Many Ancient Ones Are
Exhibited In The "Old Colony," But It Is Not Known That It Is Claimed For
Any Of Them That They Came In The First Ship.
It is probable that some of
the "cheese fatts" and churns so often named in early inventories came in
The ship, though at first there was, in the absence of milch kine, no
such use for them as there had been in both England and Holland, and soon
was in New England.
Among cooking utensils the roasting "spit" was, in one form or another,
among the earliest devices for cooking flesh, and as such was an
essential of every household. Those brought by the Plymouth settlers
were probably, as indicated by the oldest specimens that remain to us, of
a pretty primitive type. The ancient "bake-kettle" (sometimes called
"pan"), made to bury in the ashes and thus to heat above and below, has
never been superseded where resort must be had to the open fire for
cooking, and (practically unchanged) is in use to-day at many a
sheep-herder's and cowboy's camp fire of the Far West. We may be sure
that it was in every MAY-FLOWER family, and occasional ancient specimens
are yet to be found in "Old Colony" garrets. Pots and kettles of all
sorts find more frequent mention in the early inventories than anything
else, except muskets and swords, and were probably more numerous upon
the ship than any other cooking utensil. A few claimed to be from the
Pilgrim ship are exhibited, chief of which is a large iron pot, said to
have been "brought by Myles Standish in the MAY-FLOWER," now owned by
the Pilgrim Society.
Hardly an early Pilgrim inventory but includes "a mortar and pestle,"
sometimes of iron, sometimes of "brass" or "belle-mettle" (bell metal).
They were of course, in the absence of mills, and for some purposes for
which small hand mills were not adapted, prime necessities, and every
house hold had one. A very fine one of brass (with an iron pestle), nine
and a half inches across its bell-shaped top, - exhibited by the Pilgrim
Society, and said to have been "brought in the MAY-FLOWER by Edward
Winslow," - seems to the author as likely to have been so as almost any
article for which that distinction is claimed.
The lighting facilities of the Pilgrims were fewer and cruder than those
for cooking. They possessed the lamp of the ancient Romans, Greeks, and
Hebrews, with but few improvements, - a more or less fanciful vessel for
oil, with a protuberant nose for a wick, and a loose-twisted cotton wick.
Hand-lamps of this general form and of various devices, called
"betty-lamps," were commonly used, with candlesticks of various metals,
- iron, brass, silver, and copper, - though but few of any other ware.
For wall-lighting two or more candle sockets were brought together in
"sconces," which were more or less elaborate in design and finish. One
of the early writers (Higginson) mentions the abundance of oil (from
fish) available for lamps, but all tallow and suet used by the early
colonists was, for some years (till cattle became plentiful),
necessarily imported.
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