My Friends by Katherine Pym

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London Bridge. My companions told me all about it so that I visualized it well.

When I write, my mind sails away to another time and place. Tagging along with me are my companions, ghosts from the past, ghosts in the present who seemed to have lived during the era in which I write. They advise me, tell me what is historically correct, or cry: “No, no. Listen to me.” I trust them and type their visuals into the computer. 

King Charles  II Spy Master. Did I work with him?

Then, with a small tune of regret to my companions, I go to the historical texts to make certain what they said is truly correct. Imagination can be a very strong tool. I make an effort to delineate between it and the whispered word. Like automatic writing, do I jot down images from my imagination or had I lived during that time and remembered as I write the passage? 

More often than not, the detail I entered into the manuscript is correct, yet I don’t tell many of this. Instead, a bibliographical list is added at the end of the story. This is much more believable than “I remember when…” 

As a result, readers exclaim they feel they are there, walking the lanes when reading my stories. They smell the not so nice odors. Their eyes sting from the coal smoke and they trip over an uneven paving stone, the heels of their hands embed with pebbles as they fall in the dirt. 

Stories transport one to another plane. More realistic to the time, the better the visuals. That’s my goal as I write novels of the 17^th century, or phantasmatical stories of other planets, or spiritual adventures that take you to the unreal. 

I became woozy riding in this.

This is what writing is all about, to transport one to another world, another time. My ghosties do this with me. 

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Many thanks to Wikicommons, Public Domain for historical pictures. 

Recipes of 16th & 17th centuries England by Katherine Pym

 

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17th Century Chef

I don’t cook, well maybe sometimes. I like a pristine kitchen and cooking takes away from that. I don’t hunt through recipe books, but I do take naps when cooking shows are on television. I put the sound down low and the chef's droning takes me to slumber-land almost immediately. What I do find interesting are recipes from earlier centuries. This was a time of exploration. Every season, new items were brought back to England. It was an exciting time.

Bear in mind some of the following recipes include very expensive ingredients and most middling families could not afford them.  I found only one reference in the 1660’s of a cook-stove (range), so not sure if there were many in the field. Most families cooked their dinners in the hearth, bent over until their backs were sore.

So, here we go. Maybe, for those who like to cook/bake, you’ll find a lovely holiday recipe to try:

NOTE: the language is as written nearly 400 years ago but you’ll be surprised how easy it is to read. Also, based on some of the ingredients (some of the quantities boggle the mind), it's a wonder many adults survived past middle age. And some did. In my research, I've seen some adults get quite old, ages 70+.

To Stew a Leg of Lamb the best way:

Slice it and lay it in order in your stewing pan, seasoned with salt and nutmeg, adding a pound of butter, and half a pint of claret, with a handful of sliced dates, and the like quantity of currants, and make the sauce with the yolk of two eggs, a quarter of a pint of verjuice¹, and two ounces of sugar. Boil them up and put them to the meat, serving all up hot together.

To make collops² of veal the best way:

Slice your veal fat and lean, beat half a dozen eggs with salt, grate a nutmeg, and stamp or chop a handful of thyme.  Add a pint of stewing oysters, and stew them together with a pound of sweet butter.  Make anchovy sauce, and strew the dish over with capers, and so serve it up.

To Roast a Shoulder of Mutton with Oysters the best way:

Take one not too fat nor too lean, open it in divers places, stuff your oysters in with a little chopped peny-royal³, baste it with butter and claret wine, then serve it up with grated nutmeg, yolks of eggs, ginger, cinnamon, butter and red wine vinegar.

To Stew a Rump of Beef in the best order:

Season it with nutmeg, salt and sugar, lay the bony side downward, slice a dozen shallots, cast in a bunch of rosemary, elder, vinegar and water, of each three pints, suffer it to stew over a gentle fire in a close stew pan two hours, and then with the gravy dish it up with sippits⁴.

How to Roast a Hare the Best Way:

The hare being flea’d⁵, lard her with small slips of bacon lard, stick her over with cloves, the ears being stripped and left on, then make a pudding of grated bread, beaten cinnamon, grated nutmeg, currants, cream, sugar and salt.  Make it up with white wine or claret wine, and put it into the belly.  When tying the hare to the spit, roast it by a gentle fire, which done, make sauce of cinnamon, ginger, nutmegs, prunes, grated bread and sugar.  Boil them up to a thickness, and laying the divided pudding on either side of the hare, serve it up with the sauce.

To Roast a fillet of beef
Take a fillet which is the tenderest part of the beef, and lieth in the inner part of the surloyn, cut it as big as you can, broach it, and be careful not to broach it through the best of the meat, roast it leisurely, & baste it with sweet butter, set a dish to save the gravy while it roasts, then prepare sauce for it of good store of parsley, with a few sweet herbs chopp'd smal, the yolks of three or four eggs, sometimes gross pepper minced amongst them with the peel of an orange, and a little onion; boil these together, and put in a little butter, vinegar, gravy, a spoonful of strong broth, and put it to the beef.

To Roast a fillet of beef Otherways.
Sprinkle it with rose-vinegar, claret-wine, elder-vinegar, beaten cloves, nutmeg, pepper, cinamon, ginger, coriander-feed, fennil-seed, and salt; beat these things fine, and season the fillet with it then roast it, and baste it with butter, save the gravy, and blow off the fat, serve it with juyce (juice) of orange or lemon, and a little elder-vinegar.

Or thus (To Roast a fillet of beef).
Powder it one night, then stuff it with parsley, tyme, sweet marjoram, beets, spinage, and winter-savory, all picked and minced small, with the yolks of hard eggs mixt amongst some pepper, stuff it and roast it, save the gravy and stew it with the herbs, gravy, as also a little onion, claret wine, and the juyce (juice) of an orange or two; serve it hot on this sauce, with slices of orange on it, lemons, or barberries.

1.      Acid juice from sour or unripe fruit - the lightly fermented juice of unripe grapes or crab apples (lemon juice works too). 

2.      Slices. 
3.      Mint or basil.
4.      Croutons.
5.      Skinned

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Many thanks to Robert May The Accomplisht Cook (London: 1660) & Wikicommons, Public Domain.

 

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The Haunting of L’Anse aux Meadows, NL by Katherine Pym

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Museum of L'Anse aux Meadows in NL

 Whether you believe in ghosts or not, some of the stories are fascinating. This month the Canadian Historical Brides authors will share some of their favourite 'haunted' locals in Canada. Since my Canadian story is about Newfoundland and its origins/colonialism, I thought I’d tell you of a Newfoundland ghost story. 

A Turf & Timber Norse Structure

It’s not a big one. It’s not a cruel story. Some say the ghost ship brings good tidings, even as it scares the beejeebs out of ones seeing it: a Viking ship that returns over the centuries on 15 August. It haunts L’Anse aux Meadows, an old Viking settlement at the tip of a peninsula on the NW portion of Newfoundland/Labrador. 

L'Anse aux Meadows (red dot)

According to historical records, Vikings explored this area. They travelled from Greenland to Helleland, then meandered south to L’Anse aux Meadows. Radiocarbon dates the first authenticated European settlement between 976 & 985 CE. The Vikings built earthen and timber structures of Norse design. Artefacts were left behind.

The Norsemen abandoned their settlement, they say due to a lack of game to support them and continual battles with the Inuit (the Norse called these native peoples Skraelings, which may mean: scruffy). The two sides had bloody clashes and the Norse, greatly outnumbered by the Inuit, were eventually driven back to their homeland. As far as we know, they did not return to Canada.

Roll the years forward and stories of a Viking ghost ships prevail. They haunt the shores of L’Anse aux Meadows, some say every 30 years on 15 August.

Here are some of the sightings:

One summer evening, a lone fisherman had a good day and decided to remain behind while others headed for shore and their suppers. The weather turned. Dark clouds scudded and the winds had picked up. He gathered his things and prepared to leave but the boat wouldn’t start. He checked the fuel gauge and other fishing boat stuff and all was in readiness but the motor was dead.

Ghost Viking Ship

Suddenly, he heard what seemed like paddles in the water. The fisherman considered this good luck for whoever it was would take him to shore. He ran to the deck to see a strange ship heading straight for him, ready to ram him. The boat was long with a tall mast, with red and white striped sails. Men shook their swords as if ready to do battle but just before the ship rammed him, a battle horn sounded. The ghost ship disappeared.

When the fisherman turned the key, his engine started. Meeting the Vikings had given him good tidings.

There’s another story of two young men intent on stealing a neighbour’s whiskey. They knew he hid it in an outside building. They broke into the barn and located the bottle right away. Suddenly, they heard paddles striking the water and looked out the window to see a strange ship, a long boat with a tall mast and striped sails. It was coming right at them. Men on board rattled their sabres, flung their fists in the air and sent battle cries over the water but a battle horn sounded. The ship disappeared in a cloud of mist, sending the young men running for their lives. They forgot the whiskey.

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Many thanks to:

Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories by Joel A Sutherland

Wikicommons, public domain

Viking Ghost Boat in L’Anse aux Meadows Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5aAN5AXyFE

https://www.thestar.com/life/travel/2009/05/28/spirits_of_the_vikings.html