Category: English Culture
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The ‘Fishwives’: Women who swore and fought
In 18th and 19th century texts, the concept of the ‘fishwife’ became something of a fascination. The ‘fishwife’, also known as the ‘fish-hag’ and other terms, was a woman who worked in the markets of major European cities (that of Billingsgate in London being particularly significant), selling the catches of her male fisherman counterparts in…
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What the Planters Ate: Recollections of 19th Century Plantation Foods
Understandably, food historians seeking to unearth the cuisine of the antebellum and post-Civil War South often rely heavily on the cookery books of the time, such as the culinary triumvirate of The Virginia Housewife, The Kentucky Housewife, and The Carolina Housewife. Cookery books, however, do not necessarily provide an accurate picture of the foods that…
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Female Sexuality and Single Motherhood in 19th Century Rural England
In 1892, the English writer Richard Jefferies published an account of the lives led by the rural labourers of his home county of Wiltshire, expanding upon a piece he originally wrote for The Times in 1872. In his book, Jefferies includes an exposition of the sexual mores of the English rural poor of the late 19th century, which is…
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The English Origins of Chitlins, Pig Feet, and other ‘Soul Food’ Variety Meats
Pork chitterlings – or ‘chitlins’ – along with items such as pigs’ feet and hog’s head cheese, are commonly associated with the diet of poor Southerners in the United States. They are also strongly associated with African American ‘soul food’ and are often assumed to be a food originating with slaves. To give a typical…
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On the Supposed Southern Origins of Cheese Straws: A Myth Debunked
Cheese straws are much-loved in the Southern United States. Indeed, the renowned baker Johnnie Gabriel (of Atlanta, Georgia) states that cheese straws are ‘Southern to the bone’. Yet, cheese straws also have a long history in England. Cheese straws are generally accepted to have originated in England and made their way to the United States, settling in the…
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The English Origins of the Southern ‘Mess of Greens’
‘A Mess of Greens’: The origin of the term ‘Mess’ is defined in Daniel Fenning’s The Royal English Dictionary (1761) as ‘a dish; a quantity of food sent to table at once’. In 17th century England, the term was included in books aimed at the upper classes. Robert May’s The Accomplisht Cook (1660), for example — dedicated to Lord Montague, Lord Lumley,…
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Hot Peppers and Hot Sauces in the English Cookery of the 17th to 19th Centuries
Hot peppers – capsicums – were introduced to England from Spain in the 16th century, and were growing in England by 1548.[1] Looking at 17th century English books, a number of references to ‘Guinea peppers’ and cayenne pepper appear, with an early example being found in John Parkinson’s Paradisi in sole Paradisus Terrestris (1629).[2] In…
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Reports on Witchcraft in 19th and early 20th Century English Newspapers
Throughout the 19th century (and into the early 20th century), the worldview and belief system adhered to by a large proportion of the English population – particularly those dwelling in the countryside – was not grounded in Christianity and the teachings of the church, but, rather, in a longstanding belief in witchcraft. Should any misfortune…
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A Witchcraft-Infested Land: Demythologising England’s Rural Past
For many of us, looking at the history of our country and the lives of those who inhabited it is fascinating. There is, however, the ever-present danger of romanticising the past and seeing it as a more healthy and innocent time, in which people lived in tune with nature and developed a rich and charming…
EDMUND STANDING 