Lister) caseo et ferina subcruda victitantes, omnia condimenta adjectiva respuerunt' [15].
Some have fancied, that as the Danes imported the custom of hard and deep drinking, so they likewise introduced the practice of gormandizing, and that this word itself is derived from Gormund, the name of that Danish king whom Ælfred the Great persuaded to be christened, and called Æthelstane [16], Now 'tis certain that Hardicnut stands on record as an egregious glutton [17], but he is not particularly famous for being a curious Viander; 'tis true again, that the Danes in general indulged excessively in feasts and entertainments [18], but we have no reason to imagine any elegance of Cookery to have flourished amongst them. And though Guthrum, the Danish prince, is in some authors named Gormundus [19]; yet this is not the right etymology of our English word Gormandize, since it is rather the French Gourmand, or the British Gormod [20]. So that
we have little to say as to the Danes.
I shall take the later English and the Normans together, on account of the intermixture of the two nations after the Conquest, since, as lord Lyttelton observes, the English accommodated them elves to the Norman manners, except in point of temperance in eating and drinking, and communicated to them their own habits of drunkenness and immoderate feasting [21]. Erasmus also remarks, that the English in his time were attached to plentiful and splendid tables; and the same is observed by Harrison [22]. As to the Normans, both William I. and Rufus made grand entertainments [23]; the former was remarkable for an immense paunch, and withal was so exact, so nice and curious in his repasts [24], that when his prime favourite William Fitz- Osberne, who as steward of the household had the charge of the Cury, served him with the flesh of a crane scarcely half-roasted, he was so highly exasperated, that he lifted up his fist, and would have strucken him, had not Eudo, appointed Dapiser immediately after, warded off the blow [25].
Dapiser, by which is usually understood steward of the king's household [26], was a high officer amongst the Normans; and Larderarius was another, clergymen then often occupying this post, and sometimes made bishops from it [27]. He was under the Dapiser, as was likewise the Cocus Dominicæ Coquinæ, concerning whom, his assistants and allowances, the Liber Niger may be consulted [28]. It appears further from Fleta, that the chief cooks were often providers, as well as dressers, of victuals [29]. But Magister Coquinæ, who was an esquire by office, seems to have had the care of pourveyance, A.D. 1340 [30], and to have nearly corresponded with our clerk of the kitchen, having authority over the cooks [31]. However, the Magnus Coquus, Coquorum Præpositus, Coquus Regius, and Grans Queux, were officers of considerable dignity in the palaces of princes; and the officers under them, according to Du Fresne, were in the French court A.D. 1385, much about the time that our Roll was made, 'Queus, Aideurs, Asteurs, Paiges, Souffleurs, Enfans, Saussiers de Commun, Saussiers devers le Roy, Sommiers, Poulliers, Huissiers' [32].
In regard to religious houses, the Cooks of the greater foundations were officers of consequence, though under the Cellarer [33], and if he were not a monk, he nevertheless was to enjoy the portion of a monk [34]. But it appears from Somner, that at Christ Church, Canterbury, the Lardyrer was the first or chief cook [35]; and this officer, as we have seen, was often an ecclesiastic. However, the great Houses had Cooks of different ranks [36]; and manors and churches [37] were often given ad cibum and ad victum monachorum
[38]. A fishing at Lambeth was allotted to that purpose [39].
But whether the Cooks were Monks or not, the Magistri Coquinæ, Kitcheners, of the monasteries, we may depend upon it, were always monks; and I think they were mostly ecclesiastics elsewhere: thus when Cardinal Otto, the Pope's legate, was at Oxford, A. 1238, and that memorable fray happened between his retinue and the students, the Magister Coquorum was the Legate's brother, and was there killed [40].