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Soyer. Alexis Benoit Very scarce: Numerous unknown details
Memoirs of Soyer (by his late secretaries)
MEMOIRS OF ALEXIS SOYER; WITH Unpublished Receipts AND ODDS AND ENDS OF GASTRONOMY. COMPILED AND EDITED BY F. VOLANT & J.R. WARREN, HIS LATE SECTRETARIES. LONDON: W. KENT & CO., 51&52, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLIX.
FIRST AND SOLE EDITION. 1fep. Half-title with a slightly ragged top-edge. [1] Title page. [1] 1pp. Preface. [1] 2pp. Introduction. 8pp. Contents. 1-286. 287-303 Addenda. [2]. Because of the full re-bind the advertisements inside both the covers are absent. Rebound in blue cloth. The original blue, nicely decorated front cover, laid down, still keeping the illustrated portrait of Soyer. Rubbed. Internally nice and clean. A rare book.
- - Alexis Benoît Soyer (4 February 1810 – 5 August 1858) This book by his secretaries allows the researcher of Soyer to fill in or broaden details that are not readily available elsewhere. After his demise all of Soyer's private papers were burned by a creditor to whom Soyer owed money. All the pieces of Soyer related ephemera on this site came from third-party owners. This book was on its last legs and had to be fully rebound, saving only the outer front cover, albeit slightly rubbed. Still extremely scarce.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11297

STAVELY. S.W.
THE WHOLE NEW ART OF CONFECTIONARY,
SUGAR BOILING, Icing, Candying, Wines, Jelly Making, &c, &c, Which will be found Very beneficial to Ladies, Confectioners, Housekeepers, &c. particularly to such as have not a perfect knowledge of that art. (a small straight line) A NEW EDITION. (a small straight line) To which is now added several new and useful Receipts, Never before published. (a small straight line) By S.W. STAVELY, Nottingham, (a small straight line) PRICE ONE SHILLING. (a small straight line) In this edition several Pages of new Receipts are added, never before introduced in this Work. (a small straight line) Wilkins and Son, Printers, Derby. The whole text enclosed in a single thick line border.
n/d. Cover page with same text as the title Page. Verso advert for another receipt book by same printer. Title page. [1] (1)iv - vi Preface. (1)8 - 57. (1)59 - 60 Contents. Manyblank feps due to filling the binding. last six pages browned ans edges worn without loss. Quarter tan binding with gilt tooling and text on spine. Boards with marbled paper.
- A thin but quite comprehensive booklet on sweet-making. There are no references for Stavely nor his booklet on the bibliographies except an 1830 eleventh edition in Cagle.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11289

Stuart-Wortley. A. J.
The Grouse
NATURAL HISTORY BY THE REV. H. A. MACPHERSON SHOOTING BY A. J. STUART-WORTLEY COOKERY BY GEORGE SAINTSBURY WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY A. J. STUART-WORTLEY AND A. THOBURN SECOND EDITION LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET 1895 All rights reserved
12mo. Pp. Half Title. Frontispiece of 'Home Life' Title Page. (i-vi) 1pp 'Illustrations' (3-293) 2pp 'The Badminton Library' 24pp 'Longmans Classified Advertisements' Bound in red half calf with marble boards and calf corners. Blind tooled borders around boards. Spine with intricate gilt tooling and gilt lines. Also with green labels, gilt lettering and raised bands. Overall a very clean copy both inside and out.
- An interesting book to all lovers of finely cooked game; especially the king of game birds -- the Grouse.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10957

THACKER. JOHN The Head Chef of a large Kitchen Brigade.
THE ART OF COOKERY
heretofore published, under the following Heads, viz. ( followed by 3 vertical lists divided by 2 sets of double lines) Roasting, Boiling, Frying, Broiling, Baking, Fricasees, Puddings, Custards, (double line) Cakes, Cheese-cakes, Tarts, Pyes, Soops, Made-Wines, Jellies, Carving, (double line) Pickling, Preserving, Pastry, Collering, Confectionary, Creams, Ragoos, Braising, &. &. ALSO, A BILL OF FARE For every Month in the Year. WITH AN Alphabetical INDEX to the Whole: BEING A BOOK highly necessary for all FAMILIES, having the GROUNDS of COOKERY fully display'd therein. (a single horizontal line) by JOHN THACKER, COOK to the Honourable and Reverend the Dean and Chapter in DURHAM. (a double horizontal line) NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE: Printed by I. Thompson and Company. (a small single horizontal line) MDCCLV111.
FIRST EDITION. 1758. 8vo. 204 x 130mm. 2fep. Title Page on recto, verso blank. 4p Preface. 7p Index. (1)2-322. 32p letterpress Bills of Fare. 1p Errata slip on 1st fep, 2nd fep. Many in-text illustrations. Text block very lightly age-browned, Title page with water staining not affecting text, overall good condition. Full dark brown contemporary calf. Spine and front cover split but holding. Top and bottom of spine missing small pieces. Overall a very rare first edition. Bitting p458. Cagle p1019. MacLean pp140-141. Oxford p88. Provenance: 'Anne Williamson'. Later ink sig. to head of title. Mary Chadsey bookplate on front paste-down.
- An exhibition in Durham Cathedral’s multi award-winning museum experience, named 'Open Treasure', examines the role that food and drink played in the life of the cathedral and its inhabitants through the centuries. Focused on the famous Great Kitchen, the exhibition explores everything from medieval monastic rules on fasting to the kitchen’s present-day role as home of the treasures of St Cuthbert as part of 'Open Treasure'. Designed by architect John Lewyn, and built to provide daily meals for a community of 60 monks and their guests, construction of a large kitchen began in 1366 at the substantial cost of £180 17s 7d (more than £120,000 in today’s money). Featuring an innovative vaulted ceiling, the Prior’s Kitchen (now known as the Great Kitchen) provided the monks with an array of dishes prepared according to the 6th century ‘Rule of St Benedict’. Stating that meals should consist of “two kinds of cooked food”, the rule called upon monks to abstain from eating meat unless they were ill, and encouraged abstinence from drink despite allowing “half a bottle of wine a day” as sufficient for each monk. Although a large staff manned the kitchen on a daily basis, including dedicated ‘seethers’ to boil food, a ‘turnbroach’ to work the spit, and a ‘pastillator’ to prepare pastry, visiting royalty and noblemen would also bring their own cooks with them to prepare the immense feasts the cathedral was known for. Over the years the kitchen would play host to the cooks of the Earls of Northumberland, Warwick and Westmorland, the Duke of Exeter, the Archbishop of York and the Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III. Catering both everyday meals and lavish banquets, the bustling kitchen saw a tremendous variety of dishes being prepared, with Cathedral records showing over 1000 suppliers providing an array of foodstuffs including sugar, ginger, saffron, currants, almonds, plums and grapes. Excavations of the kitchen in 2011 also revealed evidence of cattle, sheep, pig, goose and chicken bones; along with 21 different species of fish; oyster, cockle and mussel shells; as well as some more unusual examples including a frog and even a porpoise! Recipes for dishes served at the Cathedral over the centuries can be found in ‘The Art of Cookery’ written by John Thacker, who was cook to the Dean and Chapter between 1739 and 1758. To supplement his £10 annual income, he opened a cookery school in 1742 and began publishing recipes as a monthly magazine in 1746, with a complete book following in 1758. Containing over 650 recipes and drawings on how to present the dishes, Thacker’s cookbook includes many recipes you could easily recreate at home, including beef steak pie, chocolate cream, almond cakes, and ‘Queen’s Biscuits’. The Great Kitchen continued to function as a working kitchen up until the 1940s when practicality saw the preparation of food moved closer to the Deanery. Used to house the cathedral archive between 1951 and 1992, the kitchen was converted into the cathedral’s bookshop in 1997.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11122

Tillinghast & M.H. Mary - Two books bound in one
THE YOUNG COOKS Monitor;
OR DIRECTIONS FOR Cookery and Distilling, BEING A Choice Compendium of Excellent Receipts. Made Publick for the Use and Benifit of my Scholars. The THIRD EDITION with Large ADDITIONS. By M.H. LONDON: Printed for the Author, at her House in Limestreet. 1705. --- BOUND WITH: Rare and Excellent RECEIPTS. Experienc'd, and Taught By Mrs Mary Tillinghast. And now Printed for the Use of her Scholars only. LONDON, Printed in the Year, 1690.
12mo. 2fep. Title page. 2pp. Epistle preface, signed M.H. (9-180) 2nd Title page. (1-30) 2fep. Nicely bound in contemporary full mottled tan calf with gilt lines and fillet on boards. Spine with raised bands, gilt lines, red label with gilt lettering. Clean internally with very light ageing and minor worming to some pages without loss of text. A very rare item.
- The first edition of the 'Young Cook's Monitor' was printed 1683. Oxford states that the 2nd edition of 1690 has an appendix. This third edition of 1705 also has an appendix. The second book; Tillinghast's 'Rare and Excellent Receipts' was first printed in 1678. This copy is the second of 1690. In Oxford's 'Notes from a Collector's Catalogue' he writes on page 87, that both his and the BM's copies of Tillinghast's book are also bound with the 'Young Cook's Monitor' There is also a surprising similarity between these 2 books bound in one volume, and the anonymous work, 'The True Way'. (item, #10962 on this site under 'Anon') The three books and receipts are remarkably similar with the three Title pages all proclaiming they are 'Made Publick for the Use and Benefit of my Scholars.' The Epistle Directories of both books have the same similar statement addressed to her Scholars. (There is no Epistle Directory in Tillinghast's book). The 'True Way' does not have any indication of authorship, while the 'Cook's Monitor' has M.H. after the preface. This compiler suggests that Mary Tillinghast is the maiden name of the M.H. of the 'Young Cooks Monitor'. I suggest that sometime after writing/publishing her 'Excellent Receipts' in 1678, Mary Tillinghast married and assumed her married initials of M.H. while keeping the authorship of 'The True Way' anonymous. At this point in time there is no way to prove this theory, but the startling similarities between the three works (bound in two volumes) are too evident to ignore. Further reference can be found in the 'The Recipes Project' online that informs: The British Library copies of the Tillinghast and second edition of the Young Cooks Monitor were bound together, sometime during the 19th century: BL shelf-marks C.189.aa.10 (1) and (2).

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10960

Tissot. DR. - First English edition 1776.
ADVICE TO PEOPLE IN GENERAL.
WITH Respect to their Health: Translated form the French Edition of Dr. Tissot's 'Avis au People'. &c. Printed at Lyons; with all his Notes; also a few of his medical Editor's at Lyons; and several occa-sional Notes adapted to this English Translation, By a PHYSICIAN. WITH A Table of the most cheap, yet effectual Reme-dies, and the plainest Directions for preparing them readily. (enclosed in 3 long thin lines) IN TWO VOLUMES.- In the Multitude of the People is the Honour of a King; and for the Want of People cometh the Destruction of the Prince. Prov. xiv.28. - VOL.1. (a long double-thick line) EDINBURGH: Printed by A. Donaldson, and sold at his shops in London and Edinburgh. (a short double-thick line) MDCCLXV1. VOLUME 11. Same Title page.
2 x 12mo. 172 x 110 mm. VOL.1 - 2 feps. Title page. [1] (1) - vi Authors Dedication. Lausanne, Dec.3. 1762. (1)viii - x The Contents. (1)xii - xxi Preface. [1] (1)2 - 27 Introduction. [1] (1)29 - 271. Verso Publishers adverts. 2 feps. - VOL.11. 2 feps. Title page. [1] (1) - vi The Contents. (1)2 - 318. 2 feps. Both volumes in full brown calf with nice patina. Gilt tooling in three compartments. Text blocks with good thick paper. A little light edge staining on both title pages with no loss. Overall fine condition.
- Dr Tissot originally had his books published at Zurich in German by Messrs: Heidegger. Then thereafter a second French edition in Paris, followed by a third at Rotterdam. Sometime later an Italian edition was published. It must have been a popular work. The list of contents appears to cover all types of ailments, both male and female. An interesting read, but definitely of its time.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11287

Trusler. Rev. Dr John - Pierre Koffmann's bookplate & signed letter from Trusler.
The Honours of The Table
OR, Rules for Behaviour during Meals; WITH THE WHOLE ART OF CARVING, Illustrated by a Variety of Cuts. TOGETHER WITH Directions for going to Market, and the Method of distinguishing good Provisions from bad; TO WHICH IS ADDED A Number of Hints or concise Lessons for the improvement of Youth, on all Occasions in Life. By the Author of PRINCIPLES of POLITENESS, &c.&c. A paragraph of 'Lord Chesterfields Letters' FOR THE USE OF YOUNG PEOPLE. The Third Edition. BATH, PRINTED BY G. ROBBINS, FOR THE AUTHOR; And sold by J. Brockwell, No. 7, Great Carter-lane. Doctor's Commons; and Byfield and Co. Charing Cross, London. 1803.
THE THIRD EDITION. 12mo. 1fep with Koffmann's bookplate. Title Page. Pp.2-67. Contents 67-72. 1fep. Twenty six engraved and bordered woodcuts of carving throughout the text. Fully bound in contemporary mid brown tree calf with nice patina. Spine with faded gilt lines. Internally very clean. Also enclosed is a folded one page hand written and signed letter from Trusler to Mr Phillips, Bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, discussing literary matters, including a subscription to "a 4to Edition of my Memoirs if it could be managed, & to print no more than are subscribed for - would you like to subscribe for the whole edition?". 1p. 175x230mm. Trimmed at head but complete with a central filing hole. In fine condition. With a later annotation at the bottom of the page. Under Trusler's signature - Bath, April 11 1805. When Trusler moved to Bath he published the first part of his rambling and anecdotal 'Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Dr. Trusler. 1806. According to Lowndes he regretted its publication and tried to suppress it by destroying all the copies that he could find. The manuscript of the second part of his memoirs is now in the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
- In this age of pre-sliced spiral hams and supermarket meat parts, most hosts, when faced with the job of carving at the table a large fore-rib of beef, a leg of lamb, a loin of pork or small game birds etc etc, fret and falter, unsure of where to make the first cut. This is an ancient anxiety. The Reverend Dr. John Trusler, in this work ‘The Honours of the Table’, writes of the painful "spectacle of a host, hacking for half an hour across a bone, greasing himself, and bespattering the company with the sauce". The art of carving, once the domain of only a skilled few Maître d'hotels, heads of household, and dilettante hosts is now almost completely lost. It is a tradition worth reviving though, if only so that we may regain our confidence and composure at the holiday or festive table. Trusler wrote: "Where the master or mistress of a table dissects a roast with ease and grace…they are not only well thought of, but admired." Trusler also dispenses some quirky advice. Young diners are advised to "pass no joke without a sting (punch-line)", "never pride yourself on being a wag, take no snuff, chew no tobacco", and "be not dark or mysterious" Some of the references are more obscure - women are advised: "Be cautious of un-bosooming yourself at table, particularly to a married woman." He also gives curious information as to the habits of the time. For example, the customs of 'a gentleman and a lady sitting alternately around the table' had only lately been introduced. Till then the ladies and gentlemen sat together according to rank. It also states - 'Habit has made a pint of wine after dinner almost necessary to a man who eats freely.' John Trusler is described by his DNB biographer as "eccentric, divine, literary compiler, and medical empiric." At the behest of his father he took holy orders and was curate to various parishes through much of his life; he said that in making him a clergyman, his father had spoiled a good layman. His clerical duties, however, were not an obstacle to participation in myriad civil activities: he established an academy for teaching oratory, studied medicine in Leiden, superintended the Literary Society, sold sermons to the clergy in England and Ireland to save them the trouble of writing their own, and established a successful printing and book-selling business. He also wrote books on a wide variety of subjects, including works on language and grammar, an edition of Hogarth, a very popular adaption of Chesterfield's 'Letters,' a work on practical husbandry and farming, a book on long life and many more. His 'Honors of the Table' ran to five editions. This thin volume is from the library of the well known chef, Pierre Koffmann. He was Patron and Chef de Cuisine of his famous Michelin starred restaurant -- 'La Tante Claire' on Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, and afterwards owned by Gordon Ramsey under a different name. Koffmann's bookplate on the inside cover is rather simple and gauche. The late Mike McKirdy of 'Cookbooks' related a story about Kaufmann's cookery books when they came up for sale at Auction. The books did not have any proof they came from the collection of such a distinguished and famous Chef. The auction house did not have much time to produce anything so ended up with Mike McKirdy's suggestion of the plump turkey on a hastily produced and photo-copied image, and used as a bookplate for the auction items. As such, I guess they give some distinction to those particular books. The hand written signed letter from Trusler though, makes this item altogether much rarer.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10948

Tryon. Thomas - Rare. Tryon's appendix to
The Good Houswife made a Doctor,
Or, Health's choice and sure friend: Being a Plain Way of Nature's own prescribing, to Prevent & Cure Most Diseases to Men, Women and Children, by Diet and Kitchen Physick only, being an Appendix to the Book entitled , The Way to Health, & or, a further demonstration of Philosophy therein contained. With some Remarks on the Practice of Physick and Chymistry. By Philotheos Physiologue, The Author of The Way to Health, Long Life and Happiness. The Country-Man's Companion etc. London, Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle, in Holloway-Lane, near Shoreditch.
FIRST EDITION. Circa 1688. Title page. 6pp Preface. 4pp Contents. 1-232. 6pp Advertisements. Pages evenly light browned with age throughout with some small staining occasionally. Page corners rounded. Full dark brown modern calf with blind tooling to boards and spine with brown label and gilt lettering. New end papers.
- Although Tryon did not put his name nor date on this book it is easy to place it due to the declaration on the title page -- 'being an Appendix to the Book entitled , The Way to Health, & or, a further demonstration of Philosophy therein contained----'. The 1st edition of The Way to Health is 1683. Oxford states 'n/d' for the 1st edition of The Good Houswife, with a 2nd of 1692 on which Tryon's name first appears. Assuming Tryon took five years to write this supplement, we can place it's date at circa 1688. Tryon was a prolific writer of books on food and diet and also advocated vegetarianism. Oxford lists a total of 10 various titles under Tryon. Both books mentioned here are very rare items.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10945

Tryon. Thomas - Rare.
The Way to HEALTH, LONG Life and Happiness;
Or,A Discourse of TEMPERANCE, And the Particular Nature of all Things requisite for the Life of Man; As, All sorts of Meats, Drinks, Air, Exercise, &c. with special Directions how to use each of them to the best Advantage of the BODY and MIND. Shewing form the ground of Nature, Treatise of most sorts of ENGLISH HERBS, With several other remarkable and most useful Observa-tions, very necessary for all Families. The whole Trea-tise displaying the most hidden secrets of Philosophy, and made easie and familiar to the meanest Capacities, by various Examples and Demonstrances.The like never before Published. Communicated to the World for a general Good, By THOMAS TRYON, Student in PHYSICK. The Second Edition, with Amendments. LONDON; Printed by H.C. for R. Baldwin, near the Ox-ford-Arms in Warwick-Lane, 1691.
8vo. Title Page. 4pp To the Reader. 8pp The Contents. 1-500. [2] 1-18. Pages lightly age browned though-out. Contemporary dark brown calf boards with nice patina. Spine relaid in sympathetic dark brown calf with blind tooled lines with a dark brown label with gilt lettering. Overall a nice copy of a rare item.
- Thomas Tryon (1634-1703) English humanitarian: Born in the bucolic village of Bibury, Gloucestershire. At the age of 18 he left Bibury without telling his parents and travelled on foot to London with £3 savings, where he became a hatter, and also in his youth, a spinner and a shepherd. He had no formal education but taught himself to read and write. He eventually went on to write many books on vegetarianism, health, wealth, slavery, education, abstinence from alcohol and tobacco also advocating animal rights. He lived a very ascetic life even though married, eventually becoming a prosperous merchant. 'The Way to Health' became his best known book and after publication he toured and lectured on it in the United States. The book much impressed Benjamin Franklin, who followed some of its tenets and often quoted from. He had a horror of war, and was shocked by the cruelty of slavery which he saw at first hand when he travelled to Barbados. In the last two decades of his life he published 27 works on a wide range of subjects. His dietary ideas were largely plagiarised by Joseph Ritson in his Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, published in 1802. Playwright Aphra Behn, and Percy Bysshe Shelley were also advocates of Tyron's writings. A supplement to this book called 'The Good Houswife Made A Doctor' (item 10945 on this site) was published after the publication of the first edition of 1683. Cagle 1028; MacLean pp.142/3; Oxford, p.43 (in a note); see Wing T3181.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 10963

Tusser. Thomas - A popular Tudor work.
Tusser Redivivus:
Being part of Five Hundred POINTS of HUSBANDRY; DIRECTING What Corn, Grass, &c. is proper to be sown; What Trees to be Planted; How Land is to be Improved: with what ever is fit to be done for the Benefit of the Farmer in every Month of the Year. To which is added NOTES and OBSERVATIONS explaining many obsolete Terms in the said Mr Tusser, and what is agreeable to the present Practice in several Counties of this Kingdom. A WORK very necessary and useful for Gentlemen, as well as Farmers and Occupiers of Land, whether Wood-Ground, Tillage or Pasture. [a fine straight line] LONDON: Printed, and are to be sold by J. Morphew near Stationers-Hall. 1720. [the whole page with neat double-line border].
190.5 x 127 mm. Twelve monthly parts in eleven (as published, with November and December on the last title page). 1 new fep. Main Title page. [1] January - Title page, Preface on the verso, 3-16 and separate pagination. February - Title page. 3-16 and separate pagination. March - Title page. 2-16 and separate pagination. April - Title page [1]. 3-16 and separate pagination. May - Title page [1]. 3-16 and separate pagination. June - Title page. 2-16 and separate pagination. July - Title page. 2-16 and separate pagination. August - Title page. 2-16 and separate pagination. September - Title page. 2-16 and separate pagination. October- Title page. 2-16 and separate pagination. November and December - Title page. 2-16 and separate pagination. 1page Advertisement. 1 new fep. The Title page has a small repair at the top of the page with no loss. Illustrated with fine large woodcut vignettes in each chapter. (the first 4 vignettes very nicely and pleasingly coloured in yellow). The whole text block is slightly age-browned and clean. Nicely bound in modern full tan calf with raised bans on the spine, with a red calf label and gilt lettering. Overall very good complete copy.
- First printed in 1557, this book has a charming format, giving instructions on farming in England throughout the year. An early adherent of seasonality, Tusser's writing is both witty and informative. His major work was first the ‘Hundredth Good Pointes of Husbandrie’, published by Richard Tottel and frequently reprinted. Tottel published an enlarged edition ‘Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie’ in 1573. Tusser includes a homely mix of instructions and observations about farming and country customs which offer a fascinating insight into life in Tudor England, and his work records many terms and proverbs in print for the first time (eg: A fool and his money are soon parted). In this work, he also famously presents ten characteristics the perfect cheese must have: --- "Not like Gehazi, i.e., dead white, like a leper. Not like Lot's wife, all salt. Not like Argus, full of eyes. Not like Tom Piper, "hoven and puffed". Not like Crispin, leathery. Not like Lazarus, poor. Not like Esau, hairy. Not like Mary Magdalene, full of whey or maudlin. Not like the Gentiles, full of maggots. Not like a Bishop, made of burnt milk". --- The work is written in verse in Gothic script and takes the form of a calendar with instructions in normal script to the farmer on what he should be doing in each month. In August there is a page on the gathering and storing of hops which were only introduced in the early 16th century but are here referred to as a common crop. As well as the growing, care and harvesting of crops and animals, there is advice to the house-wife on the care of foodstuffs. (In the 1744 edition there is a section on ‘Houswifery’ which runs from pages 119 – 138). Thomas Tusser had a very varied life. His father William and his mother Isabella had as well as Thomas, four other sons, Clement, Andrew, John and William, and four daughters; the marriages of the daughters are recorded, but no wives assigned to the sons. Thomas was born at Rivenhall near Kelvedon and Witham, in the County of Essex, about the year 1525. The exact date of his birth is uncertain. At a very early age he was placed by his father as a singing-boy in the Collegiate Chapel of the Castle of Wallingford, in Berkshire. Thomas himself recorded in his homely and quaint style the hardships which he had to endure at this school; the bare robes, the college fare, the stale bread, and the penny ale. Later he was impressed into the choir for the King's Chapel. After this he was admitted to the choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral. From St. Paul's he was sent to Eton, probably in 1540 or 1541, "to learn the Latin phrase," From Eton he passed on to Cambridge, and was elected to King's College in 1543. Being obliged by a long illness to discontinue his studies, he left the University, and joined the Court as a retainer of William, Lord Paget, by whom he was probably employed as a musician, and of whom he spoke in terms of praise and affection. After ten years he retired into the country, married and settled down as a farmer at Cattiwade, a hamlet in the parish of Brantham in Suffolk, where he wrote the first edition of this work. He never remained long in one place. For his wife's health, he removed to Ipswich. After her death, he married again, and farmed for some time at West Dereham. He then became a singing man again in Norwich Cathedral, where he found a good patron in the dean, John Salisbury. After another experiment in farming at Fairstead, Essex, he moved once again to London, whence he was driven by the plague of 1572–1573 to find refuge at Trinity Hall, being matriculated as a servant of the college in 1573. At the time of his death he was in possession of a small estate at Chesterton, Cambridgeshire, and his will proves that he was not, as has sometimes been stated, in poverty of any kind, but had in some measure the thrift he preached. Tusser died on 3 May 1580 at the age of about 55. An erroneous inscription at Manningtree, Essex, asserts that he was 65 years old. According to John Stow's Survey of London, Cheape Ward, Thomas Tusser was buried in the now lost church of St Mildred in the Poultry. The inscription on his tomb there was as follows: "Here Thomas Tusser, clad in earth, doth lie, That sometime made the pointes of Husbandrie; By him then learne thou maiest; here learne we must, When all is done, we sleepe, and turne to dust: And yet, through Christ, to Heaven we hope to goe; Who reades his bookes, shall find his faith was so." Cagle - A Matter of Taste, p1034-1035. Bitting - Gastronomic Bibliography, p468. Lehman - The British Housewife, P29. Pollard & Redgrave – STC 1475 to 1640, p568-569 showing 20 editions up to 1638.

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Antiquarian category

ref number: 11247