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a place below it. Salt has been associated with many super- 
stitions. The spilling of salt was regarded as of disastrous 
omen ; salt was given to a new-born child as a token of 
welcome ; salt was laid on the breast of a corpse, etc. 
Many curious dishes found their way on mediae val tables. 
Among them were such viands as sucking rabbits, marrow 
pudding, newly hatched swallows, peacock, swan, and entrail 
pie, while salads were made of violets, primrose buds, daisies 
and dandelions ; sauces were made of violets and mint ; 
parsnips, radishes and saffron were used as vegetables ; soups 
were flavoured with corn marigold, violets and daisies ; and 
fish courses included porpoise, whale and sea-wolf. Mostly 
the food of the middle ages was flesh, and enormous quantities 
were eaten. Vegetables were scarce and were often salted 
for preservation ; pastry and pies were not much eaten, 
though strawberry and cream was an early dish. Most of 
our common vegetables were introduced during the sixteenth 
and early part of the seventeenth centuries, and a good many 
seem to have come from Holland. The breakfast fare of a 
baronial family (The Percies) show large quantities of fish 
and flesh washed down by wine or ale, even in the case of 
children. Butter was at first used only medicinally and 
not as table fare until about 1400. Sheep’s milk was used 
for making butter. 
Swine’s flesh formed the staple food of the poorer classes 
and large herds of swine roamed the woods. Several of our 
local place-names like Swinden, Swinshaw, etc., preserve the 
memory of the habit. The boar’s head was a famous dish — - 
the best in the opinion of the Normans. The peacock is 
associated with the origin of the pie. It was served in a coffin 
of paste with tail expanded and head erect and was connected 
with the institution of chivalry. The Kit-Kat Club, one of 
the most famous of clubs, derived its name from the mutton 
pies made by Christopher Kat. Entrail pie was “ nomble 
pie,” corrupted later into “ humble pie ” (French “ nombles ” 
i.e., entrails). Misson, a French visitor, waxed enthusiastic 
about the pudding, which in his day (Queen Anne) was new. 
Many kinds of puddings were enumerated. Puddings only 
date from about 1702. Pastry was of late introduction and 
came from France. A writer of the time of Charles I. com- 
plains that though English tables were distinguished by 
abundance they were lacking in quality and exquisiteness of 
relish. Confectionery was looked on as effeminate. 
The drinking of healths is as ancient as the Saxon invasion. 
Rowena, the daughter of Hengist, is recorded to have drunk 
