Book of Days Tales

Today is the birthday (1709) of Samuel Johnson, an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. Born in Lichfield in Staffordshire, Johnson attended Pembroke College in Oxford – my college – until lack of funds forced him to leave. His rooms at the top of the tower over the gatehouse are still used by undergraduates. After working as a teacher, he moved to London and began writing for The Gentleman’s Magazine. Early works include Life of Mr Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes and the play Irene. After nine years’ exhaustive research, he produced A Dictionary of the English Language in 1755, and it was acclaimed as “one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship.” It was the first historical dictionary that included exemplary quotations through history – forerunner of Oxford English Dictionary.

Johnson often spoke of food:

A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of any thing than he does of his dinner; and if he cannot get that well dressed, he should be suspected of inaccuracy in other things.

For my part, now, I consider supper as a turnpike through which one must pass, in order to get to bed.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

Plus these definitions in his dictionary:

Lunch. As much food as one’s hand can hold.

Oats. n.s. [Saxon.] A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

To complement Johnson’s opinion on oats, here is a recipe from Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1748) – with the conventional long /s/ (ʃ) of the period for historical accuracy:

To make an Oatmeal Pudding

TAKE a pint of fine oatmeal, boil it in three pints of new milk, ʃtirring it till it is as thick as haʃty-pudding; take it off and ʃtir in half a pound of freʃh butter, a little mace and nutmeg, and a gill of ʃack [sherry]; then beat up eight eggs, half the whites, ʃtir all well together, lay puff-paʃte all over the diʃh, pour in the pudding, and bake it half an hour. Or you may boil it with a few currants.