118 
Willian the Conqueror, the chieftain 
of thefe delicate and coftly feeders, was 
particularly nice and curious in his re- 
pafts. Atter he was peaceably fettled on 
the throne of England, we are told he 
ient agents into different countries to col- 
le&t the mo admired and rare difhes for 
histable. John of Salifbury, who relates 
this circumitance, deciares that he faw, 
himfelf, one entertainment where delicacies 
were ferved up from Conitantinople, Ba- 
bylon, Alexandria, Paleftine, “ Tripoli, 
Syria, and Pheenicia. The Conqueror, it 
is agreed, was a man remarkable for 
paunch; and when his prime favourite, 
William Fitzofborne, who, as fleward of 
the houfehold, overlooked the soyalco ks, 
ferved him with the flefh of a crane haif- 
roafted, the royal cluiton became fo high- 
ly exafperated, that he lifted up his fift 
and would have firuck him, had not Eudo 
Dapiter warded off the blow. 
Soon after this time too the monks of 
Canterbury became unufually luxurious : 
they had feventeen difhes every day, be-~ 
fides a deffert ; and thefe were drefled with 
{piceries and uke that excited the ap- 
petite as well as pleafed the palate.— 
Both sow as well as in the Saxon times, 
the boar’s-head was efteemed a noble and 
a princely dif: this, we are aflured, was 
brought to the king’s table with the trum- 
peters founding their trumpets before it in 
procefiton ; and when Henry I. ferved at 
tiie coronation of his fon, it is recorded 
that he ferved the young king at table as 
fewer, bringing up the boar’s-head with 
trumpets before it, according ‘to the an- 
cient manner. 
In the middie ages the art of cookery 
was as much cultivated and as much im- 
proved as any other of the arts. As.a 
proot of it, Matthew Paris relates that 
at te marriage of Richard Earl of. Corn- 
wali, the brother of Henry ILE. there 
were more than th’rry-thou:and difhes pre- 
pared for the nuptial enterta/nment ; and 
sm the time of Edward ITI. we find Chau- 
ecr’s couk was no mean proficient. 
‘© A coke thei hadde with them for the 
nones, 
Fo boyle the chickens and the marie-bones 
And pouder-marchauate, and tarte, and ga- 
lengale: 
Weill couth he know a draught of London 
glen: 
He couth rofte, boilé, grillé, and frie 
Atd maké mertries, and well bake a pie. 
For blank. manger,that made he withthe bef. 
pe of the moft exvenfive fingularities 
tending the royal teas about this time, 
a5 well as long after, confifted in what 
Obfervations on the Progrefs of Cookery in England. [Sept. 1, 
was called the zatermeats : thefe were re- 
prefentations of battles, fieges, &c. in- 
troduced between the courfes, for the 
amufement of the gnefts; in thefe, as in 
works of playfulnels and fancy, in almoft 
every age, the French are faid to have 
excelled. 
At this period, too, the monks in rich 
monatteries lived more fully, and even 
more delicately, than almoft any other or- 
der of men in the kingdom. The office 
of chief cock was one of the moft confi- 
derable in the monattic eftablifhment, and 
was conterred, unlike perhaps to, almoft 
every other, with great impartiality, on 
that brother who had ftudied the art of 
cookery with moft {uccefs, 
From this time down to Henry VIII. 
the cockery can only be appreciated or 
diftinguithed by a profufion of hot fpices, 
with which every difh feems to have been 
indifcriminately feafoned. ‘Toward the 
reign of Henry VI. it fhould appear the 
difhes bore a more folid form, fince car- 
vers were employed among the ferving- 
mencf the nobility 5; and after forks were 
introduced in the reign of James I. our 
dinners were ferved in a form ftill more” 
fubitantial, differing, perhaps, in few cir- 
cumftances, materially fpeaking, from the 
cultomary dinners of the prefent time. 
It will now, perhaps, be requifite to 
offer a few explanatory obfervations on 
the immediate praétice of the middle ages. 
In the bill of fare of King Henry IV.’s 
coronation-dinner, as well as in many 
other bills, the name of the animal is 
frequently given as if it had been ferved 
whole; yet a very curfory perufal of our. 
antient forms of cockery convince us 
otherwife. Whether fifh, or fowl, or joint, 
the meat was hacked and hewed to pieces, 
and ufually, as our anceftors lived much 
aiter the French fafhion, difguited with a 
variety ot ingredients as fauce. Indeed, 
the cooks of antient times were fo very 
lavifh tn this Jaft particular, that we can- 
not wonder why our anceftors gave the 
phyfician paramount authority in all that 
related to the S| art. Another rea- 
fon fer this mode ot dreffing was, that as 
forks were not in ufe, our forefathers, if 
it was only for the fake of cleanlinefs, 
preferred having their vi€tuals fo ferved 
as to be eafily eaten with a fpoon. 
The names of ‘many of our antient 
diflies are involved in the greateft. obfcu- 
rity ;-and animals were very frequently 
eaten by our anceftors which their defcend- 
ants have not the flighteft relifh im the 
world for. In the lift of birds we find 
many that are now dilcarded as little bet- 
tex 
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