Up and Down Stairs - Jeremy Musson [15]
The setting out of the table reflects the sparse, elegant laying out shown in fifteenth-century illuminated manuscripts and paintings.45 ‘Set the salt on your lord’s right hand, and to the left of your salt, one or two trenchers, and to the left again, your knife by itself and plain to see, and the white rolls, and beside them a fair folded napkin. Cover your spoon, napkin, trencher and knife so that they cannot be seen; and at the other end of the table place a salt with two trenchers. Bread could be wrapped in the napkins. When your sovereign’s table is dressed in this array, place salts on all other tables, and lay trenchers and cups.’ After all this has been completed, ‘set out your cupboard with gay silver and silver-gilt, and your ewery board with basins and ewers, and hot and cold water, each to temper the other.’46
Even the actual physical movement was considered significant: ‘Carry a towel about your neck when serving your lord, bow to him, uncover your bread and set it by the salt. Look that all have knives, spoons and napkins, and always when you pass your lord, see that you bow your knees.’47
After that, he has to watch the other servants to make sure the food is distributed correctly and according to precedence. ‘Watch the sewer to see how many pottages he covers, and do ye for as many, and serve each according to his degree; and see that none lack bread, ale or wine.’48
The carver’s duties are also explained, for carving was always done in public: ‘Thy knife must be clean and bright: and it beseems thee to have thy fair hands washed. Hold always the knife surely, so as not to hurt thyself, and have not more than two fingers and the thumb on thy keen knife.’ Describing different techniques for cutting fish, flesh and fowl, he adds: ‘Touch no manner of meat with thy right hand, but with thy left, as is proper. Always with thy left hand grasp the loaf with all thy might . . . You do not right to soil your table, nor to wipe your knives on that, but on your napkin.’49
Various meats were carved differently. Brawn was cut on the dish and slices lifted off with the knife; with a fawn, kid or lamb, the kidney was served first, after which the carver had to lift up the shoulder and remove the tendon of the neck. Capon, chicken or teal pies had to be taken out of the crust, the wings minced and then stirred with the gravy so that it could be eaten with a spoon. In a typical menu three such courses would be followed by one of fruit.50
The server (or sewer) was expected to ‘Take heed when the worshipful head of any household has washed before meat and begins to say grace, then hie you to the kitchen where the servants must attend and take your orders. First ask the panter or officer of the spicery for fruits, such as . . . plums, damsons, grapes and cherries which are served before dinner according to the season to make men merry, and ask if any be served that day.’ Then he must confer with the cook about the dishes to be served and have the ‘surveyor’ carry them to him, which he would then ‘convey to the lord’. Men should be standing by ‘to prevent any dish being stolen’.51
Over and over again, Mr Russell emphasises the hierarchy of the servants, and who was to obey whom, a recurring theme throughout the centuries. A line of command was essential for discipline and smooth management: ‘Panter, yeoman of the cellar, butler and ewerer, I will that ye obey the marshal, sewer and carver.’52
Mr Russell’s treatise also gives us a delicious