North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1869-01-13
Our Ancestors.

Our Ancestors.
The October New England Farmer nc
ticing recent publication, "Our English
Homes" extracts and comments as fol-
lows:
The whale was eaten by the Saxons, and
when men were lucky enough to get it, it
appeared at the table late in the 18th cen>
fury. In l246 Henry III directed the sheriff
of London to purchase 100 pieces of whale
for his table. Whales found on the coast
were perquisites of royalty; they were
caught and sent to the Kings kitchen in
carts. Edward ii. gave reward of 80
shillings to three mariners who caught a
whale near London Bridge. Those found
on the banks Of the Thames were claimed
by the lord mayor, and added to the civil
feast. Pieces of whale were often pur-
chased in the 10Th century for the table of
the countess of Leicester. England awas
oft.n supplied with this choice dainty by
the fishermen of Normandy, who made it
an article of commerce. The Normans
had various ways of cooking it; some
times it was roasted and brought to the
table on spit; but the usual way was to
boil it and serve it with peas. Epicures
the tail. The grampus or sea-wolf was
also highly esteemed but of all the blub-
Der dainties the porpoise was deemed the
most savory. The Saxons called it sea-
swine; and the ecclesiastics of middle ages
porco marino. Porpoises were purchased
for the table of Henry Ill. in 1916.
In the reign of Henry II. the whole
stock of carpenters tools was valued at
one shilling, and consisted of broad-axe,
adze, square and spoke-shave. "There
were very few chimneys: the fire was laid
to the wall, ana the smoke issued out at
the roof, door or windows, and the furni-
ture and utensils were of wood. The
people slept on straw pallots, with log
of wood for pillow" Even as late as
IL tine ofEliza h, 1858, it is stated that
apologies were made to visitors if they
could not be accommodated in rooms pro-
vided with chimneys. They had few glass
windows, and when glass was introduced,
it was for a long time SO scarce that when
people went away they would order the
windows taken out and laid up in safety.
In the fourteenth century none but the
clergymen wore linen. The household
furniture, among the wealthy, consisted of
an occasional brass pot, brass cup, a
sridiron, and rug or two, and perhaps, a
towel. OF chairs and tables we hear
nothing. Even the nobility sat upon the
chests in which they kept their clothes.
If man in seven years after marriage,
could purchase flock bed, and sack of
chaff to rest his head upon, he thought
himself as well lodged as the lord of the
town.
In addition to this poverty of what
seems to us absolute necessities, the hous.
cs and the people were exceedingly dirty.
Erasmus, a celebrated scholar of Holland,
who visited Engl; nd, complains that "the
nastiness of the people was the cause OF
the frequent plaques which destroyed
them;'' and he says their floors are COM
monty of clay. strewed with rushes, under
which lay unmolested collection of beer,
grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excrc
ments of dogs and cats, and Of everything
that is nauseous.
| Their tables were as miserably supplied
as their dwellings. They mad little fresh
meat, but sailed most Of their cattle and
swine in November, upon which they
mostly depended through the winter
Very few vegetables of any kind came up
Oh tnelr taUles. IL Is statcu t"at III Ins
carly part of the reign of Henry VIII
not q cabbage, turnip, carrot, or othel
edible root grew in England.
The average duration of human lif'
was, at that period, not one half as Ion!
as that of the present day. The constan
use of sailed meat, and few or no veget
ables, contributed to the shortening o
life, to say nothing of the large numbe
swept away by pestilence and famine.