A Taste Of Medieval England

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31121, 26 July 1966, Page 2

A Taste Of Medieval England

An account of the dinner was received by Mrs A. D. Thompson, of Christchurch, from her sister, Mrs S. Dickinson, the hostess for the evening. Mrs Dickinson visited Christchurch two years ago. Bidfield farm was built in the 16th century and has its own ghost, a man in brown. The dynere of flesche or dinner of meat was held in a great hall, normally the granary, with ankle-deep straw on the floor. Rough trestles lined the hall and chickens strutted through the straw. Many guests arrived on horseback. The women were dressed in the long clothes of the period, complete with flowing wimples. Some of the men dressed as knights in chain mail. Others wore furs and velvets with their horses decked out for the Crusades. Guests were welcomed with a witches' brew—the medieval equivalent of a cocktailhanded to them by serving wenches, and sat down to the banquet Dinner in the manor bouses

of old England was not just a matter of sitting down, eating a meal, and rising. It was n a social occasion, with enter ■■l talnment provided by the jester, and balladeers between courses. Grace said in Latin preceded the festivities of the

Medieval England came briefly to life again recently at Bidfield farm, Gloucestershire, when the Cotswold branch of the Royal Society of St. George, held a “Dynere of Flesche.”

four-hour 16-dish banquet Mead, a drink made from distilled honey, helped to quieten appetities and the “baron,” Mr Dickinson, called upon his varlet or servant to taste each dish and wine before they were served by the wenches. All the food was served on trenchers (slices of stale brown bread used as plates) and guests used hunting knives to cut up the great chunks of food. Rosewater in fingerbowls was provided to wash greasy fingers. Food came from the kitchen and from the credenza. Credenza is an ecclesiastic term for a table used in churches to hold the communion vessels. It is likely that these tables were also used for domestic purposes. The banquet was divided into four servings with entertainment between each. The first serving from the credenza comprised marchpane (today called marzipan), tongue steeped in wyne, fresh grapes and wyne served with bisket, a double-baked flat biscuit or cake. Then followed the first service from the kitchen. Guests feasted on bucknade (chunks of venison), brawne of boore with mustard (brawn processed from a boar), bouce Jane (a tidbit thought to have come from Genoa, and noumbles (probably deer liver).

Next from the kitchen came roast sirloin, obleys (thin wafer-like biscuits), chicken legs with sausages, veal pies and hard-boiled eggs. The credenza then provided tarts of pears in quince jelly,

i cheeses in slices, and fruit i Guests slaked their thirsts i with wyne, mead, cyder and ; beer. The serving wenches 1 brought the food on platters , —one platter to two guests.