Touring in 1600: A Study in the Development of Travel as a Means of EducationBates, E. S. (Ernest Stuart)
History
Touring in 1600: A Study in the Development of Travel as a Means of Education
Bates, E. S. (Ernest Stuart)
Europe -- Description and travel; Europe -- Social life and customs; Travel -- History
Their neighbours, on the contrary, set all on the table at once in a
two-decker on three iron feet; in the top story was the inevitable
sauerkraut and beneath, roast meat, poultry, puddings, and whatever
else was to be had; so that an Englishman likened this two-decker to
Noah's ark, as containing all kinds of creatures. As to these German
"puddings" there is no hard-and-fast rule to be drawn between them
and sausages; and accordingly one cannot say for sure whether it was
pudding or sausage which was the food Moryson had for supper one
night near Erfurt; but the description is of no importance compared
with the size, for it was as big as a man's leg, conforming to the
phrase in which the German expressed his idea of happiness, "Lange
Würsten, Kurz Predigen" (long sausages, short sermons). One who
journeyed through Hessen describes his diet as "mostly coleworts,"
but a Saxony dinner ordinarily began with stewed cherries or prunes,
continued with poultry or meat, the pot for which was set on the fire
but once a week; and concluded with bacon to fill up the corners, as
important a consideration for the host as any one, for there was no
greater reproach to hurl at the host than "Ich hab' mich da nicht satt
gefressen" ("I didn't eat my belly-full there").
Bacon was of great account in Germany, so great that the owners were
wont to bless their pigs when the latter trotted out of a morning, to
ensure their safe return; and told off a servant to wash them as they
passed the fountain on their way back, which they took of their own
accord. But while a well-fattened sow commanded a fancy price—as much
as the equivalent of fifty pounds was paid at Heidelberg in 1593 for
one who had become unable to eat a whole raw egg at a meal—sucking pigs
were unknown as eatables; an Englishman who bought one for food was
forced to kill and prepare it himself on account of the unwillingness
of the servants to touch it. What Saxony did lack was everything that
was dependent on the yield of a cow; throughout Germany there was
little cheese except that made from goat's milk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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