Customs and Fashions in Old New England
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goose for tenpence as would cost three shillings and six-pence or four shillings in London. The cheapest of all the several kinds of poultry are a sort of wild pigeon, which are in season the latter end of June, and so continue until September. They are large, and finer than those we have in London, and are sold here for eighteenpence a dozen, and sometimes for half of that.
"Fish, too, is exceeding cheap. They sell a fine fresh cod that will weigh a dozen pounds or more, just taken out of the sea, for about twopence sterling. They have smelts, too, which they sell as cheap as sprats are in London. Salmon, too, they have in great plenty, and those they sell for about a shilling apiece, which will weigh fourteen or fifteen pounds.
"They have venison very plenty. They will sell as fine a haunch for half a crown as would cost full thirty shillings in England. Bread is much cheaper than we have in England, but is not near so good. Butter is very fine and cheaper than ever I bought any in London; the best is sold all summer for threepence a pound. But as for cheese, it is neither cheap nor good."
I am somewhat surprised at Bennet's dictum with regard to cheese, and can only feel that he had special ill fortune in choosing his cheesemonger. For certainly the Rhode Island cheese, made from the rich milk of the great herds of choice cows that dotted the fertile and sunny fields of old Narragansett, was sent to England and the Barbadoes in great quantity, and commanded special prices there. Brissot said it was equal to the "best Cheshire of England or Rocfort of France." This cheese was made from a receipt for Cheshire cheese which was brought to Narragansett by Richard Smith's wife in the seventeenth century; and her home is still standing, though built around, at Cocumcussett, where her husband and Roger Williams founded a colony. We have a very distinct rendering of the items of family expense, chiefly of food, at about that time, given us by a contemporary authority, and bequeathed to us in a letter to the Boston News Letter of November 28, 1728. The writer refers to other "scheams of expence" for a household which have been made public, one apparently being at the rate of £250 a year for the entire outlay. This sum he thinks inadequate and "disproves in a moment." He gives his own careful estimate of the cost of keeping a family of eight persons. It is computed for "Families of Midling Figure who bear the Character of being Genteel," and reads thus: "For Diet. For one Person a Day.
1 Breakfast 1d. a Pint of Milk 2d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03
2 Dinner. Pudding Bread Meat Roots Pickles
Vinegar Salt & Cheese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
N. B. In this article of the Dinner I would include
all the Raisins Currants Suet Flour Eggs Cran-
berries Apples & where there are children all
their Intermeal Eatings throughout the whole Year.
And I think a Gentleman cannot well Dine his
family at a lower Rate than this.
3 Supper As the Breakfast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 08
4 Small Beer for the Whole Day Winter & Summer. . . . . . 1½
N. B. In this article of the Beer I would likewise
include all the Molasses used in the Family not
only in Brewing but on other Occasions.
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