THE TABLE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18900, 26 October 1929, Page 22 (Supplement)

THE TABLE IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the English had only two stated meals a day—dinner and supper: the former at 9 a.m.; the latter at 5 p.m. These hours, besides being convenient for business, /were supposed to be friendly to health and long life, according to the following verses, which were then often repeated:— Lever a cinq, diner a neuf Souper a cinq, coucher a neuf. Fait vivre dans nonante et neuf. To rise at five, to dine at nine. To sup at five, to bed at nine, Ma&es a man live to ninety-nine. We are not, however, on that account to imagine that the people were either enemies or strangers to the pleasures of the table. On the contrary, they had a variety of dishes, and they consisted of the most delicate kinds of food, and were dressed in the richest and most costly manner. Thomas a Becket is said to have given £o — equivalent to many times that sum at present—for one dish of eels. The Monks of St Swithins, at Winchester, made a formal complaint to Henry II against their Abbot, for taking away three of the thirteen dishes they used to have every day at dinner. The Monks of Canterbury were still more luxurious. They had at least seventeen dishes every day, besides dessert. The dishes were dressed with spiceries and sauces, which excited the appetite, as well as pleased the taste.