Food and Drink

Abstract

Food abroad was one of the great unknowns. Some tourists clearly feared what they would encounter. In 1767, the bookseller Samuel Paterson commented on those who crossed the Channel: ‘The English of all people are the most provident upon those occasions, from a natural dread of being starved, which many of them are seized with the moment they lose sight of their native land — so that in the packets between Dover and Calais, or Ostend, it is no unusual thing to find as many fowls, tongues, pastry and liquours as would victual a ship for a month’s voyage.’¹ William Bennet, who accompanied John Rolle to France in 1785, wrote of the latter that his

whole fear when he first landed was that he should be starved. At dinner he always asked if we knew where to get a supper, and at supper if we were sure of our breakfast, but being now pretty certain that a man may find something to eat in this country, he is extremely well reconciled to his tour, the fertility of French Flanders indeed is such that all idea of starving disappears at the sight of it.²