“A brandreth, or iron tripod, for supporting the caldron over the fire: a caldron, a dressing-board and dressing-knife, a bras-pot, a posnet, a frying-pan, a grid-iron or, as it is sometimes called, a roasting-iron, a spit, a gobard, a mier, a flesh-hook, a scummer, a ladle, a pot-stick, a slice for turning meat in the frying-pan, a pot-hook, a mortar and pestle, a pepper-quern, a platter, a saucer.”
[CHAPTER VII]
WEALTH AND STATE OF NOBLES AND CITIZENS
The wealth of the great nobles and the cost of keeping up the households which enriched the City when they were in residence is set forth in some detail by Stow. Thus he says that Hugh Spencer the elder, when he was banished from the realm, was found to possess 59 manors, 28,000 sheep, 1000 oxen and steers, 1200 kine with their calves, 40 mares with their colts, 100 drawing horses, 2000 hogs, 300 bullocks, 40 tuns of wine, 600 bacons, 80 carcases of Martimas beef, 600 muttons in larder, 10 tuns of cider, £10,000 in ready money, armour, plate, jewels, 36 sacks of wool, and a library of books.
In the reign of Henry VI., the Earl of Salisbury was lodged in the Erber with 500 men on horseback; the Duke of York resided at Baynard’s Castle with 400 men; the Dukes of Exeter and Somerset had 800 men; the Earl of Northumberland with the Lord Egremont and Lord Clifford had 1500 men; Richard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, had 600 men, and so on. We may take it that in every great house when it was occupied there would be 500 knights and men, and their horses and their grooms, and the cooks, bakers, brewers, valets, footmen, stable boys, blacksmiths, armourers, makers and menders of all kinds, who made up a little colony by themselves, among the London craftsmen who lived around them. The victualling of these huge barracks was a source of very great profit to the City. We remember that curious little episode when Thomas of Woodstock quarrelled with Nicholas Brembre the Mayor, and punished the citizens by withdrawing—he and his men and as many of his friends as would go with him—out of the City. To lose at one blow the maintenance of many thousand men was ruin. Imagine the consternation at Fishmongers’ Hall, Bakers’ Hall, Butchers’ Hall, among the Vintners, the Brewers, the Cooks, the Poulterers! This unexpected act threw into confusion the whole machinery of supply! Nor was it only the loss of the profit on food and drink, but on the things always wanted for the service of such a host, on the making and the mending, the repairs and the replacements! There was weeping and consternation even among the Mercers, the Grocers, and the Goldsmiths. The whole trade of London suffered. On this occasion a subscription was raised among the leading merchants for the purpose of bribing the nobles to come back. It is the only instance on record of a strike among consumers against providers. Had it been long continued there would have been an end of London trade. But when members of a body fall out among themselves, they very quickly perceive the advantage of reconciliation before it comes to starvation.
RETINUE OF THE EARL OF WARWICK
From Strutt’s Manners and Customs.
The Knights and men in each all wore his livery and badge. Sometimes the livery and badge meant nothing more than the chief’s coat of arms in silver sewn on the sleeve of the left arm. Sometimes it meant also jackets of the same colour, as in the case of Warwick’s men, who all wore red jackets. Later, the badge was discontinued, and the followers wore the same coloured coat or jacket, a custom which survives in the cap and jacket of the jockey.
Every noble carried about with him his Treasury Chest; one of the king’s chests is still preserved in the Chapel of the Pyx. The expenditure was profuse, and, from a modern point of view, certainly pauperising. In the Earl of Warwick’s town house, any one who had an acquaintance in the house was allowed to enter freely, and to carry away as much meat as he could stick on a dagger.