Welsh Life in the Renaissance Era
"During the fifteenth century, Lewis Glyn Cothi, the ancient clerwr or itinerant bard, gives some glimpses of hard home and social life..."
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From Glimpses of Welsh Life and Character by Marie Trevelyan, 1893.
After [the 12th century], little is known of home life until the fourteenth century, when Davydd ap Gwilym sings of home and love and the state of social affairs in Wales. He mentions the luscious mead with its golden bubbles proof of its quality "swimming around the beaker's brim," and the banquet of that period.
During the fifteenth century, Lewis Glyn Cothi, the ancient clerwr or itinerant bard, gives some glimpses of hard home and social life. His visits were to the houses of eminent Welshmen, as distinguished from the descendants of the Norman settlers. He visited Gower and Aberpergwm in the Neath valley, and also at Llandudwg, the seat of Richard Turberville. The Turbervilles were regarded as friends of the Welsh ever since the days of Pagan de Turberville, who married the Welsh heiress of Coyty, and afterwards valiantly fought for Welsh liberties. The poet warmly sings the praises of the hospitality he experienced. At Aberpergwm there was a lavish profusion of food, and innumerable table delicacies. There were also silver goblets wherein ever sparkled the choicest wines; and there were wine bearers of huge bowls of strong drink. At the home of the Tubervilles, the cellars were filled with choicest wines from Bordeaux and Brussels, and especial mention is made of the celebrated white Bronte wines.
Lewis Glyn Cothi was a martyr to the Welsh marriage laws of the period. In 1402 a statute was passed forbidding marriages between the English and the Welsh. The poet referred to married an English lady, and went to live with her at Chester. There he was discovered by the mayor, who sold his goods and banished him from the city. Whereupon the bard assails him with fiery poetry, the declamation being considered among the finest in the Welsh language.
Other poets give stray glimpses of the past when the cupbearer was commanded to bring in the sweet and "well-drained mead;" the red wine in the "transparent horn," or the "frothing bragget in a yellow tipped horn." Three kinds of "horns of wild oxen" were kept in royal houses. The first was the Hirlais Horn, which was reserved for the King's or Prince's use; the second was used for summoning the retainers to their duties, and the third was kept by the chief huntsman. On rare and special occasions, visitors were allowed to take a draught from the Hirlais Horn. The "lip" of the latter was described as being "adorned with silver," the cover being of the "same metal," and its "green handles" were "tipped with gold." Those privileged to drink from the Hirlais Horn were expected to drain the contents at a draught, and instantly blow it in proof thereof. A celebrated Hirlais Horn is still preserved at Aberpergwin in the Neath valley.
Leland, whom Henry VIII. sent on a journey through Wales to gain information in readiness for the dissolution of the monasteries, gives slight glimpses of home life in Wales; but nothing of importance is to be found until after the Reformation, when the middle classes began generally to read and write.
The well-known "Stradling Correspondence" throws but little light upon home and domestic life; and, until the reign of Charles II., it is almost impossible to discover scraps of information on the subject.
Fragments of an old handwritten housebook of that period give glimpses of the housewife's cookery recipes. Therein it describes "How to make a Posset;" "To dresse a Pig;" "To Fricate Calves Chaldrons (tripe) or Liver;" "To Fricate Mushrooms;" "To Bake Brawne;" "To Murine Carps;" "Pumpion Pye;" "To make a great Curd Loafe;" "Kausoles" (the rissoles of to-day); "Hartichoakes;" "Furmity;" "To Make Pap;" "Jacobin's Pottage;" "Minced Pyes;" "Taffy Tarts;" "To Pickle Purslaine;" "To make Metheglin;" "Bakestone Cakes;" "Tinker's Cake," or Deisen Tinker.
The "Taffy Tarts” were made of sliced apples, lemon peel, and fennel seed, in cases of puff paste. "Bake-stone Cakes" are made of rising dough prepared for bread making. These cakes were then and still are made about as large round as a medium-sized frying-pan, and never less than two inches thick. They are placed upon a round iron plate without any rim, which is set on the top of the kitchen fire, and the cakes are baked first on one side, then on the other. While still hot, they are split open, buttered thickly, and cut into neat portions. "Tinker's Cake" is made of equal proportions of flour and chopped apples, moistened with milk or cream, and served with or without sugar…
Then follow the prices of food in 1610, in 1663, and other particulars about home life in 1666. In 1610 for "a Bushell of Wheate, is. 6d.," while forty eggs were sold for a penny. An old ballad of that period runs thus:
"I'll tell thee what, old fellowe,
Before the friars went hence,
A bushell of the best wheate,
Was sold for fourteen pence.
And forty eggs a penny
That were both good and newe,
And this, I say myself have scene,
And yet I am no Jewe."
In 1662, three pecks of barley malt were sold for 2S. 7d.; eleven Ibs. of beefe, 2s. 2d.; eight Ibs. mutton, 2s. 3d.; wheate, 30s. per quarter; peas, 24s. per quarter; two ounces tobacco, 1s. In 1666 we find a housewife noting "all this day have I been plucking Lavender, and have not finished." This was in the year after the Great Plague, and the writer continues "Red Lavender Water cured some of the evil sickness. A great posy burnt here, and there is good against it.... Sent to Bristol for good Brandy and Comfits for it."
Comfits in those days were spices. "Paid 31s. for the Brandy." Bushes of "Frenche Lavender," as it was called, were, and in some places are still to be found in abundance in Wales. Further entries state, "Put by the new China tea, 40s. a pound;" "make one Barrel of Metheglin very good and clear." "Heard this day how a man in Bristol came home cured of the Evil, the King having touched him." The king's evil, or scrofula was then supposed to be cured by the king's touch. Other entries follow. "Bought Castile Sope, 13s.;" "took down the Tabby Curtains;"... " to the Silversmith for mending glass, 30s." It must have been either Venice glass set in silver, or a mirror of burnished silver, otherwise the glass would not have been sent to a silversmith for repairs. Mention is then made of "twenty yards of fine flowered damask for a gown;" of "fringed linen;” of "Balm and spice for ointment, 1s.;" "Two fat capons, 3s.;" "Two bottles of pepperment water;" and "sent for one pair of murray coloured gloves for Sunday best wear."
Glimpses of home life in 1710 reveal to us that tea was then 30s. a pound, and an entry of the period runs thus: "2 Bushells of wheat 16s., 2 more at 17s. The two with the bag weighed 134 Ibs. What returned from the Miller? 121 Ibs. So the toll paid was 13 Ibs." Then come "7 yds. of cloath to make a cloake, £4, 16s.; 8 yds. of calaminko for a cassock, £1 10s.; 1 yd. velvet, 15s.; clerical hat, £1; Lute-string hood for my wyfe, 8s." These are followed by "Fat hog, 30s., the two flitches of bacon when dryed weighed 66 Ibs.; for 1 quarter of lambe, 3s. 6d.; 8 stone of beefe, 16s. 8d.; a hinde quarter of mutton, 3s. 4d.; a whole lambe, 7s. 6d.; 1 Ib. of sugar for preserving quinces, 1s. 1 payr of fine stockings for my girle, 3s., and a horse pillion for my wyfe, 8s." The earliest use of potatoes in Wales appears to have been in or about 1765. Before the introduction of the potato, "scurvy water," "scurvy grass," and scurvy-wort were in great request.
Trevelyan, Marie. Glimpses of Welsh Life and Character. J. Hogg, 1893.
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