Not being skilled as a cook with historic propensities and thinking that I should start somewhere I picked up Jane Renfrew's "Roman Cookery - Recipes and History". That was a couple of months ago. The pocket-sized booklet has about 96 pages which includes parts on Recipes (31 pages) and History (44 pages) of food in Roman Britain, techiques of preparation, equipment and serving food. A rich harvest of photographs illustrates the text in an appropriate manner - many were taken by Peter Williams. For the would-be devotee of Roman cookery the author has provided a short Bibliography and an Index of about 60 recipes in the book
Wanting to treat my grandchildren to a special breakfast my first attempt was boiled "White Mice in a Green Herb Sauce". I left out the green herb sauce as being likely as not to be too tart and alcoholic for breakfast. The children were not squeamish about the mice! (I should say that no mammals* were used in the recipe.)
At breakfast we adopted a traditional modern style of eating - none of the lolling about on cushions with entertainment as per banqueting Roman style - the exception, perhaps, was me as a both a "slave" and non-Roman entertainer.
The Romans in the British Isles and Romano-Britons (all of wealth, I suppose) seemed to eat to an exceptionally fine menu including: milk-fed snails, "dormice" (recipe not given), partridge, oysters, venison and various cakes. Honey was a favoured ingredient as too was liquamen - fermented entrails of fish - the least appertising item for my palate!
* To doubly reassure my readers I add that the "white mice" were hard-boiled eggs!
Published by English Heritage 2004 (revised edition) ISBN 1 85074 870 5
Tuesday 20 October 2009
Saturday 3 October 2009
Dispute Resolution 1 - "The Supreme Court of of the United Kingdom"
The Times gave us a pullout - "The Supreme Court" - on 1 October 2009, ie as a supplement. I found the subject matter momentous and moving - such that I have become a fan of it..?
Constitutionally - under the Constitution Act 2005, we seem to have split the judiciary from the executive. ("Figuratively" - I have a hunch that we have moved (been nudged) towards USA-style justice system - if only in name - and ultimately to a new form of constitution..?)
Our newly called "Justices" will not be called "Lords" but will be addressed "My Lord" / "My Lady" as appropriate. They will not sit in the House of Lords but in the refurbished former Middlesex County Council building in Parliament Square. Their sittings may be filmed for popular consumption and , hopefully, we, the ordinary folk, will be able to take our children or grandchildren to see and hear the machinations of the hightest court in the United Kingdom.
I was a "fan" of the old-style Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (now the Supreme Court) in the sense that I found the contents of some of the cases interesting as to law and containing in some instances a historical record etc. This happened when I was writing rights of common for the Common Lands Handbook.
However, my interest was partial in that only certain topics interested me at any particular time, eg rating, council tax, common land and town or village greens. I did find it difficult to access cases which might interest me. Unless I knew the subject matter of an on-line reported citation I had found on the House of Lords website, I had to guess it from the citation's "names".
The solution (it seems to me) merely requires the webmaster to initiate a scheme of employing an impercunious student who for a bit more than the minimum wage; he or she would categorise all the cases and record his or her results against the list of citations on the website. Readers would be able to quickly scan the list and find say, council tax, common land etc...?
Given that about 100 appeal cases will be heard a year, it would be pleasant to access themon-line by subject matter - incidentally that number is about twice the number that the Infrastructure Planning Commission should hear on nationally significant infrastructure projects each year - if it survives the post-election period of the new Parliament.
The court is entitled as the "Supreme Court of the United Kingdom" but only covers civil and criminal appeals in Great Britain. Its work includes the devolution jurisdiction for the Judicial Committe of the Privy Council. Scotland fit in somewhere but at this stage of my understanding I am more than a little ignorant!
Constitutionally - under the Constitution Act 2005, we seem to have split the judiciary from the executive. ("Figuratively" - I have a hunch that we have moved (been nudged) towards USA-style justice system - if only in name - and ultimately to a new form of constitution..?)
Our newly called "Justices" will not be called "Lords" but will be addressed "My Lord" / "My Lady" as appropriate. They will not sit in the House of Lords but in the refurbished former Middlesex County Council building in Parliament Square. Their sittings may be filmed for popular consumption and , hopefully, we, the ordinary folk, will be able to take our children or grandchildren to see and hear the machinations of the hightest court in the United Kingdom.
I was a "fan" of the old-style Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (now the Supreme Court) in the sense that I found the contents of some of the cases interesting as to law and containing in some instances a historical record etc. This happened when I was writing rights of common for the Common Lands Handbook.
However, my interest was partial in that only certain topics interested me at any particular time, eg rating, council tax, common land and town or village greens. I did find it difficult to access cases which might interest me. Unless I knew the subject matter of an on-line reported citation I had found on the House of Lords website, I had to guess it from the citation's "names".
The solution (it seems to me) merely requires the webmaster to initiate a scheme of employing an impercunious student who for a bit more than the minimum wage; he or she would categorise all the cases and record his or her results against the list of citations on the website. Readers would be able to quickly scan the list and find say, council tax, common land etc...?
Given that about 100 appeal cases will be heard a year, it would be pleasant to access themon-line by subject matter - incidentally that number is about twice the number that the Infrastructure Planning Commission should hear on nationally significant infrastructure projects each year - if it survives the post-election period of the new Parliament.
The court is entitled as the "Supreme Court of the United Kingdom" but only covers civil and criminal appeals in Great Britain. Its work includes the devolution jurisdiction for the Judicial Committe of the Privy Council. Scotland fit in somewhere but at this stage of my understanding I am more than a little ignorant!
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