It was not until the early Nineteenth century that fresh meat, bread and beer, vegetables and dairy products could be bought. Before this the rich kept their own pigeons, rabbits, fish, poultry, cows and deer. Fish was especially important for Catholics because they abstained from eating meat on Fridays.

The upper classes took breakfast privately, dinner late morning, and supper in the early evening. Their table would be covered by a cloth and laid with a trencher, knives, spoons, glass bowls, goblets, knife holders, napkins and salts. The poor ate from wooden or pewter dishes off bare tables, and drank from tankards.

A feast menu would include dishes like oysters, tongue, anchovies, fricassée of rabbit, boiled leg of mutton, carp, roast lamb, roast pigeons, lobsters, tarts and lamprey pie. Chocolate and coffee were imported, making them highly prized.