 f.a.ggots for brewing and baking. Sixty-four loads of wood had also to be provided, for the coal could not be burnt without it. The coal must have been poor.

The expenses provide for the players at Christmas, and they appear to have acted 20 plays at 1s. 8d. per play. We find a bearward attended at Christmas for making sport with his beasts, and in the "Household Book" he is referred to amongst those receiving payments as follows:--

"Furst, my Lorde usith and accustomyth to gyff yerely the Kynge or the Queene's _barwarde_, if they have one, when they custome to come unto him, yerely--vj_s._ viij_d._"

"Item, my Lorde usith and accustomyth to gyfe yerly, when his Lordshipe is at home, to his _barward_, when he comyth to my Lorde in Christmas with his Lordshippe's beests, for makynge of his Lordship pastyme, the said xi days--xx_s._"

At this period, bear-baiting was a popular amus.e.m.e.nt. Sunday was a great day for the pastime. It was on the last Sunday of April, 1520, that part of the chancel of St. Mary's Church, Beverley, fell, killing a number of people. According to a popular tradition, a bear was being baited, and ma.s.s was being sung at the same time, but at the latter only fifty-five attended and all were killed, whereas at the former about a thousand were present. Hence the origin of the Yorkshire saying, "It is better to be at the baiting of a bear than the singing of a ma.s.s." An expert horseman was also employed in connection with the household. He had not to be afraid of a fence, and it was his duty to attend my Lord when hunting.

Bread and Baking in Bygone Days.

The earliest form of bread consisted of grain soaked in water, then pressed, and afterwards dried by means of the sun or fire. Another early kind of bread took the form of porridge or pudding, consisting of flour mixed with water and boiled. Next came the method of kneading dough, and the result was tough and unleavened bread.

In Saxon times women made bread, and the modern t.i.tle "lady" is softened from the Saxon _hlaf-dige_, meaning the distributor of bread. We learn from contemporary pictures that Anglo-Saxon bread consisted of round cakes, not unlike the Roman loaves of which we get representations in the pictures at Pompeii, and not unlike our Good-Friday cross-buns, which we are told come down to us from our Saxon forefathers.

In connection with monasteries were bake-houses, and the work here would be done by the conversi or lay brothers. The holy bread in the ma.s.s was baked in the convents and churches by the priests or monks with much ceremony. Ovens were sometimes connected with old churches.

Some of the monks in Saxon times do not appear to have fared well. We find it recorded that in the eighth century those at the Abbey of St. Edmund had to partake of barley bread because the income of the house was not sufficent to provide wheaten-bread twice or thrice daily.

Towards the close of the thirteenth century the chief bakers who supplied London with bread lived at Stratford-le-Bow, Ess.e.x, doubtless on account of being near Epping Forest, where they could obtain cheap firewood. At a later period some were located at Bromley-by-Bow. The bread was brought to London in carts, and exposed for sale in Bread Street. The bakers attended daily excepting on Sundays and great festivals. It was no uncommon circ.u.mstance to seize the bread on its way to town for being of light weight, or made of unsound materials. It was not until the year 1302 that London bakers were permitted to sell bread in shops.

A Royal Charter was granted in 1307 to the London Bakers' Company. The charter, we are told, "empowered the company to correct offences concerning the trade, to make laws and ordinances, to levy fines and penalties for non-observance thereof; and within the city and suburbs, and twelve miles round, to view, search, prove, and weigh all bread sold; and in case of finding it unwholesome, or not of due a.s.size, to distribute it to the poor of the parish where it was found, and to impose fines, and levy the same by distress and sale of offenders' goods." When reform became the order of the day the power of the Bakers' Company pa.s.sed away.

There are various old-time statutes of the a.s.size of bread in London. The earliest dates back to the days of Henry II. Another belongs to the reign of Henry III.; it regulated the price of bread according to the value of corn. A baker breaking the law was fined, and if his offence was serious he was placed in the pillory. These statutes were extended under Edward VI., Charles II., and Queen Anne.

In 1266 bakers were commanded not to impress their bread with the sign of the cross, _Agnus Dei_, or the name of Jesus Christ.

The lot of the baker in bygone times was a very hard one. He could not sell where he liked, and the price of his bread was regulated by those in authority. Pike, in his "History of Crime in England," says, "Turn where he might, the traveller in London in 1348 could hardly fail to light upon some group, which would tell him the character of the people he had to see. Here, perhaps, a baker with a loaf hung round his neck, was being jeered, and pelted in the pillory, because he had given short weight, or because, when men had asked him for bread, he had given them not a stone, but a lump of iron enclosed by a crust."

At this period women were largely employed in the bakehouse. Women in mediaeval times performed much of the rougher kind of labour. Mr. Pike tells a tragic tale to ill.u.s.trate the heartless character of bakehouse women in bygone times:--"At Middleton, in Derbyshire, there lived a man whose wife bore a name well known to readers of mediaeval romances, Isolda or Isoult. As he lay one night asleep in his bed, this female Oth.e.l.lo took him by the neck and strangled him. As soon as he was dead, she carried the body to an oven which adjourned their chamber, and piled up a fire to destroy the traces of her guilt. But, though she had so far shown the energy and power of a man, her courage seems to have failed her at the last moment. She took to flight, and her crime was discovered."

In the olden time, it was the practice of females to deliver bread from house to house in London. The bakers gave them thirteen articles for twelve, and the odd article appears to have been the legitimate profit which they were ent.i.tled to receive in return for their work. From this old custom we obtain the baker's dozen of thirteen. Bakers were not permitted to give credit to women retailers if they were known to be in debt to others. It was also against the law to receive back unsold bread if cold. The latter regulation would make the saleswomen energetic in their labours.

In many places the ducking-stool was employed to punish offending bakers.

The old records of Beverley contain references to this subject. "During the Middle Ages," it is stated on good authority, "scarcely any spectacle was so pleasing to the people of Central Europe as that of the public punishment of the cheating baker. The penalties inflicted on swindling bakers included confiscation of property, deprivation of civil and other rights, banishment from the town for certain periods, bodily punishment, the pillory, and the gibbet. If a baker was found guilty of an offence against the law, he was arrested and kept in safe custody till the gibbet was ready for him. It was erected as nearly as possible in the middle of the town, the beam projecting over a stagnant pool; at the end of the beam was a pulley, over which ran a rope fastened to a basket large enough to hold a man. The baker was forced into the basket, which was drawn up to the beam; there he hung over the muddy pool, the b.u.t.t of the jeers and missiles of a jubilant crowd. The only way to escape was to jump into the dirty water and run through the crowd to his home, and if he did not take the jump willingly, he was sometimes helped out of the basket by means of a pole. In some towns a large cage was used instead of a basket, and, instead of taking a jump, the culprit was lowered into the filthy pool and drawn up again several times until the town authorities thought he had had enough." In some parts of Turkey it was, until recently, the rule to punish a baker who did not give full weight by nailing his ear to the doorpost. If he were out when the officers of justice arrived his son or his servant was punished in his stead, as the authorities were very much averse from making their men do the journey twice.

The Court Leet records of many of our old English towns include items of interest bearing on this subject. At Manchester, at the Court Leet held October 1, 1561, it was resolved that no person or persons be permitted to make for sale any kind of bread in which b.u.t.ter is mixed, under a fine of 10s. Later, the use of suet was forbidden. In 1595, we are told that "the Court Leet Jury of Manchester ordered that no person was to be allowed to use b.u.t.ter or suet in cakes or bread; fine, 20s. No baker or other person to be allowed to bake said cakes, &c.; fine, 20s. No person to be allowed to sell the same; fine, 20s." Next year, on September 30, we gather from the records that "eight officers were appointed to see that no flesh meat was eaten on Fridays and Sat.u.r.days, and twelve for the overseeing of them that put b.u.t.ter, cream, or suet in their cakes." We learn from the history of Worcester that an order was made in 1641 that the bakers were not to make spice bread or short cakes, "inasmuch as it enhaunced the price of b.u.t.ter."

A rather curious regulation in bygone times was the one which enforced the baker of white bread not to make brown, and the baker of brown bread not to make white.

Very heavy fines used to be inflicted on persons selling short weight of bread. "A baker was convicted yesterday," says the _Times_ of July 8th, 1795, "at the Public Office, Whitechapel, of making bread to the amount of 307 ounces deficient in weight, and fined a penalty of 64 7s." In the same journal, three days later, we read, "A baker was yesterday convicted in the penalty of 106 5s. on 420 ounces of bread, deficient in weight."

The market records, week after week, in 1795, as a rule, record an increased price of grain, and by the middle of the year the matter had become serious. The members of the Privy Council gave the subject careful consideration, and strongly recommended that families should refrain from having puddings, pies, and other articles made of flour. With the following paragraph from the _Times_ of July 22nd, 1795, we close our notes on bread in bygone days:--"His Majesty has given orders for the bread used in his household to be made of meal and rye mixed. No other sort is to be permitted to be baked, and the Royal Family eat bread of the same quality as their servants do."

Arise, Mistress, Arise!

In the olden time in many places in the provinces it was the practice on Christmas-day morning to permit the servants and apprentices to remain in bed, and for the mistress to get up and attend to the household duties.

The bellman at Bewdley used to go round the town, and after ringing his bell and saying, "Good-morning, masters, mistresses, and all, I wish you a merry Christmas," he sang the following:

"Arise, mistress, arise, And make your tarts and pies, And let your maids lie still; For if they should rise and spoil your pies, You'd take it very ill.

Whilst you are sleeping in your bed, I the cold wintry nights must tread Past twelve o'clock, &c."