“ A curse on those stupid letters! all learned men are beggars: even Erasmus, the most learned of all, is a beggar (as I hear) , and in a certain letter of his calls τήν κατάρατον πενίαν (that is, execrable poverty) his wife, and vehemently complains that he cannot shake her off his shoulders right into βαθυκήτεα πόντον, that is, into the deep sea. I swear by God’s body I’d rather that my son should hang than study letters. For it becomes the sons of gentlemen to blow the horn nicely (apte) , to hunt skilfully, and elegantly carry and train a hawk. ”

“ Don’t spill your broth on your chest, or use dirty knives, or fill your spoon too full. Be quick to do whatever your lord orders.
Take salt with your knife; don’t blow in your cup, or begin quarrels.
Interrupt no man in his story.
Drink wine and ale in moderation.
Don’t talk too much, but keep a middle course.
Be gentle and tractable, but not too soft.
Children must not be revengeful; their anger is appeased with a bit of apple.
Children’s quarrels are first play, then crying; don’t believe their complaints ”

“ Besides which, the English being great epicures, and very avaricious by nature, indulge in the most delicate fare themselves and give their household the coarsest bread, and beer, and cold meat baked on Sunday for the week, which, however, they allow them in great abundance. That if they had their own children at home, they would be obliged to give them the same food they made use of for themselves. That if the English sent their children away from home to learn virtue and good manners, and took them back again when their apprenticeship was over, they might, perhaps, be excused ”

“ Enough has been said to show that the progress of Education, in our sense of the word, was rather from below upwards, than from above downwards; and I conclude that the young people to whom the Babees Boke, &c., were addressed, were the children of our nobility, knights, and squires, and that the state of their manners, as left by their home training, was such as to need the inculcation on them of the precepts contained in the Poems. ”

“ The Sewer puts the cover on it, and the cover must never be raised for fear of treason.
(A Dodge: If the silver dish burns you, put bits of bread under it.)
The Sewer assays all the food: potage with a piece of bread; fish or flesh, he eats a piece; baked meats hot, he lifts up the crust, and dips bread in the gravy; baked meats cold, he eats a bit.
The meat-bearer stands or kneels as the Sewer does.
When bread is wanted, the Butler puts one loaf on the table, the other on the cupboard.
The Butler assays all the wine. ”

“ If one may quote a book now considered to be ‘a monkish forgery and an exploded authority,’ Ingulfus, who was Abbot of Croyland, in the Isle of Ely, under William the Conqueror, says of himself that he was educated first at Westminster, and then passed to Oxford, where he made proficiency in such books of Aristotle as were then accessible to students,40 and in the first two books of Tully’s Rhetoric.—Malden, On the Origin of Universities, 1835, p. 71.
In 1201 Oxford is called a University, and said to have contained 3000 scholars; in 1253 its first College (University) is founded. ”

“ Property is not so worthy as royal blood, so the latter prevails over the former, for royal blood may become King.
The parents of a Pope or Cardinal must not presume to equality with their son, and must not want to sit by him, but in a separate room.
A Marshal must look to the rank of every estate, and do honour to foreign visitors and residents. ”

“ At School salute your master, and the scholars.
Go straight to your place, undo your satchell, take out your books and learn your lesson; stick well to your books.
If you don’t work, you’ll repent it when you grow up. ”

“ Who must dine alone, who 2 together, who 2 or 3, who 3 or 4. The Marshall must know who are of royal blood, for that has the reverence. He must take heed of the King’s officers, do honour to strangers, and receive a Messenger from the King as if one degree higher than he is, for a King’s groom may sit at a Knight’s table. ”

“ In the winter holidays, the boys saw boar-fights, hog-fights, bull and bear-baiting, and when ice came they slid, and skated on the leg-bones of some animal, punting themselves along with an iron-shod pole, and charging one another. ”

“ What an Hodg-potch do most that have Abilities make in their Stomachs, which must wonderfully oppress and distract Nature: For if you should take Flesh of various sorts, Fish of as many, Cabbages, Parsnops, Potatoes, Mustard, Butter, Cheese, a Pudden that contains more then ten several Ingredents, Tarts, Sweet-meats, Custards, and add to these Churries, Plums, Currans, Apples, Capers, Olives, Anchovies, Mangoes, Caveare, &c., and jumble them altogether into one Mass, what Eye would not loath, what Stomach not abhor such a Gallemaufrey? ”

“ The Statutes of a Gild of young Scholars formed to burn lights in honour of some saint or other, and to help one another in sickness, old age, and to burial, will be printed for us by Mr Toulmin Smith in the Early English Text Society’s books this year. ”

“ Each estate or rank shall sit at meat by itself, not seeing another.
The Bishop of Canterbury shall be served apart from the Archbishop of York, and the Metropolitan alone.
The Bishop of York must not eat before the Primate of England.
Sometimes a Marshal is puzzled by Lords of royal blood being poor, and others not royal being rich; also by a Lady of royal blood marrying a knight, and vice versâ.
The Lady of royal blood shall keep her rank; the Lady of low blood shall take her husband’s rank. ”

“ But the Society’s experience has shown the very small number of those inheritors of the speech of Cynewulf, Chaucer, and Shakspere, who care two guineas a year for the records of that speech: ‘Let the dead past bury its dead’ is still the cry of Great Britain and her Colonies, and of America, in the matter of language. The Society has never had money enough to produce the Texts that could easily have been got ready for it ”

“ If you are big enough, bring the food to table.
Don’t fill dishes so full as to spill them on your parents’ dress, or they’ll be angry.
Have spare trenchers ready for guests.
See there’s plenty of everything wanted.
Empty the Voiders often.
Be at hand if any one calls.
When the meat is over, clear the table:
1. cover the salt,
2. have a tray by you to carry things off on,
3. put the trenchers, &c., in one Voider,
4. sweep the crumbs into another,
5. set a clean trencher before every one,
6. put on Cheese, Fruit, Biscuits, and
7. serve Wine, Ale or Beer. ”

“ The sympathy, the ready help, which the Society’s work has cald forth from the Continent and the United States, have been among the pleasantest experiences of the Society’s life, a real aid and cheer amid all troubles and discouragements. ”

“ What do you want to be?’
‘A Butler, Sir, Panter, Chamberlain, and Carver. Teach me the duties of these.’
‘I will, if you’ll love God and be true to your master.’
A Panter or Butler must have three knives:
1 to chop loaves, 1 to pare them, 1 to smooth the trenchers.
Give your Sovereign new bread, others one-day-old bread; for the house, three-day bread; for trenchers four-day bread; Have your salt white, and your salt-planer of ivory, two inches broad, three long. ”

“ For food that sets your teeth on edge, eat an almond and hard cheese.
A raw apple will cure indigestion.
See every night that your wines don’t boil over or leak.
You’ll know their fermenting by their hissing.
Names of Wines
Campolet, Rhenish, &c
To make Ypocras.
Take spices; put 6 bags on a perch, 6 pewter basins under, ginger and cinnamon.
(Of the qualities of spices.) Pound each spice separately, put ’em in bladders, and hang ’em in your bags, add a gallon of red wine to ’em, stir it well, run it through two bags, taste it, pass it through 6 runners, and put it in a close vessel. ”

“ The want of affection in the English is strongly manifested towards their children; for after having kept them at home till they arrive at the age of 7 or 9 years at the utmost, they put them out, both males and females, to hard service in the houses of other people, binding them generally for another 7 or 9 years. ”

“ In bed-chambers wax lights only shall be burnt; in hall, Candles of Paris, each mess having one from Nov. 1 to Feb. 2 (see l. 393) , and squires one too.
The Butler shall give Squires their daily bread and ale all the year, and Knights their wine.
May Christ bring us to His dwelling-place. Amen!
Bp. Grossetest’s Household Statutes.
All servants should serve truly God and their Master; doing fully all that their Master orders, without answering.
The upper servants must be honest and diligent, and engage no untrusty or unfit man. ”

“ English University Education. In early days Cambridge and Oxford must be looked on, I suppose, as mainly the great schools for boys, and the generality of scholars as poor men’s children,37 like Chaucer’s ‘poore scolares tuo that dwelten in the soler-halle of Cantebregge,’ his Clerk of Oxenford, and those students, gifts to whom are considered as one of the regular burdens on the husbandman, in “God speed the Plough.” ”

“ There is a kind of fishe, which is called in English Stockfish: it nourisheth no more than a stock. Yet I haue eaten of a pie made onely with Stockefishe, whiche hath been verie good, but the goodnesse was not so much in the fishe as in the cookerie, which may make that sauorie, which of it selfe is vnsavourie ... it is sayd a good Cooke can make you good meate of a whetstone.... Therfore a good Cooke is a good iewell, and to be much made of.” “Stockfish whilst it is unbeaten is called Buckhorne, because it is so tough; when it is beaten upon the stock, it is termed stockfish.” Muffett. ”

“ They made me wonder less at the energy with which some people now are striving to erect “barriers against democracy” to prevent the return match for the old game coming off.—However improving, and however justly retributive, future legislation for the rich by the poor in the spirit of past legislation for the poor by the rich might be, it could hardly be considered pleasant, and is surely worth putting up the true barrier against, one of education in each poor man’s mind. ”

“ Then raise the upper part of the towel, and lay it even, so that the Sewer (arranger of dishes) may make a state.
When your lord has washed, take up the Surnape with your two arms, and carry it back to the Ewery.
Carry a towel round your neck.
Uncover your bread; see that all diners have knife, spoon, and napkin.
Bow when you leave your lord.
Take eight loaves from the bread-cloth, and put four at each end.
Lay for as many persons as the Sewer has set potages for, and have plenty of bread and drink.
Be lively and soft-spoken, clean and well dressed. ”

“ Before bed, chew Mastic, and
(13) Remember before you rest, to chew down two or three drachmes of mastick: for it will preserue your body from bad humours.
14. Pray to God.
(14) Pray feruently to God, before you sleepe, to inspire you with his grace, to defend you from all perils and subtelties of wicked fiends, and to prosper you in all your affaires: and then lay aside your cares and businesse, as well publicke as priuate: for that night, in so doing, you shall slepe more quietly. Make water at least once, and cast it out: but in the morning Look at your water in a Urinal. ”

“ The Ewerer shall cover the lord’s table with a double cloth, the lower with the selvage to the lord’s side; the upper cloth shall be laid double, the upper selvage turned back as if for a towel.
He shall put on cleaners for every one.
Of the Panter.
He carries 3 loaves cut square for trenchers, and the covered Saltcellar, 2 Carving-knives, and sets the 3rd, and a spoon to his lord.
Of the Lord’s Knives, (Bread, and Washing.)
The hafts of 2 are laid outwards, that of the 3rd inwards, and the spoon handle by it.
More trencher loaves are set, and wine served to the Duchess. ”

“ Of Pike, the belly is best, with plenty of sauce.
Salt Lampreys, cut in seven gobbets, pick out the backbones, serve with onions and galentine.
Plaice: cut off the fins, cross it with a knife, sauce with wine, &c.
Gurnard, Chub, Roach, Dace, Cod, &c., split up and spread on the dish.
Soles, Carp, &c., take off as served.
Whale, porpoise, congur, turbot, Halybut, &c., cut in the dish, and also Tench in jelly.
On roast Lamprons cast vinegar, &c., and bone them.
Crabs are hard to carve: break every claw, put all the meat in the body-shell, and then season it with vinegar or verjuice and powder. ”

“ Note lastly, on this subject of private tuition, that Mulcaster in xxv his Elementarie, 1582, complains greatly of rich people aping the custom of princes in having private tutors for their boys, and withdrawing them from public schools where the spirit of emulation against other boys would make them work. The course he recommends is, that rich people should send their sons, with their tutors, to the public schools, and so get the advantage of both kinds of tuition. ”

“ NOBLES AND GENTLEMEN AT OXFORD.
A search through the whole of the first volume of Wood’s Athenæ Oxonienses, comprising a period of nearly 100 years, has resulted in the following meagre list of men of noble or knightly birth who distinguished themselves. There are besides many men of “genteel xxxiv parents,” some of trader-ones, many friars, some Winchester men, but no Eton ones, educated at Oxford.
The number of friars and monks at the Universities before the Reformation, and especially at Oxford, must have been large. ”

“ Harington, On Rising, Diet, and Going to Bed.
On rising, empty your bladder and belly, nose and lungs.
Cleanse your whole body.
Say your Prayers.
Walk gently, go to stool.
Work in the forenoon.
Always wear a precious stone in a ring; hold a crystal in your mouth; for the virtue of precious stones is great.
Eat only twice a day.
Don’t drink between dinner and supper.
Don’t have one fixed hour for your meals.
In Winter eat in hot well-aired places. ”

“ POOR MEN’S SONS HAVE HEADS AS WELL AS RICH ONES’. Whereunto the most reverend father, the Archbishop, being of a contrary mind, said, ‘That he thought it not indifferent so to order the matter; for,’ said he, ‘poor men’s children are many times endued with more singular gifts of nature, which are also the gifts of God, as, with eloquence, memory, apt pronunciation, sobriety, and such like ”

“ Perhaps the corrector, if not writer, was Russell himself. I hope it was, for the old man must have enjoyed emphasizing his precepts with those red scores; but then he would hardly have allowed a space to remain blank in line 204, and have left his Panter-pupil in doubt as to whether he should lay his “white payne” on the left or right of his knives. Every butler, drill-serjeant, and vestment-cleric, must feel the thing to be impossible. ”

“ Let the chief servants have basins, &c., ready, and after Grace, hold the best basin to the chief lord, with the towel under; and then let his messmates wash.
9. The chief lord takes his seat, then his messmates theirs; then the lower-mess people theirs. (When Grace begins, the bread cover is to be taken away.)
10. The Carver takes 4 trenchers on his knife-point, and lays them before the chief lord, (one to put his salt on,) and 3 or 2 before the less people.
11. The Butler gives each man a spoon and a napkin.
12. The Carver pares 2 loaves, lays 2 before his lord, and 2 or 1 to the rest. ”

“ He should rather have alledged their cleanliness, and the frequent washing of their beds and blankets, to be the cause of it, which when the French, the Dutch, and Italians do less regard, they more breed this plague. But the English that take great care to be cleanly and decent, are seldom troubled with them. ”

“ To conclude; the poor man’s son by pains-taking will for the most part be learned when the gentleman’s son will not take the pains to get it. And we are taught by the Scriptures that Almighty God raiseth up from the dunghill, and setteth him in high authority. And whensoever it pleaseth him, of his divine providence, he deposeth princes unto a right humble and poor estate. Wherefore, if the gentleman’s son be apt to learning, let him be admitted; if not apt, let the poor man’s child that is apt enter his room.’ With words to the like effect.”
R. Whiston, Cathedral Trusts, p. ”

“ The year 2000 will not see finisht all the Texts that the Society ought to print. The need of more Members and money is pressing. Offers of help from willing Editors have continually to be declined because the Society has no funds to print their Texts.
An urgent appeal is hereby made to Members to increase the list of Subscribers to the E. E. Text Society. It is nothing less than a scandal that the Hellenic Society should have nearly 1000 members, while the Early English Text Society has not 300!
Deguilleville. ”

“ Is delicious when fresh, or salted. Dies when it feels the air.
Whale? Shipmen cast anchor on him, and make a fire on him. He swims away, and drowns them.
Ahuna. When the Ahuna is in danger, he puts his head in his belly, and eats a bit of himself.
Balena. (The woodcut is a big Merman. ? Whale.) Are seen most in winter; breed in summer. In rough weather Balena puts her young in her mouth. ”