1. FOOD

(a) _Food for resident pensioners._—There was of course a wide difference between the lot of the ill-fed lazar who lodged in some poor spital dependent upon the chance alms of passers-by, and that of the occupant of a well-endowed institution. At the princely Sherburn hospital, each person received daily a loaf (weighing five marks) and a gallon of beer; he had meat three times a week, and on other days eggs, herrings and cheese, besides [p168] butter, vegetables and salt. The statutes laid stress upon the necessity of fresh food, and it was forbidden to eat the flesh of an animal which had died of disease. This was wise, for the constant consumption in the Middle Ages of rotten meat, decayed fish and bread made from blighted corn predisposed people to sickness and aggravated existing disease. Forfeited victuals were granted to the sick in hospitals at Oxford, Cambridge, Sandwich, Maldon, etc. The Forest law directed that if any beast were found dead or wounded, the flesh was to be sent to the leper-house if there were one near, or else be distributed to the sick and poor; Dr. Cox in his _Royal Forests_ cites instances of the lepers of Thrapston and Cotes benefiting by this statute. Salt meat was largely consumed, but it was insufficiently cured on account of the scarcity of salt. Bacon was a most important article of food; one of the endowments of St. Mary Magdalene’s, Winchester, consisted of four flitches annually. About Christmas-tide, according to the “Customal of Sandwich,” each person at St. Bartholomew’s received a hog with the inwards and all its parts. The lepers at St. Albans had a similar custom, but they made their own selection for the salting-tub at Martinmas:—“we desire that the pigs may be brought forward in their presence . . . and there each, according to the priority of entering the hospital, shall choose one pig.” In some households, a meat-allowance was given to each person, perhaps two-pence a week, or a farthing a day. There were vegetarians among the residents at Southampton, for the account-rolls mention Sister Elena who for a time “ate nothing that had suffered death”, [p169] and Sister Joan, “who does not eat flesh throughout the year.” In those days of murrain they were prudent, for it is recorded that an ox was killed for consumption in the house “because it was nearly dead.” In the later almshouses the inmates received wages and provided their own victuals, which were cooked by the attendant. It was directed at Higham Ferrers:— “That every poor man shall buy his meat upon the Saturday . . . and deliver it to the woman, and she shall ask them which they will have against Sunday, and the rest she shall powder up against Wednesday; she shall upon Sunday set on the pot and make them good pottage, and shall give every man his own piece of meat and a mess of pottage in his dish, and the rest of the pottage shall be saved until Monday.” The remainder was served up on Wednesday by the careful housewife, who was directed to buy barm on Fridays for the bread-making. Baking was done once a fortnight at St. Bartholomew’s, Sandwich, the allowance to each person being seven penny loaves. The exact provision of brown and white bread is sometimes given in regulations. Oats “called La Porage” was provided for the poor in the Leicester almshouse, where there was a porridge-pot holding sixty-one gallons. Ancient cooking utensils are preserved at St. Cross, Winchester, at St. John’s, Canterbury, and at Harbledown. In most hospitals there was a marked difference between daily diet and festival fare. Festal days, twenty-five in number, were marked at Sherburn by special dinners. St. Cuthbert was naturally commemorated; his festival [p170] in March and the day of his “Translation” in September were two-course feasts; but the first falling in Lent, Bishop Pudsey provided for the delicacy of fresh salmon, if procurable. Both at Sherburn, and at St. Nicholas’, Pontefract, there was a goose-feast at Michaelmas, one goose to four persons. The “Gaudy Days” at St. Cross were also marked by special fare. (b) _Food for casuals._—Out-door relief was provided in many hospitals. St. Mark’s, Bristol, was an almonry where refreshment was provided for the poor. Forty-five lb. of bread made of wheat, barley and beans, was given away among the hundred applicants; the resident brethren “each carrying a knife to cut bread for the sick and impotent” ministered to them for two or three hours daily. A generous distribution of loaves and fishes took place at St. Leonard’s, York, besides the provision of extra dinners on Sundays. Special gifts were also provided occasionally, on founders’ days or festivals. At St. Giles’, Norwich, on Lady Day, one hundred and eighty persons had bread and cheese and three eggs each. Maundy Thursday was a day for almsgiving, when all lepers who applied at the Lynn hospital were given a farthing and a herring. “Obits” were constantly celebrated in this way. The eve of St. Peter and St. Paul, being the anniversary of Henry I’s death, was a gala-day for lepers within reach of York; bread and ale, mullet with butter, salmon when it could be had, and cheese, were provided by the Empress Matilda’s bounty, in memory of her father. The ancient glass reproduced on Pl. XX depicts hungry beggars to whom food is being dealt out. [Illustration: _PLATE XX._ THE BEGGARS’ DOLE] The Maison Dieu, Dover, kept the memorial days of [p171] Henry III and of Hubert de Burgh and his daughter. The fare and expenses on such occasions are recorded, _viz._:— “Also in the daye of Seynt Pancre yerely for the soule of Hughe de Burgo one quarter of whete vj. viij_d._ Also the same daye if it be flesshe day one oxe and if it be fisshe day ij barells of white heryng xx_s._”[104] Probably the annual distribution of three hundred buns at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Sandwich, is handed down from some ancient custom on the patronal festival, but almost all these charities came to an end at the Dissolution. The Commissioners who visited St. Cross, however, (1535) allowed the continuation of daily dinners to the hundred poor, on condition that distribution was made “to them who study and labour with all their strength at handywork to obtain food; and in no case shall such alms be afforded to strong, robust and indolent mendicants, like so many that wander about such places, who ought rather to be driven away with staves, as drones and useless burdens upon the earth.” The “Wayfarer’s Dole” still given at St. Cross is the only survival of the former indiscriminate entertainment of passers-by.