Writing
a Historical Novel - Part Two.
Food
and Drink in The British Isles.
Beware
of Anachronisms.
I suspended belief when I began to
read a medieval novel set in England written by one of a famous publishing
house’s authors.
An armed Norman knight in full
armour with a shield on his back scaled a castle’s stone wall to rescue the
heroine locked in a turret. He is described climbing through a lancet window
(an impossible feat). The maiden welcomed him and asked him if he would like to
have a cup of coffee, and eggs and bacon with fried bread for breakfast.
My mind boggled! Coffee was not
imported to medieval England and, even if the beauty in distress had the means
to cook, she would not have served that food for breakfast.
What people ate in the past can be
a minefield of errors for me and other historical novelists. Prior to
Christopher Columbus’ return from the New World potatoes were not known in the
Old World. Novelists should never assume that because potato blight caused famine
in Ireland potatoes reached the British Isles before the late 1500’s.
An error in novels by American
novelists is often the assumption that, on the other side of the big pond, corn
means sweetcorn. It does not. The old corn markets were held to sell wheat.
Tomatoes, also introduced from the New
World were rare and, at first, considered poisonous. Later, people did not know
whether they should be eaten as a fruit or a vegetable.
Fresh fruit and vegetables were
eaten in season unless, for example, strawberries were grown in a hothouse
owned by a very wealthy person. Strawberries ripened at the end of May or in
June. If they were eaten at any other time of the year they would have been
preserved. I imagine a thrifty housewife serving them as a treat in winter.
When I write historical fiction, I
check and double check what my characters eat and drink. Once, I assumed
Camembert cheese was imported from France in the early nineteenth century and
described a character enjoying some in1813. I researched Camembert and found
out it was first made in 1790, and not produced in large quantities until the
1890’s.
There were no bars or boxes of
chocolates. At first it was served as a hot drink made with grated cacao
whisked with milk sugar and water or from cacao paste. Ladies drank it first
thing in the morning, and chocolate houses later supplanted by coffee houses,
were popular.
Eight of my novels are set in the
ever-popular Regency era, so I have included are a few notes from my research that
helped me avoid anachronisms.
“Vegetables are cheapest when they
come into full season. All vegetables are best if dressed as soon as gathered;
and are in greatest perfection before they begin to flower. Most articles for
pickling will be in their prime from July and August; but walnuts not later
than the middle of July; and mushrooms and white cabbage in September and
October.
Herbs should be gathered on a dry
day, and when the roots are completely cut off and perfectly well cleaned from
dust, etc., they should be divided into small bunches and dried very quick by
heat of a stove or in a Dutch oven before a common fire, rather than by the
heat of the sun, taking care they be not burnt When dry put them into bags and
hang them up in a dry place, or pound them and sift them through a hair sieve,
and keep them in bottles closely stopped. Sweet and savoury herbs are best in
fragrance from May to August, according to their kinds. The flavour and
fragrance of fresh herbs are much finer than those that are dried.”
http://bookswelove.net/authors/morris-rosemary
www.rosemarymorris.co.uk
