SC - HEY LAWYER LADY!

[Alderton, Philippa]

And it came to pass on  8 Jan 98, that DUNHAM Patricia R wrote:

> I know someone, a woodworker, who is convinced that trenchers of
> bread were much less commonly used than is believed in the Society. 
[snip]
> A lot of confusion could be caused by the use of the term "trencher"
> for both wooden plates and the alleged stale-bread-slabs.  (A
> chicken-or-egg problem-- is the wooden one called after the bread
> one, or vice versa.)
> 
> What say you all on this question? (with documentation, please)
> 
> Thanks,
> Chimene

::digging out my photocopies::  I started to do some research on this 
at one point.  I cannot address the *commonness* of bread trenchers, 
but I can certainly document that they were used.

The _Northumberland Household Book_ (1512) specifies that 
trencher-bread should be made from the bran left over from making 
white flour.

There are several books of courtesy in the collection _Early English 
Meals and Manners_ which discuss trenchers:

John Russell's _Boke of Nurture_ says that trenchers should be 
cut from 4-day-old bread, and goes on to specify how they should be 
laid out on the table.  "Right so iiii trenchers oon by a-nothur 
.iiii. square ye sett, and uppon tho trenchurs .iiii. a trenchur 
sengle with-out lett."  Ie., 4 trenchers set together in a square, 
with an additional trencher placed on top.

_For to Serve a Lord_ refers to "Trenchours of tree [wood] or 
brede".

Wynkyn De Worde's _The Boke of Keruynge_ refers to trencher 
loaves.

 _Food and Feast in Medieval England_ by P.W. Hammond (Alan Sutton 
Publishing, 1993), says that "Trenchers of bread were superseded by 
those of wood or metal in the course of the sixteenth century.  Those 
of the peasants seem to have been of wood, probably much earlier than 
this..."

I think I have more somewhere, but it's late and I want to go to bed.

Hope this helps.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
mka Robin Carroll-Mann *** harper @ idt.net
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