A
grandmother of culinary talent could bequeath to her descendant fame for
some particular dish, and might influence the family dinner for many
generations.
Dos est magna parentium
Virtus.
One house would pride itself on its ham, another on its game-pie, and a
third on its superior furmity, or tansey-pudding. Beer and home-made
wines, especially mead, were more largely consumed. Vegetables were less
plentiful and less various. Potatoes were used, but not so abundantly as
now; and there was an idea that they were to be eaten only with roast
meat. They were novelties to a tenant's wife who was entertained at
Steventon Parsonage, certainly less than a hundred years ago; and when
Mrs. Austen advised her to plant them in her own garden, she replied,
'No, no; they are very well for you gentry, but they must be terribly
_costly to rear_.'
But a still greater difference would be found in the furniture of the
rooms, which would appear to us lamentably scanty. There was a general
deficiency of carpeting in sitting-rooms, bed-rooms, and passages. A
pianoforte, or rather a spinnet or harpsichord, was by no means a
necessary appendage.
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