Soon after the Restoration it was that some Royalist brought out a
small volume called "The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth, commonly
called Joan Cromwell, the wife of the late Usurper, truly described
and represented," 12mo, 1664. Its design was to throw ridicule on the
parsimony of the Protectoral household. But he recites some excellent
dishes which made their appearance at Oliver's table: Dutch puddings,
Scotch collops of veal, marrow puddings, sack posset, boiled
woodcocks, and warden pies. He seems to have understood that eight
stone of beef were cooked every morning for the establishment, and all
scraps were diligently collected, and given alternately to the poor
of St. Margaret's, Westminster, and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. The
writer acquaints us that, when the Protector entertained the French
ambassador and the Parliament, after the Sindercome affair, he only
spent £1,000 over the banquet, of which the Lady Protectress managed
to save £200. Cromwell and his wife, we are told, did not care for
suppers, but contented themselves with eggs and slops.

A story is told here of Cromwell and his wife sitting down to a
loin of veal, and his calling for an orange, which was the sauce he
preferred to that joint, and her highness telling him that he could
not have one, for they were not to be had under a groat.

The Mansion House still retains the ancient usage of distributing the
relics of a great feast afterwards among the poor, as Cromwell is said
just above to have made a rule of his household. It was a practice
highly essential in the absence of any organised system of relief.

The reign of Charles II., which witnessed a relationship with France
of a very different character from that which the English maintained
during the Plantagenet and earlier Tudor rule, was favourable to the