Today, we went to Bodiam Castle, which is very near to Hastings. First we had a short talk expedition-thing in the tumbledown kitchen about the spit-boy and the fireplaces and bread-oven. We learnt about how white bread was made for the nobility, but it was often left out for twenty-four hours (so that when it was served it was slightly stale, and so only small pieces were laid on the plates) because it was so bad for you. We also found out that because the flooring of the bread-oven was just ashy stone, the bottom of the bread would also be very black, and so was cut off by the cooks to leave only the ‘upper-crust’ left. This meant that all the nobility were often called the upper-crust.
We also had a talk in the Great Hall (twice, but this one I will talk about first). I was seated in the High Chair, where the Lady Elizabeth would have sat with her high-ranked maids and ladies-in-waiting sitting next to her. As you got closer to the door in seating arrangements, you were considered less important in ranking.
There was another talk about how the feast was planned. The high-ranked would probably have eaten lots and lots of peacock, which was suited from its appearance – definitely not its taste. It would make your tongue’s taste buds go all funny in disgust, but the looks of the peacock were simply outstanding. Yes, the marvellous feathers would be taken out before it was roasted, and indeed the beak would have lost its colour, but the beak was simply painted a golden yellow again before being the served, and the feathers were simply stuck back on. The lower-ranked would have things like pork or the in-the-middle-ranked would have venison.
They had a dovecote with about 200 doves in, with its own little fire to keep them warm. They would have had lots of fresh eggs and meat. Baby doves (squabs) were considered a delicacy, and so were eaten whole, bones and all! That must have been horrid!
Because of religious reasons, dietry regulations had to be obeyed that the pope would have come up with. For instance, there was no meat or dairy to be eaten for the whole of lent (which is for forty days). But fish wasn’t considered to be meat; but most things that weren’t fish were considered to be fish, such as puffins, baby rabbits, and beavers’ tails (because they were slithery, they were ‘fish-like’).
There were lots of passageways and some turret-towers (they were really just called towers, but I like the made-up one). We had to go up several spiral staircases and into small, stony rooms where they had concocted mini cardboard beds to make them look like the king’s bedroom chambers or something. There was a film that told you all about the castle. They had talking in the background, but also some subtitles that were often spelt very wrong! For example, they spelt Edward’s name wrong, and they put an apostrophe in a plural.
We had a kids’ mission too, all about the murder mystery of Edward Dallingridge and which of his soldiers were plotting against him. You had a long, partly leather-bound horn of ivory, which you had to touch to a seal you had to find and you could hear the people talking and get clues. We were busy eating our lunch and listening to the talks, so we weren’t surprised when the horn suddenly started speaking, saying, “Your time is up! Please return the horn to the place where you were given it.” This was particularly annoying, but I guessed the murderer (who didn’t get his plan right and kill Edward) correctly – it was Pyk, the minstrel. I have written it small in case you wish to take a kids’ trip to the castle.
When we got home, we nestled down and had some delicious cannelloni that I made all by myself, with only Mummy to put it in the oven! Now we’re going to have a free pudding and maybe some bingo 😉
