“Noe dish whose tast, or dressing, is unknown / Unto oʳ natives”: Local and Global Material Cultures in the Food Rituals of Thomas Salusbury’s 1634 “Chirk Castle Entertainment”

Abstract

In August 1634, Sir Thomas Salusbury’s (1612–1643) “Chirk Castle Entertainment” was staged by Sir Thomas Myddelton (1586–1666) to welcome John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater and Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches. The “Entertainment” acted as a scaffold for a feast which showcased a golden world of Edenic plenty at Chirk. Salusbury’s verse emphasized the food’s “native” qualities. Yet, when read against contemporary recipes and the feast’s sensory experience, the presence of worldwide trade networks is evident on Chirk’s provincial banqueting tables. This intersectionality of the local and global befitted the Myddelton family who amassed their astonishing wealth through the mercantile ventures in the East Indies and the New World of Myddelton’s father, Sir Thomas Myddelton (c.1556–1631). Such multiplicity was crafted into the fabric of Chirk Castle and displayed in the feast’s food cultures. Yet, Salusbury’s verse elides these cross-cultural encounters, suggesting a difficulty in integrating London merchant culture into 1630s Denbighshire. This essay moves between the local focus of Salusbury’s verse and the global traces inherent in Myddelton’s feast to recreate a glimpse at Chirk Castle of a new global whole. [R.B.]