Claire Hopley - History of Christmas Food and Feasts

T HIS BOOK would not have been possible without help. First, I want to thank all the following people and organisations for their generosity in providing images. Wendy Watson, Curator of the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, located Orazio Sammachinis drawing of the nativity in Chapter One and the Adoration of the Magi by Jean de Montlucon, which is among the colour plates. I greatly appreciate her help and the kindness of Mount Holyoke College. Similarly, I thank Sebastian Wormell, who generously allowed me to use four images from the archives of Harrods, Limited: the pictures of the Meat Hall and the 1935 advertisement in Chapter Seven, and the wonderful Santa in ARP uniform and 1908 certificate among the colour plates. The QUALITY STREET name and image is reproduced with kind permission of Socit des Produits Nestl S.A. I also thank Phyllis Mitchell, of Walkers Shortbread Limited in Aberlour, who provided the image of the Walkers shortbread tin. David Sejrup of Chester Marketing generously shared his photographs of the Chester Mystery Plays and Christmas Lantern Parade, and Jonathan Briggs of Mistletoe Matters in Tenbury Wells shared his expertise about mistletoe, and kindly gave permission to use his photographs. My thanks to both of them, and to Joanna Hanna of the Michele and Donald DAmour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts, who arranged for me to reproduce the museums portrait of Charles Dickens Boz by Nathaniel Currier, which is in the museums Currier and Ives collection donated by Lenore B. and Sidney A. Alpert. The Renaissance Center of the University of Massachusetts has kindly allowed me to use pictures from volumes in its library, including the portraits of Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick, and fruit and vegetable pictures from Gerards Great Herball, or General Historie of Plantes . Ann Fitzpatrick Brown generously welcomed me to use the photograph of her stupendous Christmas tree at Blantyre, Lenox, Massachusetts. She also allowed me to photograph the cribs and Santas with which she decorates Blantyre at Christmas. For this and many other kindnesses, she has my heartfelt appreciation. My thanks also to the Vicar and Parochial Church Council of All Saints Church, Daresbury, Cheshire for kindly allowing me to use the photograph of the Alice in Wonderland nativity window, which commemorates the birth of Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, in the village in 1832. I also want to thank my husband Bob for endless patience in taking photographs, assembling all the images, and for his help in numerous other ways.

Publishers and writers agents have also been generous in permitting me to quote from copyrighted work. Tom Jaine of Prospect Books kindly welcomed me to use images from the facsimile editions of the old culinary books that his company has published, in particular the pie shapes from Robert Mays The Accomplisht Cook . I deeply appreciate Tom Jaines long commitment to expanding and sharing knowledge of how our ancestors ate and cooked; without it, a book such as this would be impossible. I also thank Bruce Hunter of David Higham for granting permission to quote from In Search of a Character by Graham Greene and published by The Bodley Head in 1961, and also from A Childs Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas, published by New Directions in 1954. The Christopher Little Literary Agency generously granted permission to quote from Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone J.K. Rowling, 1997. Aitken Alexander Associates kindly gave permission for me to quote from Bridget Joness Diary Helen Fielding, 1996.

I want to thank Five Colleges, Inc. for their continuing support; my friends, Susan Roy for making the wreaths shown in this book and Anne Rylestone for bringing Wordsworths poems to my attention; and Maxwell Hopley, who told me about Harry Potters Christmas. Finally, my thanks to Pen and Sword editor Fiona Shoop for commissioning this book and sharing her collection of Christmas cards, and to copy-editor Pamela Covey, not only for her expert work on the text but for her many helpful comments as it progressed through production.

Also by the same author for Remember When
The History of Tea

Other books by Remember When include:

Classic Playground Games From Hopscotch to Simon Says by Susan Brewer

Christmas Collectables by Tracy Martin

Food through the Ages by Anna Selby

Great British Fictional Detectives by Russell James

Great British Fictional Villains by Russell James

History of Mens Fashion by Nicholas Storey

Mary Gilliatts Fabulous Food and Friends Entertaining Princess Margaret, Spike Milligan and Other Friends by Mary Gilliatt

The Pocket Guide to Plays and Playwrights by Maureen Hughes

The Private Diaries of Alison Uttley, Author of Little Grey Rabbit Edited by Denis Judd

The Victorian Christmas by Anna Selby

Coming soon

Old Farmhouse Recipes by Alison Uttley

The Pocket Guide to the Classics by Maureen Hughes

Victorian Health Remedies by Thomas Allinson, edited by Anna Selby

Please contact us via any of the methods below for more information or a catalogue.

REMEMBER WHEN
47 Church Street Barnsley South Yorkshire S70 2AS
Tel: 01226 734555 734222 Fax: 01226 734438
E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk
Website: www.rememberwhen.co.uk

Bibliography

Buday, George, The History of the Christmas Card . London: Spring Books, 1954.

Gulevich, Tanya (2003), Encyclopedia of Christmas and New Years Celebrations . 2nd ed. Detroit, Michigan: Omnigraphics.

Henisch, Bridget Ann, Cakes and Characters: An English Christmas Tradition . London: Prospect Books, 1984.

Hieatt, Constance B., An Ordinance of Pottage, an edition of The Fifteenth Century Culinary Recipes in Yale University Ms. Beinecke 163. London: Prospect Books.

Hieatt, Constance B. and Butler, Sharon, eds, Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century (Including The Forme of Cury) . Oxford: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1985.

Miller, Daniel, ed., Unwrapping Christmas . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.

Nissenbaum, Stephen, The Battle for Christmas . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

Pimlott, J.A.R., The Englishmans Christmas: A Social History . Hassocks: The Harvester Press, 1978.

Poston, Elizabeth, The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols . Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1965.

Spurling, Hilary, Elinor Fettiplaces Receipt Book . London: Salamander Press, 1986.

Weightman, Gavin and Humphries, Steven, Christmas Past . London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1987.

Welsford, Enid, The Court Masque. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1927.

Wilcox, Susan M. Rossi, Dinner for Dickens . Blackawton: Prospect Books, 2005.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Traditions and Transformations

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago.

Christina Rossetti,
In the Bleak Midwinter, 1872

M ORE THAN any other holiday, Christmas brings back special memories: of stockings bulging with toys, trees sparkling with lights, the turkey or a goose reigning over the table, and afterwards the pudding, the mince pies and the marzipanned cake under its carapace of icing. Memorys trawl also brings up pictures of Christmas outings, such as carol-singing or shopping for gifts in brilliantly lit streets and shops. And who can forget the family get-togethers, the pantomimes, and, of course, the parties where things perhaps get a bit out of hand?