Chapter Seven
A giant saltwater crocodile with a graven metal armband on one forelimb attacks three ships in the Pacific. Read it.
Chapter Eight
In the Great Hall of the manor of Barony Harfang, commoners are served:
warm maslin loaves with butter and cheese;
white bean and ham soup;
roast pork and mutton with gravy;
steamed cabbage, carrots, peas and green beans;
heaped fried potatoes;
local catsup and pickles;
apple, cherry, rhubarb and peach pies;
casked beer -
- while the gentry are served:
beef broth with noodles, mushrooms and veal meatballs;
green salad with walnuts, oil and vinegar;
Hungarian pheasant with cooked apples, sweet onions, cider and cream;
elegantly cut fried potatoes;
baked tomatoes stuffed with peppers, mint, dill and cheese;
brussel sprouts in butter sauce;
crusty white manchet bread rolls;
wine;
chocolate cake in cherry brandy with layers of whipped cream and brandied cherries.
Tomorrow:
gym and swim;
visit Ketlan;
visit Andrea above the bookshop;
evening meeting;
less blogging.
8 comments:
BTW, in early feudal Europe, the whole household did eat together in the Hall.(*)
Our expression "below the salt" comes from this era -- the large ceremonial salt container marked the division between the "gentles" at the upper table and the "commons" below.
Over the course of the later middle ages, the lord and his family gradually developed separate quarters and more privacy, essentially in extensions of what had originally been the "bower" or "solar" of the lord's womenfolk.
At the same time, service in a noble household gradually changed from being -part- of the household to being servants in our sense. In the early and high middle ages, being a member of such a household was fairly prestigious -- a Count's butler would usually be of gentle birth himself, for example.
The last vestige of this was the "footmen" and other menservants who were common in very high status families into the Victorian period. By then they were for show, but as recently as the 18th century, the footmen would also function as bodyguards and bully-boys.
(*) originally a lot of the household slept there too. It was like a barracks, in many respects.
For a long time almost everyone in a noble's household, barring his wife and daughters and their attendants, would be male -- the usual exception being the washerwomen.
This was because it was a "riding household", a military unit. Nearly everyone in it was a fighting-man as well as sometimes having other functions.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
And we do see aristocratic or knightly households eating and meeting together in the Great Hall of a castle or manor in the Portland Protective Association.
And those meals! Whether for the commons or gentry, the menus Paul listed are so yummy! And so unsuitable for sedentary guys in more than SMALL portions. (Moans)
Sean
Ah, well, we could always get ourselves 60-pound sets of plate armor and spend 4-8 hours a day doing gymnastics in them, or hacking at a pell...
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Only that kind of STRENUOUS physical activity could justify such a diet! And not merely training and practicing the military arts, farming and many other crafts and trades had become much more physically demanding as well. As was made plain by you.
Sean
Incidentally, those "saltie" crocodiles are terrifying.
They grew bigger before high-velocity firearms were common, too, and there were a lot more of them -- they keep growing until they die, though more and more slowly, and they have very long lifespans and no natural predators when adult (except us).
There are credible reports of salties in the 30-40ft range in the 19th century, genuine sea-serpents with truly elephantine mass, and in the 1950's one bit an 18-ft chunk of mahogany railing from a yacht cruising off the north coast of Australia.
During WWII, they found that men doing intensive physical labor could lose weight on over 5000 calories a day. Americans back around 1900 consumed more calories daily than they do now -- over 3000 a day was typical, much of it from fats -- and were not usually overweight.
Teddy Roosevelt got stout in middle age, despite continuing to lead a very active life even as president, but if you read what he -ate-, it's not surprising -- three really big meals a day, with double helpings of everything. This is what he looked like as a young man at Harvard:
http://assets.fightland.com/content-images/contentimage/53456/teddy3.jpg
Even in his 40's and 50's, he routinely did physical feats which are gobsmacking to read off -- leaping onto the backs of record-breaking mountain lions and stabbing them to death, riding 150 miles horseback in a single day, casually swimming icy rivers and climbing cliffs on rambles.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
I agree, salt water crocodiles are terrifying animals! And, given something like the Change, they would again have the chance to grow to truly monstrous sizes.
Sean
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Some might attribute TR's passion for the strenuous life to his determination to over come a sickly childhood (he had asthma). And no doubt that was true in part, the rest was a result of his enthusiasm and determination.
And I think professional athletes today would BLANCH at Teddy Roosevelt's physical feats!
Sean
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