Restoration by Alexander Larman

Author:Alexander Larman [Alexander Larman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781852668
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2016-07-30T04:00:00+00:00

Very merry at, before, and after dinner, and the more for that my dinner was great, and most neatly dressed by our own only maid. We had a fricasee of rabbits and chickens, a leg of mutton boiled, three carps in a dish, a great dish of a side of lamb, a dish of roasted pigeons, a dish of four lobsters, three tarts, a lamprey pie (a most rare pie), a dish of anchovies, good wine of several sorts, and all things mighty noble and to my great content.

Meat was the staple of the diet, except at Lent, when a proclamation was issued that the eating of fish was obligatory. Anyone, whether they were an ‘innholder, keeper of ordinary tables, cook, butcher, victualler, ale-house-keeper or taverner’ was forbidden to serve meat at Lent under pain of the enormous fine of £60. (This was also true of Fridays both during and outside Lent.) The only exceptions to this were the young, infirm and elderly, who had to obtain a special licence to be allowed to eat anything other than fish. Fishmongers and fishermen were not permitted to profit unduly from this apparently captive audience; the only sales permitted were at ‘moderate and usual rates and prices’. The heavy quantity of protein in many diets meant that gout was commonplace, and well-meaning but ultimately unsuccessful attempts to combat it (including placing one’s feet in ice until they were nearly frozen) often caused more harm than good.

Vegetables and fruit such as carrots, oranges and possibly lettuce, purchased from kitchen gardens or stallholders, were also served, although these were regarded as cheap peasant food and not seen as an integral part of the lunch; many people eschewed them altogether, believing that they caused ‘wind’ and poor humour, a tradition dating back to the medieval belief that fruit affected the humours adversely. A typical judgement was that of John Goodyer, writing some four decades before, when he described Jerusalem artichokes as causing ‘a filthy loathsome stinking wind’ that ‘pained and tormented’ the belly.

For the well-to-do or the newly emergent middle class, the more modest entertainments of the home probably came as something of a relief after the roistering and hurly-burly of court, park or tavern. People entertained themselves with reading, if they were literate and could afford the books and pamphlets that were sold by the local booksellers, or dancing, which was considered a gentlemanly or ladylike way to comport oneself. Music occupied a key position in many households, and it was common for well-to-do folk to keep virginals and ‘a chest of viols’ for home music-making. In September 1666, Pepys noted that when the Great Fire was causing people to flee their homes, around one in three boats contained a pair of virginals. It was considered a normal and enjoyable pastime to invite friends to one’s house to play music and sing an accompaniment. Public concerts, for small instrumental ensembles, only began in England in 1672, and took place at the house of the

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