Fit Food for Philosophers
When Sir Thomas More lost the position of Chancellor of England he was left with comparatively little income, and so lightly suggested possible economies to his family. He proposed a progression downwards through the various diets he had known in his career. The last resort would be 'Oxford fare, where many grave, ancient, and learned Fathers be conversant continually'. After that the only option would be to take to the streets 'a-begging'.
Unfortunately there is not much evidence to show whether More's assessment was accurate, either for his own era or for later periods. Before the nineteenth century we have little detail of the day to day feeding of the residents in College and no menus survive, if any ever existed. An idea of the formality of Hall in 1705, and also the social divisions of the time, can be gained from an almanac which has a sketch plan of the seating arrangements. Each class in the College had its own table. On the dais the Junior Fellows sat apart from their Seniors, and in the body of the Hall Scholars, Commoners, Bachelors of Arts and other groups had their assigned places. The students were more fortunate, perhaps, as their tables were grouped around the central fireplace, from which the Fellows' tables seem far distant. The Gentlemen Commoners (the wealthier students) dined with the Junior Fellows and the student noblemen with the Principal, Vice Principal and Senior Fellows. A reading desk suggests the possibility of a monastic silence.
In 1801 a student recorded that 'we all dine together in the Common Hall with servants to wait and you order what you like. At this period breakfast was usually brought to a man's rooms by his scout, the dinner hour was in the early afternoon and 'Supper at 9'. In 1817 John Sneyd's undergraduate diary gives a picture of a society of breakfast clubs: he belonged to several. He had 'a party to breakfast' on the day after his arrival at Brasenose, and the note 'breakfasted with' is common throughout the diary, supplemented by an occasional 'I gave breakfast'.
The lack of information about day to day meals is more than balanced by the wealth of detail about festive fare. The founders were the first of many benefactors to make provision for celebrations to ensure that they were remembered. Richard Sutton allowed for a modest worldly festivity after the annual commemorative rites for him in the Chapel: 'the Principal and Scholars and their successors shall have ... 13s 4d to increase their fare that day'. Other benefactors followed suit, and by 1635 there were thirteen such celebrations every year, each in honour of a different benefactor. The largest was that of Elizabeth Morley. The widow of a prosperous London draper, she was the first after the founders to endow the College with land. Like most of the pre-Reformation benefactions, hers was intended to ensure that the Principal and Fellows prayed for her soul. There was also to be an annual commemoration on 26th January, with a dinner. The Warden of New College was appointed to oversee the proper execution of her wishes and was to attend the celebrations. An annual dinner is still held today, and the Warden still attends to receive his fee.
Anniversary dinners were not funded from the day to day expenses and had to be accounted for separately. Consequently we have a very large collection of bills for individual dinners which give an idea of the menus. The earliest surviving for a Betty Morley dinner is from 1673, and may serve as an example:
£ s d
4 boiled pullets & 2 ducks 0 6 4
Baker 3s Herbs 3d 0 3 3
44 lbs Roast Beef 0 9 2
A side of ham 0 7 0
Salad, oil, eggs, vinegar 0 1 7
A chine of veal 0 3 6
A chine of mutton 0 3 0
6 Mince pies 0 8 0
3 widgeon 0 2 9
2 cocks 0 2 0
A dozen & half of larks 0 2 0
2 capons 0 4 0
3 pullets 0 3 6
A Tarter pie 0 4 0
Butter 0 2 8
Oranges & Lemons 0 3 3
Claret 6d anchovies 6d 0 1 0
Vinegar & mustard 0 0 6
Eggs for sauce for the pullets 0 0 6
Cheese 0 0 10
In 1697 the meal was even heavier, with oysters, marrow pudding, calves heads and five types of fish added to the menu. But by 1737 there was a different feel, with a more varied spread of fish, lamb and salad, ham, chicken, capons with sauce, partridge, woodcock, sturgeon, oysters, beef, mutton, pickles and cheese.
The College servants were not forgotten. Bills in the 1740s charged for their food as well, usually mutton for the bedmakers and beef for the Hall servants, generally with pickles. Sections of the bills were totalled under Tower, Common Room, Hall and Lodgings, and in 1785 there was a separate section for the afternoon: pipes and tobacco, bread and butter, and 'Toast Muffins'. It is evident that the feasting took place in several locations. In 1818 undergraduate John Sneyd noted in his diary: 'Betty Morley's day. The ... Principal etc. dined in the Bursary. We dined in Hall.' The Scouts dined separately in one of the rooms. Celebrations went on throughout the day, as Ralph Cawley (Principal 1770-1777) recorded in his account of 1772: 'When this Day falls on a Sunday, as this year, the Dinner is put off 'till the Day following, which is at ½ Hour after 2 o'Clock. The Comemoration Thanksgiving was read on the Sunday-Morning. The Warden ... stay'd Tea, which was brought in about 5 o'Clock [and] left the Bursary about ½ Hour after.'
The Warden of New College was also expected to be present at the commemoration of one of his predecessors, William Porter, whose will left lands to Brasenose in 1531. These were to fund an annual commemoration on 4th November and a mass the following day. Eventually these celebrations seem to have become confused with other seasonal celebrations. The bills for 1710 allow for a substantial dinner on Sunday 5th November (mostly game and poultry), with a separate bill for the Principal (turkey and sauce, and 'a dish of Wild-Fowle'). There is a further bill of 5s 6d 'for ye bonefire' two days later; it seems to have been the general custom to divide the ceremonies when the usual day fell on a Sunday. By 1771 the bonfire is firmly incorporated into the commemoration: 'A Speech spoken in the Hall on the Occasion by one of the Bachelors at a Qr of an Hour before 2 o'Clock. When that is finish'd, Dinner is serv'd up ... When the speech is finish'd, [the Principal] & the Fellows go to the Fire, & remain there till all the Dishes are plac'd on the Table.' This sounds very much quieter than the late nineteenth century, when Vice Principal Chandler 'was put upon a blazing bonfire on November 5th, and the porters were only enabled to rescue him by getting reinforcements from the scouts and other College servants'.
Guests like the Warden of New College might also attend morning service in the Chapel, to take part in the commemoration, and then they would be entertained to breakfast. At the Porter commemoration of 1791 nine people drank coffee, tea and chocolate, and ate 'Toast Roles' at 1s 6d each. On 26th January 1749 a breakfast of bread, coffee, tea, sugar, cream and 'six dishes of Coacalot' was served in the Lodgings. Later in the day pipes and tobacco would be provided, and the benefaction also funded wood, coal and candles.
The festivals of the Church's year were marked by extensive feasting, sometimes with musical entertainment in Hall. Dinner at the High Table on Christmas Day 1662 cost £1 2s 10d and consisted of broth, beef, pies, two wild duck, two whinder [widgeon], two capons, larks and apples. By 1693 the 'High Mese' Christmas Dinner was more extensive, with the addition of turkey and mince pies, as well as pullets, bacon, marrow pudding, teal, anchovies and cheese. And the Queen's College was not the only one to enjoy a boar at Christmas. Each year Brasenose had three brawners killed and prepared, a brawner being a boar fattened for the table; the provision of brawners was part of the rent for some College estates. Bills survive for horse hire and expenses in buying the boars, for wood for boiling them, and for dressing and preparing them for the table. In 1706 the Butler recorded the division of the animals in great detail: 'Principal has 3 Cheeks and the High Mess the other 3. The Principal has 6 Collars and the High Mess 6 and the Bursars 3 each. The next given to the Hall on Christmas Day. The Masters have a whole one, the other Tables a whole one or half according to the Numbers.'
By 1720 the bill for Christmas Day seems relatively modest, with just beef, a chine of bacon, a turkey, onion and apple sauce, butter and cheese. In 1763 there is a more modern feel to the fare, with potatoes and plumb pudding appearing. The provision of Christmas cakes was abundant, for the various College bakers were required to give nine cakes between them. The Principal, Senior Bursar and Junior Bursar had one each, and the rest were served in Hall throughout the Christmas season. One each was provided on Christmas Day, two on 'the Holy-days' (apparently St. Stephen and 30 December) and one on New Year's Day, the Butler being entitled to a slice of each one before it was taken in. The Butler was also entitled to 'a little Cake' from each baker. On the Twelfth Day the last two cakes were served, and the servants and bed makers were given slices.
Easter Day and Whitsunday were also celebrated with generous meals, as was the feast day of St. Chad, one of the patron saints of the College. 'Gaudy' is now used almost exclusively to describe a gathering of old members, but formerly it was used for many celebrations, especially those in honour of a particular event. Chad's Gaudy was originally celebrated on St. Chad's Day, 2nd March. However, in the 1660s it was decided to postpone this major festivity to 29th May, the date on which Charles II returned to London from exile. This became the date of the biggest gaudy of them all, the size of which can be appreciated from a bill which details the expenditure on three celebrations in 1720. The Christmas Day meal was 19s 6d, the Betty Morley commemoration £4 19s 18d, and the Gaudy of 29th May £25 8s 6d. However, this meal was not free. Every new member who had entered the College in the preceding twelve months was charged 2s 6d towards defraying the cost of the Gaudy, and every continuing member paid 2d each. In 1693 these contributions helped to cover the cost of seven jackes [small pike], fourteen perch, eels, two Westphalia hams, beef, mutton, lamb, veal, marrow puddings, may dishes, two lamb pies, six pigs, fourteen geese, fourteen ducks, thirty chickens, forty eight pigeons, thirty four tarts, sixteen small tarts, nineteen custards, twelve cheesecakes, seven marrow puddings, pease, two hundred of sparrowgrass [asparagus], cauliflower, bacon, cabbage, salad, eggs, capers, anchovies, wine, horse radish, ginger, butter, sugar, vinegar, oil, oranges, lemons, flour, fennel, gooseberries, vinegar, bread, oyster, cheese, salmon and four rabbits.
In 1771 the Gaudy meal was served in Hall, after which the company retired to the Common Room, where toasts were offered, beginning with the usual toasts of 'Church & King, Queen & Royal Family, Chancellor & the University, All our Colleges and all our absent Members & Incumbents'. The company then took it in turns to toast pairs of gentlemen and ladies, before proceeding to 'Sentimental Toasts'. After Grace on this occasion the Grace cup went round in the traditional manner, still used for the Ale Verses: 'the Person that drinks stands up, & 2 more with him, who are the nearest to him: After he had drunk, he gives the Cup to one of those that first stood up with him & sits down: then another rises to make up the Triumverate; & so on'.
For many years asparagus was the only vegetable to appear with any frequency. Cauliflower and cabbage were served, as were salads, but the early meals are dominated by meat. The menu for the Gaudy of 1742 is the first to show an extensive quantity of vegetables. Eight pounds of cabbage and carrots were provided, and a bushel of peas from 'our market', at a cost of 10s 4d. However, £4 was paid for peas, beans and kidney beans from London, with an additional 2s for shelling them. It is not clear whether this indicated limited quantity or poor quality in the local supply.
Although the early meat feasts might have some cheese or apples by way of contrast, it was not until the eighteenth century that separate bills for pies and puddings were presented by the Cook. In 1722 the bill included '3 Dusen of chescaks', 3 Dusen of custards' and a tansey. Tansies were puddings or omelettes flavoured with the juice of the tansy plant. Traditionally supposed to have been eaten at Easter in memory of the ‘bitter herbs' of the Passover, they appear repeatedly on the menus for most College feasts. Other dishes turn up less frequently. In 1742 'Jellies and sulleybubbs' and 'rasberry cakes' were provided, and in 1769 we find both New College pudding and black cap pudding, the latter a batter pudding into which a handful of currants or raisins was dropped before boiling; they sank to the bottom and gave the dish a black cap when it was reversed out of its basin. That solid puddings of this kind became a part of everyday College fare is suggested by the survival of just one Brasenose recipe, from 1846, for 'Herodotus Pudding'. The ingredients were to be mixed well together, put into a mould or basin and boiled for seven hours:
1lb Beef suet
1lb raisons
½lb fine breadcrumbs
4 figs, chopped
2 spoonfuls sugar
2 glasses brandy
4 eggs
½ the peel of a lemon, fine chopped
¼oz allspice
The assortment of fresh fruit now taken for granted as part of the Oxford dessert starts to appear in the bills in the mid eighteenth century. Catherine Robins charged 2s for 'A Dish of frute' in 1760, and Maria Young provided fruit and sweetmeats for 4s 6d in 1774. A bill for all fruit supplied at feasts in 1835 shows that six or seven dishes of different fruits were provided each time. Raisins, figs and french plums were usual, the rest being dictated by availability. At the Gaudy in May two dishes of oranges and one each of greengages and dried cherries were offered, and on 5th November apples, pears and grapes.
These meals were all prepared using solid fuel in a kitchen built in the fifteenth century. Bills for mending kitchen ware give an idea of the equipment in use. In the 1720s repairs were made to stewpans, ruggew [?ragout] pans, bellows, patty pans, flagons, a tin bread grater, a brass slice, frying pans, saucepans, a dripping pan, a chafing dish and pasty dishes. However, it is surprising to find that apparently the College did not have enough crockery to cope with larger events. For the Morley dinner in 1706 they hired four dozen each of pewter plates and dishes, together with saucers and a sweetmeat frame. And just as the food increased at the Gaudy in May, so did the amount of tableware used. Three dozen glasses and six water glasses were hired in 1752, and in 1754 William Millachip, a brasier and coppersmith trading from the Golden Dish in the High Street, presented his account for the hire of seven dozen dishes (17s 6d) and twelve dozen plates (6d) on a bill engraved with the dish which ornamented his shop front. As only one or two plates were lost at each hiring it seems strange that the College did not invest in more of its own crockery; in 1736-1737 £3 6s 10½d was spent on hiring plates and dishes in just six months. It is possible that something finer than the usual ware was required for celebrations, or perhaps the College was simply short of storage space.
For centuries the backbone of food provision in the College was the concept of 'Commons', a set amount of bread and butter for each member each day . In 1706, when undergraduates habitually wore gowns, the Butler was warned to 'have an eye towards the Window where ye Bread and Butter stands for several have been found guilty of putting [extra] Loaves in their sleeves'. Careful timing would be needed for such theft, as 'the worst, stalest & smallest Bread' was used first and it was not cut too early 'to prevent it drying too fast'. By the 1920s Commons took the form of 'a roll almost the size of a small loaf and a suitable quantity of butter'. Many men would buy cheese in town and use their Commons for lunch, although other meals were possible in rooms provided with open fires ('a delicious comforting pea soup and toast which I made myself before the fire'). Breakfast was taken in Hall: 'College breakfasts are splendid: this morning I had scrambled eggs (garnished with bacon) as well as Porridge and roll and butter. Tomorrow I must get some marmalade ... to make it complete'. For some reason students had to provide their own jars of squish, as marmalade was called. These were named and kept on shelves, resulting in a search through dozens of pots each morning.
Afternoon tea was popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and could be procured in College. 'You went to a basement room somewhere in the New Quad to give your order. Mine was usually for tea and sandwiches (I particularly remember the cucumber sandwiches in Summer) and presently these would be brought to me on a tray by a Scout's boy, either in my room or in the J.C.R.' Later in the day 'dinner in Hall would be a substantial meal of four courses, soup, main course, sweet and savoury'.
In 1932 the series of Buttery Books came to an end. In these volumes the provision of Commons had been recorded daily since at least the 1630s; over nine hundred survive in the Archives. But now the buttery ceased to exist as such, and became instead a pantry for the Hall. Commons were abolished at the same time, and henceforth all meals were provided at fixed prices. In 1933 priced Luncheon and Supper lists were printed. Luncheon ranged from a simple soup and roll for 8d. to soup, roll, choice of cold meats (ham, beef, tongue, lamb or brawn), salad, sweets, cheese and celery for 2/-. For Supper the cheapest option was poached eggs with vegetables at 11d.; salmon and cucumber with mayonnaise sauce was nearly twice as expensive, at 1/11d.
Several internal events were marked by special dinners each year. The offices of Junior and Senior Bursar circulated among the Fellows, so all could appreciate the relief of completing accurate accounts. The 'Accounts Dinner' was generally held in the Tower, probably in the room immediately above the entrance to the College, on or about 21st December. A small group of Fellows and guests would enjoy an enormous dinner in the afternoon and a large supper at night. Another pleasant annual celebration is recorded by the Butler in 1706. On the first Monday of Lent [now Hilary] Term the Dean was treated by the Vice Principal to Breakfast in the Common Room. If it was his first year as Dean he had to make a speech, but doubtless was given courage by the prospect of the barrel of oysters and dish of neats' [cow or ox] tongues to follow. He could also look forward to Buttered Ale 'in abundance', a drink of sugar, cinnamon, butter and beer brewed without hops. The Servants were permitted to dispose of the remaining Buttered Ale, but the tongues were returned to the kitchen, and any remaining oysters 'put under ye Fowel' at Dinner, when the Vice Principal 'treats again with a Breast of Veal, a Chine & Fowls'. A later note adds that 'Green-Tea, Bohea [the finest kind of black tea], Coffee and Chocolate are of late years thought fitter Break-Fasts for Philosophers - and a Glass of white-wine may not be amiss'. Doubtless the effect would be the same as for an undergraduate over two hundred years later: 'we ate enormously and were a merry party'.