We came to St Mary’s church in the Suffolk village of Wood Ditton, searching for a particular gravestone and its epitaph to a local man described as a gourmand. On the first of March 1753, William Symonds was interred in St Mary’s graveyard and, at his own request, his stone has a small iron dripping-dish affixed to its front, protected by a rusting iron grille. A former turnspit to the late Duke of Rutland at Cheveley in Cambridgeshire (although some records state he was a gamekeeper too), Mr Symonds reached a great age of eighty. As he lay dying of an undetermined affliction, his last wishes were that his stone might tell the tale of his demise. They are believed to be his own words:
Thanks for such a good read! My father used to accuse my mother of spoiling us as she gave us butter instead of dripping ( Her Irish roots v his Portsmouth working class upbringing, I guess). I'm reading about the feeding of the Georgian Navy and the victualling for the Greenwich Pensioners at the Seamen's Hospital where meat was boiled in great cauldrons and the resulting fat skimmed off and kept at the perquisite of the cooks - their "slush fund." They were required to offer it first to the boatswain for lubricating the running rigging etc, but the rest was theirs to sell to tallow merchants on shore or to shipmates for waterproofing boots, frying fish or onions or making puddings. Apparently forbidden in regulations as feared eating it would cause scurvy !
Thanks for such a good read! My father used to accuse my mother of spoiling us as she gave us butter instead of dripping ( Her Irish roots v his Portsmouth working class upbringing, I guess). I'm reading about the feeding of the Georgian Navy and the victualling for the Greenwich Pensioners at the Seamen's Hospital where meat was boiled in great cauldrons and the resulting fat skimmed off and kept at the perquisite of the cooks - their "slush fund." They were required to offer it first to the boatswain for lubricating the running rigging etc, but the rest was theirs to sell to tallow merchants on shore or to shipmates for waterproofing boots, frying fish or onions or making puddings. Apparently forbidden in regulations as feared eating it would cause scurvy !