ABSTRACT
Catering for a great house was a complicated matter; and in more than one of the old household books detailed instructions are given as to what is to be provided at different seasons of the year. Stow enumerates in detail the enormous quantity of food provided for the obviously select company of guests. A large part of the food for all the banquets consisted of native products, particularly beef, pork, and mutton, venison, poultry, fish, eggs, bread, milk, cheese, besides herbs and vegetables, to say nothing of ale, cider, and mead. When the foreign supplies arrived in England they commonly had, unless they were to be consumed in the port of entry, to be transported over the wretched medieval roads to the local market or direct to the castle, where alone, as a rule, they could find a purchaser. Attempts by dealers to take advantage of opportunities to purchase food before its arrival at the market were sharply punished.
