Plenti and Grase

A Tudor household’s way of life laid bare ...

This is an important study of the household affairs of the Willoughby family of Wollaton Hall in Nottingham and Middleton Hall in Warwickshire. Made wealthy by inheritance and coal mining, they built a wonder-house at Wollaton, designed by the architect Robert Smythson. The survival of their archive allows close analysis of their domestic arrangements.

This goes far towards answering questions we all like to ask about the food of our ancestors: Where did they buy it? How much did they eat? When did they eat it? What arrangements for cookery and dining were in place in their houses? Mark Dawson has been able to construct a valuable account of the place of food in the running of a large household as well as to offer convincing quantities and figures as firm foundation to his commentary. He identifies many interesting developments in the Tudor kitchen and dining-chamber: the shift from mild ale to bitter beer; the move away from the heavy and elaborate spicing of late-medieval cookery; the decline in enthusiasm for salted herring; the fluctuation in observance of Lenten and religious fasts; the embracing of new foods, not least, for example, the turkey; and the complex and thoroughgoing network of supplies and provisioning through merchants, markets and fairs. His focus is not restricted to the top table, the lords and ladies, but embraces the food of the household at large, from gentleman-ushers to scullions and dairymaids.