king's eating, and to send them forward to be ready at his halting places.
The use of strong spices was at this time so general, that a provision of them was deemed indispensable, and as some of the articles sent are now little known, it may be explained that canell was powdered and strewed on bread; galinga, or galingale, an aromatic root of pungent flavour, imported from India, was also used in a powder with food, and long continued common in England. Edward II seems to have prepared himself for his journey in the same manner as did the pilgrims to Canterbury, described by the great poet of the next reign:—
"A coke they hadden with hem for the nones
To boile the chikenes, and the marie bones,
And poudre marchant, tart, and galingale." —Chaucer, Prol, 383.
Pignons, or pignola, the seeds of pine cones, were a common food in France even to the seventeenth century. See Legrand d'Aussy, Vie privée des Français.
In August, 38lb of rice, five score and eleven pounds of almonds, 1½ qts. 2 oz. of cloves, besides pepper, canell, galinga, a box of pine seeds (pign'); and in September, 40½lb of rice, 168lb of almonds, a box of ginger, cloves, pepper, canell, mace, saffron, &c. (a) were thus provided; and we also find the charge for 33 ells of stuff made up into sacks and pokes (saccis et pokettis) to pack up these luxuries, and some sugar loafs, in order to forward them to divers places for the use of the king's household (b).
After leaving London, the king received some presents on his road at Otteford, and at Bromle (2 pikes and 60 pears) from his old friend Walter Reynolds, then Archbishop of Canterbury (d); and he was at Tunbridge from August 23d to Monday the 27th.
Edward II seems to have been especially fond of fruit, and while living with his mother at Langley in 1300, "Nicholas de Gocham, fruiterer, sent him from London pears, apples, nuts, and other fruits, at the price of 20s. 11d." (c.r. — w.n. 2469, xvii). From Tunbridge he dispatched a messenger, Maurice de Hothlegh, with letters under the privy seal to the sheriffs of London, for the expenses of which journey he was paid the very moderate sum of 4d. (e.f).
